Journal of a Trapper: Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains, 1834-1843 E-Book

Osborne Russell

• Herausgeber: Enhanced Media Publishing
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

In 1834, Osborne Russell joined an expedition from Boston, under the direction of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, which proceeded to the Rocky Mountains to capitalize on the salmon and fur trade. He would remain there, hunting, trapping, and living off the land, for the next nine years.  Journal of a Trapper is his remarkable account of that time as he developed into a seasoned veteran of the mountains and experienced trapper.

“Perhaps the best account of the fur trapper in the Rocky Mountains when the trade there was at its peak.”
- Aubrey L. Haines

Leseprobe

Journal of a Trapper: Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains, 1834-1843

By Osborne Russell

Table of Contents

Title Page

Journal of a Trapper: Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains, 1834-1843

Preface

Chapter I | Expedition Left Independence, Missouri April 28, 1834, Headed by Nathaniel J. Wyeth

Chapter II | Meeting With Captain B. S. Bonneville and Party — Establishment of the Trading Post at Fort Hall

Chapter III | Snake Valley a Winter Resort for Trappers — Hunting Party Suffers From Hunger — One Member Lost

Chapter IV | Description of a Fall Hunt — Abram Patterson Drowned — Attacked by Indians, One Man Wounded

Chapter V | Jackson's Hole'—A Dismal Fourth of July Experience Which Is Terminated Without Serious Mishap — Lost

Chapter VI | In the Yellowstone Country — A Garden of Eden Inhabited by a Small Party of Snake Indians

Chapter VII | Encounter With Blackfeet Indians — Join Bridger’s Party for Protection and Assistance

Chapter VIII | Dispatched for Horses — Perfidy of Leader Suspected — Two Days Without Water—Finally Reaches Fort Hall

Chapter IX | Enlistment Expires and the Author Joins Bridger’s Company as a Trapper—Bull Meat Straight

Chapter X | Rendezvous at Green River — Meeting Revs. Whitman and Spaulding and Their Wives on Their Way to Oregon

Chapter XI | Interesting Description of What Is Known as Yellowstone National Park

Chapter XII | Laughable and Serious Engagements With Bands of Blackfeet Indians — "Howell’s Encampment."

Chapter XIII | Brilliant Display of Northern Lights Probably Averts Annihilation of the Camp by Indians

Chapter XIV | Another Rendezvous at Green River — Making "Good Indians" — The Arrival of Wagon Train and Supplies

Chapter XV | Back Again to the Hunting Grounds — Solitary Reflections on a Peak of the Rockies

Chapter XVI | Thieving Indians Steal Most of the Horses — A Whistling Elk Scares the Tenderfoot Camptender

Chapter XVII | Main Party Fails to Keep appointment at Howell's Encampment — Stampeded Buffalo

Chapter XVIII | Threatened and Robbed by the Crow Indians the Hunters Proceed Afoot to Fort William Enduring Great Hardship

Chapter XIX | Fort William — A Cool Reception — Sioux Sign Language — Three Miles of Deer in One Band

Chapter XX | Capt. Fontanell Arrives With Property Stolen the Month Previous — Leave for Powder River With Supplies

Chapter XXI | Spring Hunt — A Trapper’s Equipment — Canadian Trapper Has an Encounter With Grizzly Bear Without Serious Injury

Chapter XXII | Battle With the Blackfeet in Which the Trappers Were the Aggressors and Victors

Chapter XXIII | Routine Experiences Followed by the Regular July (1838) Rendezvous on Green River—Fall Hunt

Chapter XXIV | Returned to Fort Holland and Remained in That Vicinity Till January of 1839— Spring Hunt

Chapter XXV | Another Viewpoint of What Is Now Known as the Yellowstone National Park

Chapter XXVI | Wounded by Arrows of Blackfeet — Hair-Raising Experience — Receive Hospitable Reception at Fort Hall

Chapter XXVII | Old Partners ''Split Blankets" – Supply Train Reaches Fort Hall on June 14, 1840

Chapter XXVIII | A Winter With the Indians Near Great Salt Lake — Christmas Dinner a l’Indian

Chapter XXIX | Solitary Hunting Bouts in the Early Spring of 1841, Near the Great Salt Lake

Chapter XXX | A Visit to the Eutaw Indian Village — Cordial Treatment at Their Hands

Chapter XXXI | Back to Fort Hall—Escorted Missionary to Green River and Back — Old Partners Reunite

Chapter XXXII | Closing Incidents of an Interesting Experience — The Author Leaves the Mountains for Oregon

Further Reading: The Revenant: Some Incidents in the Life of Hugh Glass, a Hunter of the Missouri River

Journal of a Trapper: Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains, 1834-1843 by Osborne Russell. First published in 1921. This edition published 2017 by Enhanced Media.

