| Show Hal 3 II C M iW it I U I-U T Exterior of Fort Hall HaIl Half I 1849 By Ity ELMO SCOTT WATSON kUGUST JUST B 5 II 1834 In a lush upland meadow In what U Is now the state of ot Idaho stands a little fort tort Its walls wall of ot peeled freshly cottonwood logs logo gleaming white In the early I 1 morn morning In sunshine Inside the fort n a motley crowd of men Ma gathered around ft Il tall flagstaff Hunters and trappers trappen whoso whose greasy awoke smoke begrimed buckskins buckskins buck buck- skins skin tell ell of at a hundred campfires camp camp- fires tires In to the great West Nest rub elbows with men whose ho e garb bespeak ak the Last East In the murmur of ot talk the nasal twan twang of the Down own East Yankee Yanke rises risea sharply above e tho ho gruffer tones of ot the frontiersmen Apart from the others stand two 10 young HIg fellows de destined for tor future fame ai as men of science One in Is Thomas rhomBI Nuttall or Nuttall a a bot botanist fresh tresh from Harvard college and the other Is J J J. K Townsend of Philadelphia physician and ornithologist orni As All they talk to a third man ly r r than themselves their deferential manner manner r toward him stamps him as the leader of ot this company And he be Is for tor this Is I. Capt Copt Nathaniel J. J Wyeth founder of ot the tho Columbia River Flatting Fishing and Trading company a young youna business man but tout already a veteran of westward tra travel vel Now Wyeth steps forward to 10 the foot toot of ot the flagstaff In his hili hand hond he holds a folded tin flag lie He attaches It ft to 10 the halyard cud and as as It ft rises to the peak honk the tho roaring of muskets and the tho popping g of at pistols mingle with the whining crack crock of long lung rifles As the banner hanner ripples out In the sunshine sun sun- shine In the red white while and blue glory llor of ot the Stars and Stripes a R mighty nil shout out goes oes up from the assembled company Thus was another wilderness outpost established established and although this shouting thron throng may may not lIot realize It ft now the curtain has hl been rung up upon on en another act In the epic drama which Is Isto Isto isto to be called The Winning of ot the West Vest Two months later laler Wyeth Is to write to an uncle back I East ast saying I ha have hae e built a fort on the Snake River liver which I have named Fort ForI hull Hall from the oldest gentleman In In the concern Mr Henry I tall hall We IDal manufactured a mn from some Borne unbleached sheeting ii a a little red rell flannel flan nel net and a few tew blue Muo patches saluted It with damaged dam aged powder r and wet et It In villainous alcohol and after all hll I assure you It a very ery respectable I appearance amid the dry and desolate desolate desolate deso deso- late regions of ot central America Its bastions stand a terror to the skulking Indian and a beacon beMon of ot safety to the fugitive hunter It Is lIS manned by 12 men and has constantly loaded In the bastions guns and rI rifles clues ts These bastions baa baa- lions command both bolh the Inside and outside of the fort After building this tills fort I sent messengers messen germ gers ers to the neighboring nations to Induce them to come to trade 0 August 6 5 lI 1034 1134 The Tho modern city of ot Pocatello Idaho dallo Is III In gala array Crowds surge eure through Its Us streets Flags are flying Hands Bandl are blaring Tb There re are arc parades floats pageants speeches For Feor today Is the beginning of ot the the four four four day day celebration celebration cele cele- bration of ot the tho event which took toole place Just a hundred years ears ago the ago the founding of the post that was decreed by fate fall to be a centrifugal point of ot trade commerce commer e and recuperation Such is Ss the characterization of this post by Jennie Brown Drown whose splendid Fort Hall lIall on the Oregon Trail Oregon Trail Trall was waa published two years lars ago by the Caxton Printers Ltd of ot Caldwell Idaho In n the years that followed Fort Hall hail was a beacon bee bea con conof CODot of safety not only to the fugitive hunter but to many runny a 8 weary emigrant over tho the Oregon Trail Trait which ran beneath Its lis walls It U was aport a aport aport port of call for tor nearly every e wayfarer wayfarer trapper trader missionary explorer guide and army of fleer whose whose name looms large In the early History history history his his- tory of ot the West It was to have hate a stirring part partIn In the later laler a stagecoach ch and freighting days and it was a center of ot activity In more than one Indian war when the red man was making his last desperate stand land against the white man The founder of ot Fort Hall nail was Nathaniel J. J Wyeth Horn In Cambridge Mass Ia s January 20 1802 of ot distinguished ancestry leis his mother was wasa a relative of ot John Hancock Wyeth was Intended for Harvard college of which both hoth his father tather and oldest oilIest brother r were graduates nut Hut he was 9 impatient to begin a business career arN r and declined de de- dined to go to college e. e Hy lIy the time be was thirty years eurs old he had bad made madl a modest success In his