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Show Mountain Meadow Rendezvous Fiach year the numbers attending attend-ing the rendezvous grew as did f tlie length of each encounter. By the 1830's the men stayed together for months carousing and enjoying each others company. com-pany. It was not uncommon for a mountainmen to consume over $2,000 on liquor, gambling as the rendezvous became even more colorful than the mountainmen themselves. In 1828 the rendezvous was held on the banks of the Popo Agie River flowing East from the Wind River Mountain near Lander, Wyoming. The 1829 meeting occured at Pierre's Hole in a beautiful valley west of the Teton Mountain Range near Grand Targhee Ski Resort. Popular sites were used over again with the men congregating at Willow or Cache Valley again in 1831 and Pierre's Hole again in 1832. By far the most popular site was located at the confluence of Horse Creek and the Green River between Daniel and Pinedale, Wyoming. Rendezvous were held there in 1833, 1835, 1836, 1837, 1839 and 1840. It was also the gathering place of the Last rendezvous in 1840. At that time not only had demand for beaver pelts sharply declined but most of the most abundant trapping areas had been depleated. The only lucrative lucra-tive sources of furs lay deep within Blackfoot Indian Country. The Blackfoot were known as the fiercest of the Western tribes, and an expedition into their territory was thought to be shear suicide. With the end of the 1840 rendezvous, a colorful chapter in America's history came to a close. Many of the mountainmen continued to trap finding other markets for their pelts while others returned to civilization.. Still others became scouts, leading early parties of settlers across South Pass in route to populating and colonizing the Western States. A laciiiating lecture on America's Ameri-ca's fur trade during the early half of the nineteenth century, with special emphasis on the mountain men and their 16 summer rendezvous, enthralled an audience of about 30 at the Kimball Art Center Thursday evening. The lecture, delivered by Dr. Fred Gowans, was sponsored by the Park City Historical Society as part of a continuing scries of speakers on topics of historical significance. Dr. Gowan, a prolific author, historian and associate professor at Brigham Yot.ng University, was very well versed on his subject and delivered his talk with great enthusiasm. The history professor explained that he became interested in the fur industry after amassing a significant amount of material on the subject while researching his recent book on Fort Bridgcr. Although numerous bowks have been written on the mountain men and the fur trade in general, Dr. Gowans discovered that very little had been published on the 16 rendevous of mountainmen, Indians and fur company supply trains in the summers between 1825 and 1840. Accurate and descriptive accounts ac-counts of the gatherings held in the most beautiful regions of Utah, Wyoming and Idaho left by the more literate mountainmen like Kit Carson and Jim Bridger supplied Gowan with much of material for his book "Rocky Mountain Rendezvous," from w hich his lecture was taken. Fur trading from 1806 to 1825 was briefly recounted by Dr. Gowan, focussing primarily on the affairs of John Jacob Astor and his American Fur Company. It was a tremendous demand for beaver hats throughout the world but gave rise to the industry; and when silk became the fashionable material for gentlemen's headwear in 1840 it spelled the beaver hat's demise. Although other furs were traded inquantitv, beaver pelts were the backbone of the fur trade and the subject of most expeditions. A substantial operation was established early in the nineteenth nineteen-th century by Astor in the Pacific Northwest, but it was short lived, falling to the British in the aftermath of the war of 1812 occured at the head waters of the Missouri River and its tributaries the Yellowstone, Powder and Rosebud. Forts were built strategically along the rivers where docile Indian tribes traded pelts for guns ammunition, tobacco and other goods, when the trading season ended, boats which brought the trade goods were loaded with furs and sailed back down the river to St. Louis. The operation was repeated annually and successfully, success-fully, making Astor one of the wealthiest men in America. Until 1825, the fur industry depended upon three factors: Indians to accomplish the actual trapping, a fort where the furs could be traded, and a waterway to supply articles of trade and transport the furs to market. In 1823, a rival of the American Fur Company, organized by William Ashley and Andrew Henry, who is associated in early Western history with John Colter, was in dire financial straits. Out of desparation, two trapping expeditions led by Jedadiah Smith and Andrew Henry were sent by Ashly into the unknown western territory in search of pelts. While camped with the Crow Indians in central Wyoming, Wyo-ming, Smith learned of South Pass, which was later to become the singular route of the western settlers. Upon crossing the pass, the group discovered the Wind River mountain range and found the streams of South Western Wyoming absolutely teeming with beaver. Jed Smith sent word of his find to Ashly in St. Louis and, while he tackled the problem of supplying his expedition in the West, the men began vigorously trapping. As previously mentioned the fur trade at that time depended on Indians, Forts, and Waterways. Water-ways. In Western Wyoming, however, the Indians were far from docile and not the least bit interested in trapping. There were no water ways, nor was it practical to construct an elaborate series of forts. Ashly pondered the problem . and shortly began putting together toge-ther an ambitious supply train, which would travel overland to Wyoming, meeting the trappers in mid-summer. Asley chose a sight on Henry's Fork of the Green River, near the present site of McKinnon, Wyoming, for the first of 16 Rocky Mountain Rendezvous which would become lengendary in the annals of Western History. On the prescribed date, the trappers made the rendezvous with the supply train in one of the most beautiful and fertile mountain moun-tain meadows in the West. When the day was out, pelts had been exchanged for supplies, goods and cash ending the first rendezvous. Before the supply train started back to St. Louis, a site was chosen for the rendezvous rendez-vous the following year in 1826. That year the gathering was held in Willow Valley Utah a site North of Logan City known today as Cache" Valley. The Willow Valley rendezvous lasted for several weeks as the mountain men gambled drank to excess and competed in a variety of games of skill endurance and sport. The next year the rendezvous was held on the South Shore of Sweet Lake now called Bear Lake. |