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ISBN:  978-1-365-79426-1

Preface

Reader, if you are in search of the travels of a classical and scientific tourist, please to lay this volume down, and pass on, for this simply informs you what a trapper has seen and experienced. But if you wish to peruse a hunter's rambles among the wild regions of the Rocky Mountains, please to read this, and forgive the author's foibles and imperfections, considering as you pass along that he has been chiefly educated in Nature's school under that rigid tutor, Experience, and you will also bear in mind the author does not hold himself responsible for the correctness of statements made otherwise than from observation.

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THE AUTHOR.

Chapter I

Expedition Left Independence, Missouri April 28, 1834, Headed by Nathaniel J. Wyeth

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At the town of Independence, Mo., on the 4th of April, 1834, I joined an expedition fitted out for the Rocky Mountains and mouth of the Columbia River, by a company formed in Boston under the name and style of the Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company. The same firm had fitted out a brig of two hundred tons burden, freighted with the necessary assortment of merchandise for the salmon and fur trade, with orders to sail to the mouth of the Columbia River, whilst the land party, under the direction of Mr. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, should proceed across the Rocky Mountains and unite with the brig's company in establishing a post on the Columbia near the Pacific.

Our party consisted of forty men engaged in the service, accompanied by Messrs. Nutall and Townsend, botanists and ornithologists, with two attendants; likewise Revs. Jason and Daniel Lee, Methodist missionaries, with four attendants, on their way to establish a mission in Oregon, which brought our numbers (including six independent trappers) to fifty-eight men. From the 23rd to the 27th of April we were engaged in arranging our packs and moving to a place about four miles from Independence. On the morning of the 28th we were all equipped and mounted hunter-like. About forty men leading two loaded horses each were marched out in double file with joyous hearts, enlivened by anticipated prospects, led by Mr. Wyeth, a persevering adventurer and lover of enterprise, whilst the remainder of the party, with twenty head of extra horses and as many cattle to supply emergencies, brought up the rear under the direction of Captain Joseph Thing, an eminent navigator and fearless son of Neptune, who had been employed by the company in Boston to accompany the party and measure the route across the Rocky Mountains by astronomical observation.

We traveled slowly through the beautiful, verdant and widely extended prairie until about two o'clock p.m. and encamped at a small grove of timber near a spring. On the 29th we took up our march and traveled across a large and beautifully undulating prairie, intersected by small streams skirted with timber intermingled with shrubbery, until the 3d day of May, when we arrived at the Kaw or Kansas River, near the residence of the United States agent for those Indians.

The Kaw or Kansas Indians are the most filthy, indolent and degraded set of human beings I ever saw. They live in small, oval huts four or five feet high, formed of willow branches and covered with, deer, elk or buffalo skins.

On the 4th of May we crossed the river and on the 5th resumed our march into the interior, traveling over beautiful rolling prairies and encamping on small streams at night until the 10th, when we arrived at the River Platte. We followed up this river to the forks, then forded the south fork and traveled up the north until the 1st day of June, when we arrived at Laramie's Fork of the Platte, where is the first perceptible commencement of the Rocky Mountains. We crossed this fork and traveled up the main river until night and encamped. The next day we left the river and traveled across Black Hills nearly parallel with the general course of the Platte until the 9th of June, when we came to the river again and crossed it at a place called the Red Buttes (high mountains of red rock from which the river issues). The next day we left the river on our left and traveled a northwest direction, and stopped at night on a small spring branch, nearly destitute of wood or shrubbery. The next day we arrived at a stream running into the Platte, called Sweetwater. This we ascended to a rocky, mountainous country until the 15th of June, then left it and crossed the divide between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and encamped on Sandy Creek, a branch running into Green River, which flows into the Colorado of the West. The next day we moved down Sandy west northwest direction and arrived at Green River on the 18th of June. Here we found some white hunters, who informed us that the grand rendezvous of the whites and Indians would be on a small western branch of the river about twenty miles distant, in a southwest direction. Next day, June 20th, we arrived at the destined place. Here we met with two companies of trappers and traders. One was a branch of the American Fur Company, under the direction of Messrs. Dripps and Fontanell; the other was called the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The names of the partners were Thomas Fitzpatrick, Milton Sublett and James Bridger. The two companies consisted of about 600 men, including men engaged in the service, white, half breed and Indian fur trappers. This stream was called Ham's Fork of Green River. The face of the adjacent country was very mountainous and broken, except the small alluvial bottoms along the streams. It abounded with buffalo, antelope, elk and bear and some few deer along the river. Here Mr. Wyeth disposed of a part of his loads to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and on the 2d of July we renewed our march towards the Columbia River. After leaving Ham's Fork we took across a high range of hills in a northwest direction and fell on a stream called Bear River, which emptied into the Big Salt Lake.