bis homo home community managing a farm tarm and engaging In the Ice Ire trade tralle which brought In an annual Income of ot some 1200 Then Influenced b by the th writings of ot Hall nail J. J Kelley I founder of the Oregon Colonization Society Wyeth determined to organize a tradIng trading trad- trad Ing company to exploit the rich natural resources S Sot of ot the Columbia river rl region relon In the Pacific T Northwest Ills plan was to lead an In overland o expedition to the Oregon country and establish trading posts which were to be supplied by l ships that were to sail snit around Cape I Horn lor a to the head hlad of ot navigation na on the Columbia and from there thereto to bring tack back tile the furs and salmon collected atthe althe at al atthe the posts On March 11 1832 the expedition n set out hut Jut although they were lucky at nt Independence Mo to fall tall In with Milton Sublette of the n Rocky Mountain Fur Jur company who was leading a party of t trappers and traders Into the mountains misfortune dogged dOlled the footsteps of the eastern tenderfeet First some of ot Wyeth's men grew tal hearted and turned back Then they were attacked by the fierce Indians and lost i men meD killed and eight badly wounded U t. t I. I nf Ie i. i I S Y th W eth t t tk f v John Interior of of Fort Hal Nal I J. J 1649 1849 1 d t 2 r tt It f et L' L r r Tr lal of t t T r w The Invitation to the President Jason Lee i-ee I Eventually Wyeth and nd the remnants of ot his party parly reached the Columbia In a a destitute condition Hut they were kindly received hed John Dr John re by Dr Jolin McLaughlin Mc- Mc lAughlin of or the Columbia river district district district dis dis- Jor or the Hudson's Hudsons hay company at lit at Fort Vancouver tr and there began a lasting friendship between en Mcloughlin and Wyeth even en though the Yankee adventurer was a potential business rival of ot the II U. 15 II C C. C factor At Vancouver came the crowning blow to Wyeth's misfortunes lIe He learned that the ship which was was bringing his his- supplies around Cape Horn had bad been shipwrecked and all of ot his goods lost Nothing remained for tor him to do but to release hi his men from their contract and return home borne to recoup his JiU lost fortunes Some of ot his Isis men men remained I In the Oregon country and these those remnants of Wyeth's first expedition became p part rt of at the nucleus around which later Oregon immigrants clustered So from the historical 4 point of ot view the expedition was not an utter l loss Joss ss- ss Accompanied by two mtr men W Wyeth th s se set put for the the East Last o l-o t In the spring of 1833 and Arid by N November vember 3 S of that year he was tens home again after aCter an absence of ot 10 months having made the first continuous land J Journey on record from Boston to the mouth of or the It is Is' a tribute to boh the Integrity of ot the man and the force of ot his personality his personality that despite his failure lie was wa able to Interest his friends In a n sC second ond tion Within 12 days after his hili return to Massachusetts Massa chusett's lie he had organized the Columbia River Fishing and Trading Com Company pan had secured money money from New York and aad Hoston business men men and chartered another ship for the journey around Cape Horn On his return trip east he had again come Into Inlo contact with representatives es of at the Hocky Mountain Mountain Moun Moun- tain Fur ur company this time In the persons of ot Milton Sublette and Thomas Fitzpatrick and had obtained from them the contract for supply supply- In ink Ing the merchandise to be used In their trading operations So he purchased about pounds of goods t tn t fill 11 this contract part ot It In to eastern east ast astern ern markets markels and shipping It t down the Ohio secured d the remainder la to St. St Louis Again he prepared to start from independence There he was Joined by ty the two young scientists Nuttall and Townsend who were also Oregon Hut But a more Important contingent of his party parly was a group of ot five fie men whose presence Is U accounted for tor by Mrs Brown as al follows When Wyeth had returned to Boston BOlton the preceding year he be was 88 accompanied by two Indian lads one about eighteen years years of age a 1 kind of servant ant of all work and a half breed boy of at thirteen the son of ot a Hudson's Hudsons ba bay trader and a Flathead beauty Their presence In the East and also the visit sit of ot a party of Indians to St. St t. t Louts Louis In search of a u Hook Book the Guide futile to Heaven en had aroused great zeal In circles missionary Partly as 88 a result of at these thE visits sits a small party of at Methodist missionaries was In Wyeth's company for safe sate conduct on their way to the Oregon Indians Their leader was Jason Lee described by Townsend Town Town- send end as 81 a ta tall taH powerful fIO man capable ot of handling handling han han- men In fn a wild country With him was his nephew Daniel Lee and three thrle lay brethren I p L. L I Edwards dwards Cyrus Crus Shephard and C. C U M. M Walker Walk er tr all of at whom proved to be to good travelers tra and excellent companions comp on n a long tedious