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1836
Green
River
(Siskeedee-Agie)
Rendezvous:
Lucien Fontenelle
would not make the trip to the mountains in the spring of 1836.
Apparently his alcohol abuse had made him too much of a liability
to maintain. Thomas
Fitzpatrick would again lead the supply train bound for rendezvous,
leaving
Bellevue, Missouri
on
May 14, 1836. Fitzpatrick was
accompanied by Milton Sublette.
This supply train included about 70 men, with 400 head of
livestock, mostly mules, and seven wagons and one cart.
Dr. Marcus Whitman and his party of missionaries would accompany
the train to rendezvous, but due to some miscommunication they were left
behind when the supply train moved out. The Whitman party wouldn’t catch up to the train until
May 24th, in the vicinity of Loup Fork.
The Whitman party consisted of Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman, Henry H. and Eliza Spaulding and William H Grey.
The supply train
arrived at
Fort
William
on June 18th. On
June 20th, Joshua Pilcher, representing the company of Pratte,
Choteau and Company (the old American Fur Company) would arrive.
Pilcher was seeking to buy out the owners of the
Fort
William. The fort was
apparently successful at drawing considerable Indian trade away from
established American Fur Company posts.
Pilcher would follow the supply train to rendezvous where he would
further pursue this objective. Most
of the wagons would be left behind at
Fort
William, the supplies being loaded onto pack animals for the remainder of
the distance to rendezvous. Milton
Sublette would not travel any further than
Fort
William
due to a reoccurrence of the “fungus” in his leg.
On July 6, 1836,
the supply train arrived at rendezvous, located again this year at the
confluence of Horse Creek and the
Green River. (Map)
Trappers had been arriving at the site by at least June 28th.
Nathaniel Wyeth and a small party of Americans arrived on July 1st.
Wyeth had recently been successful in selling Fort Hall to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and he would return east with pack train at the
end of rendezvous. A small
party of
Hudson
’s Bay Company men under the leadership of John McLeod and Thomas McKay
would arrive at rendezvous on July 12th.
Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spaulding were
the first white woman to attend rendezvous, and their presence in the
encampment would cause a considerable sensation among both Indian and
trappers.
By July 18th
the rendezvous was breaking up. Dr.
Whitman and his party of missionaries traveled to
Walla Walla
accompanied by the Hudson’s Bay Company men. The
missionaries freight wagon was abandoned at rendezvous, and their light
wagon was taken as far as
Fort Boise
before it became impractical.
Thomas
Fitzpatrick and Milton Sublette left rendezvous, taking the furs back to
Fort
William. There were apparently
bad feelings between Sublette and Fitzpatrick at this time and Sublette
would remain at
Fort
William, now under the ownership of Pratte, Choteau and Company, until his
death on
April 1, 1837. Fitzpatrick
would lead the pack train loaded with furs on to
Bellevue.
Joshua Pilcher
had accomplished his goals while at rendezvous.
Fontenelle, Fitzpatrick and Company would sell out all of its
holdings, including Fort
William
to Pratte, Choteau and Company. Thus
the successor company to the American Fur Company would gain complete
dominance of the American side of the fur trade.
The
Hudson’s Bay Company would, however, remain a fierce competitor for furs
in the
Rocky
Mountain
region and western
North America
.
Hudson’s Bay Company, which had been positioning itself to control the
jointly occupied
Oregon
country, would now contest with the Americans for this region through
creation of a fur “desert”.
For Pratte,
Choteau and Company this would be a hollow victory.
This year would be the beginning of the end of the Golden Era of
the fur trade. Beaver
populations throughout the
Rocky
Mountain
west had been trapped locally to near extinction and annual harvests were
dwindling. The popularity of
the silk hat and changing fashions caused a huge reduction in demand for
beaver pelts, resulting in major reductions in prices paid for the
diminishing harvests. And from
this time forward, ever increasing numbers of missionaries and settlers
would forever change the character of life in the mountains.
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1837
Rendezvous
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