This was beautiful country. The river, which was about twenty yards wide, ran through large, fertile bottoms bordered by rolling ridges which gradually ascended on each side of the river to the high ranges of dark and lofty mountains upon whose tops the snow remained nearly the year round. We traveled down this river northwest about fifteen miles and encamped opposite a lake of fresh water about sixty miles in circumference, which outlet into the river on the west side. Along the west border of this lake the country was generally smooth, ascending gradually into the interior and terminating in a high range of mountains which nearly surrounded the lake, approaching close to the shore on the east. The next day, the 7th, we traveled down the river and on the 9th we encamped at a place called the Sheep Rock, so called from a point of the mountain terminating at the river bank in a perpendicular high rock. The river curved around the foot of this rock and formed a half circle, which brought its course to the southwest, from whence it ran in the same direction to the Salt Lake, about eighty miles distant. The sheep occupied this prominent elevation (which overlooked the surrounding country to a great extent) at all seasons of the year.

On the right hand or east side of the river about two miles above the rock were five or six mineral springs, some of which had precisely the taste of soda water when taken up and drank immediately; others had a sour, sulphurous taste; none of them had any outlet, but boiled and bubbled in small holes a few inches from the surface of the ground. This place which looked so lonely, visited only by the rambling trapper or solitary savage, will doubtless at no distant; day, be a resort for thousands of the gay and fashionable world, as well as invalids and spectators. The country immediately adjacent seemed to have all undergone volcanic action at some remote period, the evidences of which, however, still remained in the deep and frightful chasms which might be found in the rocks throughout this portion of the country and which could only have been formed by some terrible convulsion of nature. The ground about these springs was very strongly impregnated with salsoda. There were also large beds of clay in the vicinity, of a snowy whiteness, used by the Indians for cleansing their clothes and skins, it not being inferior to any soap for cleansing woolens or skins, dressed after the Indian fashion.

Chapter II

Meeting With Captain B. S. Bonneville and Party — Establishment of the Trading Post at Fort Hall

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On July 11th we left Bear River and crossed low ridges of broken country for about fifteen miles in a northeast direction, and fell on to a stream which ran into the Snake River, called Blackfoot. Here we met with Captain B. S. Bonneville and a party of ten or twelve men. He was on his way to the Columbia and was employed killing and drying buffalo meat for the journey. The next day we traveled in a westerly direction over a rough, mountainous country about twenty-five miles, and the day following, after traveling about twenty miles in the same direction, we emerged from the mountains into the great valley of the Snake River. On the 16th we crossed the valley and reached the river in about twenty-five miles travel west. Here Mr. Wyeth concluded to stop, build a fort and deposit the remainder of his merchandise, leaving a few men to protect them, and trade with the Snake and Bannock Indians.

On the 18th we commenced the fort, which was a stockade eighty feet square, built of cottonwood trees set on end, sunk two and one-half feet in the ground and standing about fifteen feet above, with two bastions eight feet square at the opposite angles. On the 4th of August the fort was completed and on the 5th the "Stars and Stripes" were unfurled to the breeze at sunrise in the center of a savage and uncivilized country, over an American trading post.

The next day Mr. Wyeth departed for the mouth of the Columbia River with all the party excepting twelve men (myself included) who were stationed at the fort. I now began to experience the difficulties attending a mountaineer, we being all raw hands, excepting the man who had charge of the fort, and a mulatto, the two latter having but very little experience in hunting game with the rifle, and although the country abounded with game, still it wanted experience to kill it.

On the 12th of August myself and three others (the mulatto included) started from the fort to hunt buffalo. We proceeded up the stream running into Snake River near the fort called Ross Fork in an easterly direction about twenty-five miles, crossed a low mountain in the same direction about five miles and fell on to a stream called the Portneuf. Here we found several large bands of buffalo. We went to a small stream and encamped. l now prepared myself for the first time in my life to kill meat for my supper, with a rifle.

