The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1916-02-24

HcTedUoutS WIN part OF the men.
have got no Beaver and have sold but
little and that for drafts which l hope
are good.
~ have again to repeat to you the
advice which l before gave you not
to come with small party to tn
American Rendezvous. There are here
a great collection of scoundrels.
81 have a great desire to. see you
and repay in part for all the kindness
which l received from you last year.
''ya. obi. Sevt. and Friend
"NATH. j. WYETH.n
Route Followed by Emigrants
1t may be stated that it was through
the courtesy of the Hudson Bal
company, whose Snake river expedition
Mr. Wyeth accompanied from Van.
couver to Green river the year before,
was in command of Mr.. Ermatinger.
This being the same trader who, in
company with Joe Meek, Robert New
ell and Caleb Wilkins, drove the first
wagons from Fort Hall to the Column
bia river. This occurred in the fall
of 1910, and the wagons, three in num-
Der, had been abandoned or left at
Fort Hall that year, and the little
l,,
niger, from 1888 to 1S41, in comman l
of Fort Hall for the Hudson's Bay
company. This journey was made to
establish the feasibility of taking wag-
ons through to the Columbia, task
considered by many as being impos.
siblc at the time, and the route these
men travelled was followed by the
American emigrants until the Ore
gon Trail fell into disuse more than
30 years afterwards.
In one of his letters from Ham s
Fork, Mr.. Wyeth expressed his bitter
disappointment at being unable to de-
liver his goods at Green river, and
that he needed the money to pay his
and other expenses of the
journey. He advised his friends to
keep away from the American rendez-
vous as it was composed of murderers
and thieves and that crime of every
nature was rampant. His men were
willing to take goods, however, at 4
profit Of 500 per cent over original
cost and he settled with them with
no difficulty AS to his future he
said:
81 shall proceed about $50 miles
west of this and establish fort in
order to make sale of the goods which
remain on my hands. l have sent out
to the ,'awnacks, Sho-
shones, Snakes, Nez Perces and Flat
heads to make robes and come and
trade them at this post. ~
He wrote cordial letters to Francis
Payette, Captain Bonneville, who was
then in the Bear River country and
whose acquaintance he had made the
previous year, and sent his kindly
regards to DR.. Mclaughlin, at Fort
Vancouver. Though in competition
with that great corporation, he ap-
pears to have been on terms of friend
ly intimacy with all its officers. On
I,
moved up the trail in the direction OF
Bear river. July 4, found the caravan
at the forks of the Muddy,
at a point where the town of Nugget
now stands, and the following entry i'll
his iournel indicates that they celebrat-
ed the day, but doubtless, in manner
much to the disgust of the missionar-
les.
81 gave the men too much alcohol
and took a pretty hearty spree my
self. At the camp we found Mr.. Gerry
and Mr.. Walker, who were returning
to st. Louis with the furs collected
by Mr.. Bonneville's company, about
10 packs and men going down, to
whom there is due 100000
The mountain value of a pack OF
beaver, about 80 pounds to the pack
was $500. July 6 the caravan camped
on the ground now occupied by the
City of Montpelier, on July at Soda
Springs, and on the 10th they over
took the Bonneville party on the up
per waters of the Blackfoot. Actual
ed by feeling of selfishness, spirit
that amounts almost to trait with
the American people, the. doughty cap
tain was putting forth his utmost
energy to escape his Yankee eompeer'
and, doubtless would have succeeded
had it not been for social call that
the nestor of the fur trade, MI.
Thomas Mckay, saw fit to make his
encampment on the Blackfoot.
Trading Expedition Appears