The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-09-23

men under Wilson p. Hunt, VIII,
crossed the Rockies In September an,
camped under the shadows of tn,
Three Tetons. They found Fort Hen
ny abandoned. At that point half ,
dozen Of the hunters deserted tn,
party and descended to the Bear rive
country where they spent the winter
hunting and trapping, but were al
finally murdered by the Indians ex
cepting only one man.
Hunt proceeded down the Snake
river. The trip was most perilou!
one and the sufferings and privation.
endured by the party were so terrible
that 1t seems almosa a miracle thai
any of them lived to tell the tale. The
weather was intensely cold. The coun
try through which they passed was 8
desert. Their supplies were exhaust
ed and there was neither game mol
other means of subsistence. ale fam.
Inc lowered over the daring adven.
turers. No white man had ever pene.
trated the wilderness before them
and while an occasional village oil
miserable Shoshones was found the
inhabitants were half starved and
destitute.
Hunt was finally compelled to di-
vide his men into small parties that
they might the better forage for food
Separating early in November, +
tie bands managed to susist upon an
occasional horse or dog purchased
from the Indians and a chance wolf
or beaver that they killed. Sometimes
they were reduced to chewing beaver
skins and the soles of their mecca
sins. 1t was cruelty cold and the
snow was knee deep, but in spite OF
all these hardships the trip was made
with the loss of only two men, one
of whom was drowned by the upset
ting of boat in some of the rapids
of the river, and the other, crazed by
hunger, jumped from a boat while
crossing to where food was in sight
and was drowned. In January the
party crossed the Blue mountains in
to milder climate and country
where there was abundance of game.
Many and thrilling are the tales of
adventures by trappers and hunters
in the twenty years that followed
Hunts trip down the Snake, but it
was not until 1882 that any enter
prise was undertaken in which can be
traced direct bearing upon the origin
OF Idaho. In that year Nathaniel ].
Wyeth of Massachusetts,, seeing vi
sions of wealth on the Pacific coast,
organized an expedition and started
for Oregon. He reached Jackson's
Hole and camped there on July 4th
and spent some months on the upper
waters of the Snake, fighting the In
dams in company with Milton Sub
lette, one of the most daring leaders
of the trappers who then roamed
these regions. He moved on to Ore
gon only to meet with failure, but the
gained by the overland
journey brought forth greater works
that became powerful factors in the
lpbuilding of Idaho.
Meanwhile Captain Bonneville, an
army officer on leave of absence, or
ganized hunting and trapping ex-
petition in the hope of uniting pleas
IRE with profit. He arrived in Idaho
in the fall of 1882 and spent three
winters on the Portneuf near old Fort
Hall, hunting over wide extent of
He was exceedingly lucky
N finding SO eloquent and amiable a |
as Washington Irving, and
although in the main monotonous and
: the record throws consid-
,rable light on life in the wilderness
It that early day. Bancroft in his |
Pacific coast histories finds little of
he hero in the bold captain, and de-
cribes him as 'in his coarse way a
ION vivant and voluptuary, who pre-
erred lording 1t in the forest with a i
roop of white and red savages at his !
leels, and with every fortnight a new
wife Haunting her brave
merry" to submitting to /, the re-
traints of civilization and polite So
,iety. ITO shoot buffalo was rare
sport, but men were the nobler game,
whom to search out in their retreat
md slaughter and scalp was glori-
,us."
During Bonneville's free and easy
life on the Portneuf, Wyeth had re-
urned to the east and organized an
,ther commercial enterprise known
is the Columbia River Fishing and
Trading company, aud in 1884 he led