trip The Th Journey across the plains was com comparatively compare para Lively uneventful Ills His destination was a place plate on the Snake river In the country claimed to by bythe bythe the Shoshoni or Snake Indians En route routt there his hs party was Joined by Thomas McKay a Hud Hudson's Hudsons sons son's flay Buy man man who was hunting In that region wit wh a band of Canadians and Indians and who traveled along with him until unlit he be reached the bite which he picked out for his fort tort It was a natural meadow madow of at rich bottom land enclosed by a sharp bend of the Snake river CD two sides and by a a slough forming a protection on the third Arriving there on July 14 lost host no time tiree In getting to work on the the fort According to Townsend part of ot the men men began felling trees trel collecting drift logs and making corrals corrall for th their lr horses while the rest were ere sen sent t out to h hunt nt for tor meat mat Osborne Russell a 11 youngster young young- eter ster from Maine 1 who accompanied accompanied the party o oa asa ns as a trapper records record In his journal that rOn On rOn tits tha we commenced tIe tho actual construction construction of ot the fort which was was n a a stockade elg eighty ly feet teet t square built built of ot cotton wood tr trees ts t's set on end sunk two IIvo and one half feet tret In the ground and an d standing lIng about fifteen feet t above e with two dons eight feet pet square re at the opposite angles angle When the hunters bunters returned on Saturday Jul July y u y 20 0 a they found the the stockade virtually completed complete d 8 and d the men men working on the houses Inside Th The next day Wyeth Invited Jason Lee the le der ot f the missionaries to preach to 10 the men and at a t tw two two o o'clock that a afternoon t noon th the whole party as as- the shade of B a cottonwood grove t to to the first sermon e ever eter er delivered within n the boundaries of ot the state stale of ot Idaho On July SO 80 McKay de leave for I Fort For Vancouver et and Lee Lee h his Ms S followers follower In to order Ordel t to o reach their new fi fields of ot missionary labors th the e sooner Joined them i After the completion of the of the f fort t i-t on August 4 and the raising flag ceremony the next day Wyeth and his men commenced packing parking on August August August Au Au- gust C a to push on to to the tine Col Columbia leaving Fort Hall Ual In charge of a Mr N kept with him hl m 11 men 14 horses and mules and three cows Thus began the history of this famous fort fortAs As for the later fortunes of the leader ea and d others who had played plad a part In to Its building Wyeth continued on to Walla Walla where there Cher e was wa a happy reunion with his friend Jason Lee Lre He ho reached Vancouver er on September 14 and was w a s again courteously received by Doctor lIn On the lower end of Island later late r called Sauve Island he built another post which h he called Fort ort William Rut nut during the next tw two or three years ears although he be worked tirelessly the competition of ot the Hudson's Hudsons nay flay company compan t under the management of his hs friend Doctor Mcloughlin Mc Me- loughlin was too strong for him helm to overcome e So his enterprise for tor which he had had such high in failure In 1837 1831 Fort Hall Hal 1 was ns t the rhe Hudson's Hudsons Ray Bay company and Fort For t Willis was left In charge of C C. C M M. M I. I Walker wit with h Instructions to lease It to some trusty person perso for tor 1 15 years ears Then Wyeth returned to his home hom e town of f Cambridge to attempt to retrieve h his s lost fortunes by going Into the Ice business again In 1844 1544 Jason Lee Lle also alRo vent went back bak to his ills home hom S town Stanstead In eastern Canada Canada and there h he e died the next year ear But his fame fam as the pioneer r missionary of at Oregon and the tile founder of ot a echo school of which later became Willamette university was wa S already secure In iT IS-iT Doctor hector McLoughlin of died stricken poverty and hearted broken it a a Man Mai Ian Without a Ci Country For the Hudson's Hudsons ray rny co com lom- L. L pany pang had removed ld him from MI position b beca be be- e- e ca cause use he be had not exerted himself to discourage American settlement the in Inthe the Oregon e country ea and d hIs bis efforts to become an American citizen were wee thwarted by Americans who e remembered only y that he had once oace been an employee of a British h company com and who forgot how he had befriended hd d their need fellow countrymen when th they were In dir dire e In contrast to this sad ending to the man w-b w who was as once the Emperor of the West It Is pleasant pleas pleas- ant to record r 1 that when death h had l come fome t to Nathaniel J J. J Wyeth eth th the year It ha had d found him once one more a prosperous u n of ot affairs affair s even though a I century was to 10 pass Ilass before name would could be hi hl 1111 s widely honored honorl In conn conne connection wit h the celeb ot of the e f fort rt which he be heon found founded l ort l Hall lIall on H the Ibe Ort Oregon ln Trail Trait I I C CB b bY s. s pr por Vales 1 I |
