The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-09-19
Historical Notes
& FF
Trappers and Hunters of Old Idaho.

after the Lewis and Clarke expedition the progress
sion or onward movement of human life in this re-
gon was but incidents in the history of the great fur
companies of North America Trappers and hunters
penetrated the mountain Businesses and followed the
course of streams. They abused the confidence of
the Indian cheated him of his pe1tries and gave
him rum, and the friendly savages were driven
to bloody deeds of vengeance, and for fifty years
there was constant and less bloody
fare between the red man and the white man. The
trappers were men of reckless courage, skilled in
hunting and fearless Indian fighters but they
we're too often of more savage passions than the
savages them-eves, who regarded the Indians as
their legitimate prey and who hestated at neither de-
ceit treachery or murder in their dealings with them.
So rich in furs was the Snake river country that
it soon became the favorite rendezvous of the United
States trappers. Between 1926 and 1880 there were
probably 600 American trappers in this section and
also many belonging to the Hudson Bay company,
and it was not infrequent for the rivalry between the
two companies to result in open warfare. Their an
nual meeting places became the of the widest
reve1s American and British trappers, French voy-
ageurs, half breeds and Indians gathered together
traficking feasting drinking and fighting. Trading
their peltries of years catch for rum, they made
merry together in drunken harity murdered each
other in the madness of intoxication, More mad de-
bauches have never been described than those mix
lures of gluttonous goodfellowship and drunken
mrth and murder where were mingled in jargon OF
English French and Indian the hybrid oaths of
many tongues
While in no sense pioneers the great fur COM
panies did much for the of civilization Their
trappers and hunters did the work of exploration.
They b1azed the way to the Pacific and while no
thought of founding state troubled them in their
struggle for wealth, the necessities of trade
co11a 6
and which for three quarters of century afterwards
marked the great overland road to the coast The
trapper was gone almost before the appearance of
the advance guard of civilization, but he has left
his mark inde1ibly stamped upon thoughts and man
ners in the intermountain regions.
In 1909 Alexander Henry of the Missouri Fur
company following in the footsteps OF Lewis and
Clarke crossed the Rocky mountains and built a
trading post the north branch of the Snake river
which he called Fort Henry. About the same time
John Jacob Astor cast his eye upon the American
fur trade and the next winter sent out party OF
IS under Wilson P. Hunt, who crossed the
Rockies in September and camped under the shadows
of the Three Tetons. They found Fort Henry
abandoned At that point half dozen of the hunters
deserted the party and descended the Bear river
country where they spent the winter hunting and
trapping but were all finally murdered by the In
dams excepting only one man.
Hunt proceeded down the Snake river. The trip
was most perilous and the suferings and pri-
vation endured by the party were so terrible that it
seems almost a miracle that any of them lived to
tell the tale The weather was intensely cold The
country through which they passed was a desert.
Their supplies exhausted and there was neither
game nor other means of subsistence Pale famine
lowered over the daring adventures. No white man
had ever penetrated the wilderness before them and
while an occasional village of miserable Shoshones