I had an elegant one, but had little experience in using it. However, I approached the band of buffaloes, crawling on my hands and knees within about eighty yards of them, then raised my body erect, took aim and shot at a bull. At the crack of the gun the buffaloes all ran off excepting the bull which I had wounded. I then reloaded and shot as fast as I could until I had driven twenty-five bullets at, in and about him, which was all that I had in my bullet pouch, while the bull still stood, apparently riveted to the spot. I watched him anxiously for half an hour in hopes of seeing him fall, but to no purpose. I was obliged to give it up as a bad job and retreat to our encampment without meat; but the mulatto had better luck—he had killed a fat cow while shooting fifteen bullets at the band. The next day we succeeded in killing another cow and two bulls. We butchered them, took the meat and returned to the fort.

Experience With a Grizzly Bear

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On the 20th of August we started again to hunt meat. We left the fort and traveled about six miles, when we discovered a grizzly bear digging and eating roots in a piece of marshy ground near a large bunch of willows. The mulatto approached within 100 yards and shot him through the left shoulder. He gave a hideous growl and sprang into the thicket. The mulatto then said: "Let him go; he is a dangerous varmint," but not being acquainted with the nature of these animals I determined on making another trial, and persuaded the mulatto to assist me. We walked around the bunch of willows where the bear lay, keeping close together, with our rifles ready cocked and presented towards the bushes, until near the place where he had entered, when we heard a sullen growl about ten feet from us, which was instantly followed by a spring of the bear toward us, his enormous jaws extended and eyes flashing fire. Oh Heavens! was ever anything so hideous? We could not retain sufficient presence of mind to shoot at him but took to our heels, separating as we ran, the bear taking after me. Finding I could outrun him, he left and turned to the other, who wheeled about and discharged his rifle, covering the bear with smoke and fire, the ball, however, missing him. He turned and bounded toward me. I could go no further without jumping into a large quagmire which hemmed me in on three sides. I was obliged to turn about and face him. He came within about ten paces of me, then suddenly stopped and raised his ponderous body erect, his mouth wide open, gazing at me with a beastly laugh.

At this moment I pulled trigger, as I knew not what else to do and hardly knew that I did this, but it accidentally happened that my rifle was pointed towards the bear when I pulled and the ball piercing his heart, he gave one bound from me, uttered a deathly howl and fell dead, but I trembled as if I had an ague fit for half an hour after. We butchered him, as he was very fat, packed the meat and skin on our horses and returned to the fort with the trophies of our bravery, but I secretly determined in my own mind never to molest another wounded grizzly bear in a marsh or thicket. On the 26th of September, our stock of provisions beginning to get short, four men started again to hunt buffalo. As I had been out several times in succession, I concluded to stay in the fort awhile and let others try it. This was the most lonely and dreary place I think I ever saw—not a human to be seen excepting the men about the fort. The country was very smoky and the weather sultry and hot. On the first day of October our hunters arrived with news which caused some little excitement among us. They had discovered a village of Indians on Blackfoot Creek, about twenty-five miles from the fort in a northeasterly direction, consisting of about sixty lodges. They had ridden, greenhorn-like, into the village without any ceremony or knowledge of the friendly or hostile disposition of the Indians, neither could they inform us to what nation they belonged. It happened, however, that they were Snake, friendly to the whites, and treated our men in a hospitable manner. After remaining all night with them three of the Indians accompanied our hunters to the fort. From these we gathered (through the mulatto who could speak a little of their language) much desired information. The next day myself and the mulatto started to the village, where we arrived about sun half an hour high. We were conducted to the chief's lodge, where we dismounted and were cheerfully saluted by the chief, who was called by the whites "Iron Wristbands" and by the Indians "Pah-dasher-wah-un-dah" or "The Hiding Bear." Our horses were taken to grass and we followed him into his lodge, when he soon ordered supper to be prepared for us. He seemed very much pleased when we told him the whites had built a trading post on Snake River. He said the village would go to the fort in three or four days to trade. We left them next morning loaded with as much fat, dried buffalo meat as our horses could carry, which had been given as a gratuity. We were accompanied on our return to the fort by six of the men. On the 10th the village arrived and pitched their lodges within about 200 yards of the fort. I now commenced learning the Snake language and progressed so far in a short time that I was able to understand most of their words employed in the matters of trade.

