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1840 Green River (Siskeedee-Agie) Rendezvous: Andrew Drips,
aided by Jim Bridger and Henry Fraeb, lead the supply train from Westport
on April 30, 1840. The supply
train included thirty carts and forty men.
Why this years supply train was so much larger than the previous
years is unexplainable, in that there was no reason to believe that fur
harvest had improved. Market
conditions for beaver fur certainly had not improved.
A party of missionaries, including the Catholic Father, Pierre Jean
DeSmet, were traveling west with the supply train.
The supply train
arrived at the rendezvous site, located at the confluence of Horse Creek
and the Green River on June 30th.
(Map)
Furs gathered at this rendezvous were meager.
Many trappers in the mountains were now packing their furs to Fort
Hall, Fort Crockett, or Fort Robidoux to obtain supplies, rather than
going to rendezvous. At the
close of the rendezvous, around July 4th, Robert “Doc”
Newell engaged to guide three of the missionary couples to Fort Hall.
While at Fort
Hall, and planning out their future, Joe Meek writes of a conversation he
had with Newell.
“Come, We are done with
this life in the mountains – done with wading in beaver dams, and
freezing or starving alternately – done with Indian trading and Indian
fighting. The fur trade is
dead in the Rocky Mountains, and it is no place for us now, if ever it
was. We are young yet, and
have life before us. We cannot
waste it here; we cannot or will not return to the States.
Let us go down to the Wallamet (Willamette Valley in Oregon) and take farms … What do you say, Meek?
Shall we turn American settlers?”
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