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1828
Sweet Lake (Bear Lake) Rendezvous:
By the time the pack train loaded with furs had arrived in
Lexington, Missouri, on October 1, 1827, Ashley had goods and supplies
valued at about $20,000 ready to send back up to the mountains.
Although some Mountain Men would be re-supplied as early as
November, these supplies would not reach many of the trappers until the
spring of 1828, and for some, not until the summer of 1828.
There would be no spring pack train this year.
Even still, the Mountain Men anxiously awaited this years
rendezvous, held this year again at the south end of Sweet Lake or Bear
Lake, a location within the territory of Mexico.
(Map)
As
happened the year before, Blackfoot Indians made an attack just prior to
the rendezvous. Approximately
two or three hundred Blackfoot warriors attacked Robert Campbell’s party
as it was just a few miles from the site of the rendezvous.
Things might have gone poorly for Campbell’s group if it had not
been so close to rendezvous. Ashley
reports that 60-70 trappers and several hundred friendly Indians quickly
arrived from rendezvous to reinforce Campbell’s group.
Depending on who is telling the story, the Blackfoot Indians are
believed to have retired from the field before the reinforcements arrived.
Rendezvous
this year would last through the early part of July.
Since there was no pack train to return the furs to St. Louis this
year, the partners of Smith, Jackson and Sublette were responsible for
this task themselves. It
involved additional effort on their part, however, beaver was being
purchased in St Louis at $5 per pound rather than the $3 per pound which
Ashley had been paying in the mountains.
Furs sold in St Louis this year would be valued at $35,810.
Of
note is the presence of Joshua Pilcher’s fur company at this years
rendezvous. They had been
supplied by John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company, but most of their
supplies, which had been cached, were destroyed by water.
They were, however, successful in trading for 17 packs of beaver
with the meager supplies that they were able to salvage.
William
Sublette left the mountains on August 1, to return to St Louis with the
furs and to purchase goods and supplies for the succeeding year.
Some of Pilcher’s men along with their proceeds from trading at
the rendezvous would accompany Sublette back to St. Louis.
Although Sublette and Pilcher were competitors, it would not have
been unusual for them to travel together, for the greater safety in
numbers.
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