INTRODUCTION
By Marian Albright Schenk
FOREWORD
By Dean Knudsen
SECTION 1
Primary Themes of Jackson's Art
SECTION 2
Paintings of the Oregon Trail
SECTION 3
Historic Scenes From the West
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| After a lifetime of photographic experience, William Henry Jackson had every right to look proud and confident in a darkroom. (SCBL 930) |
Section 3: Historic Scenes from the West
THE FUR TRADE
The opening of the West owed a great deal to the lives and efforts of the early fur traders. Before the first emigrants ventured out onto the plains, fur trappers and traders had explored the West looking for the most lucrative sources of beaver. Furs have always been a popular and practical way of staying warm, and in the early years of the 19th Century, when it became fashionable to wear top hats fashioned from beaver pelts, the fur market became extremely lucrative.
The reports of Lewis and Clark proved that the American Far West offered an abundant supply of fur-bearing animals. Within a few years several different concerns, such as the Rocky Mountain, Missouri, and Columbia trading companies were competing with John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company and the British Hudson's Bay Company in the attempt to profit from some of this wealth.
These companies used three primary methods of obtaining furs. They could buy them from independent or "free trappers;" they could hire their own crews to trap and skin the beaver; or they could offer trade goods to Native American tribes in return for furs. Each of these methods were used simultaneously, but trade with the Indians proved to be the most profitable, as valuable furs could be obtained in return for whiskey and trinkets.
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| In this 1941 painting, William Henry Jackson depicts an 1812 meeting between the Robert Stuart expedition meeting with Arapaho tribesmen near Red Butte in Wyoming. (SCBL 154) |
An interesting development in the fur trade was what came to be known as the "rendezvous." During the years between 1825 and 1840 fur trappers and Indian hunters gathered at prearranged sites throughout the Rocky Mountains, where they awaited the arrival of the traders. By bringing supplies and trade goods to the mountains the traders could deal directly with the trappers, while the fur trappers were spared the necessity of hauling their bales of furs all the way to St. Louis.
These rendezvous were notoriously rowdy and seemed to serve as an outlet for the men who spent long months in rugged isolation. At the cost of a few bumps and bruises and some monumental hangovers, the trappers were able to obtain the supplies and equipment they would need for another year in the West. An important by-product of the rendezvous was the fact that since the traders needed wagons to haul in the good and supplies, as well as haul out their pelts, practical overland routes had to be found—and in time these same routes became parts of the Oregon and California trails.
Unfortunately for the fur trappers, in 1840, silk hats were introduced and beaver-felt hats were no longer fashionable. Coupled with the depletion of the beaver population by over-trapping, the once-lucrative market for furs declined drastically. Almost overnight the trappers were out of work. Providentially, this coincided with the first wave of emigrants, and many fur trappers used their knowledge of the West to serve as guides for the wagon trains.
Many of these fur trappers and traders became famous figures in America's frontier history. Men such as Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass, Kit Carson, Thomas Fitzpatrick, John Colter, Robert Stuart and Jedediah Smith explored and exploited the Far West, and in turn were displaced by the demands by an advancing nation.
1. Merrill J. Mattes, Fur Traders and Trappers of the Old West (Yellowstone Library and Museum Association, 1945), 4f.
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| Rendezvous. Signed and undated. 22.1 x 35.0 cm. (SCBL 18) |
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scbl/knudsen/sec3c.htm Last Updated: 14-Apr-2006 |
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