October 20th a village of Bannocks consisting of 250 lodges, arrived at the fort. From these we traded a considerable quantity of furs, a large supply of dried meat, deer, elk and sheep skins. In the meantime we were employed building small log houses and making other necessary preparations for the approaching winter.

Chapter III

Snake Valley a Winter Resort for Trappers — Hunting Party Suffers From Hunger — One Member Lost

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November 5th some white hunters arrived at the fort who had been defeated by the Blackfoot Indians on Ham's Fork of Green River. One of them had his arm broken by a fusee ball, but by the salutary relief which he obtained from the fort he was soon enabled to return to his associates. On the 16th two more white men arrived and reported that Captain Bonneville had returned from the lower country and was passing within thirty miles of the fort on his way to Green River. On the 20th four white men arrived and reported that a party of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, consisting of sixty men under the direction of one of the partners (Mr. Bridger), were at the forks of Snake River, about sixty miles above the fort, where they intended to pass the winter. We were also informed that the two fur companies had formed a coalition. December 15th the ground was still bare, but frozen, and the weather very cold. On the 24th Captain Thing arrived from the mouth of the Columbia with ten men, fetching supplies for the fort.

Times now began to have a different appearance. The whites and Indians were very numerous in the valley. All came to pass the winter on the Snake River. On the 20th of January twelve of Mr. Bridger's men left his camp and came to the fort to get employment. They immediately made an engagement with Captain Thing to form a party for hunting and trapping. On the 15th of March the party was fitted out, consisting often trappers and seven camp keepers (myself being one of the latter), under the direction of Mr. Joseph Gale, a native of the City of Washington. March 25th we left the fort and traveled about six miles northeast and encamped on a stream running into the river about twelve miles below the fort, called Portneuf. The next day we followed up this stream in an easterly direction about fifteen miles. Here we found the snow very deep. From this we took a south course in the direction of Bear River. Our animals being so poor and the traveling being so bad, we had to make short marches, and reached Bear River on the 1st day of April. The place where we struck the river was called Cache Valley, so called from its having been formerly a place of deposit for the fur traders. The country on the north and west side of the river was somewhat broken and uneven and covered with wild sage. The snow had disappeared only upon the south sides of the hills. On the south and east sides of the river lay the valley, but it appeared very white and the river nearly overflowing its banks, insomuch that it was very difficult crossing, and should we have been able to have crossed, the snow would have prevented us gaining the foot of the mountain on the east side of the valley. This place being entirely destitute of game, we had to live chiefly upon roots for ten days.

On the 11th of April we swam the river with our horses and baggage and pushed our way through the snow across the valley to the foot of the mountain. Here we found the ground bare and dry, but we had to stay another night without supper. About four o'clock the next day the meat of two fat grizzly bears was brought into camp. Our camp kettles had not been greased for some time, as we were continually boiling thistle roots in them during the day, but now four of them containing about three gallons each were soon filled with fat bear meat, cut in very small pieces, and hung over a fire, which all hands were employed in keeping up with the utmost impatience. An old, experienced hand who stood six feet six and was never in a hurry about anything, was selected by a unanimous vote to say when the stew (as we called it) was done, but I thought, with my comrades, that it took a longer time to cook than any meal I ever saw prepared, and after repeated appeals to his long and hungry stewardship by all hands, he at length consented that it might be seasoned with salt and pepper and dished out to cool. But it had not much time for cooling before we commenced operations, and all pronounced it the best meal they had ever eaten, as a matter of course where men had been starving.

The next morning I took a walk up a smooth spur of the mountain to look at the country. This valley commenced about thirty miles below the Soda Springs, the river running west of south entering the valley through a deep cut in the high hills. After winding its way through the north and west borders of the valley, it turned due west and ran through the deep canyon of perpendicular rocks on its way to the Salt Lake. The valley laid in a sort of semi-circle or rather an oblong on the south and east of about twenty miles in length by five miles in diameter and nearly surrounded by high and rugged mountains from which flowed large numbers of small streams, crossing the valley and emptying into the river. There were large quantities of beaver and otter living in these streams, but the snow melting raised the water so high that our trappers made but slow progress in catching them.

We stopped in this valley until the 20th of April, then moved to the southeast extremity and made an attempt to cross the mountain. The next day we traveled up a stream called Rush Creek in an easterly direction, through a deep gorge in the mountain for about twelve miles, which then widened about a mile into a smooth and rolling country. Here we staid the following day. We then took a northeast course over the divide and traveled about twelve miles through snow two or three feet deep and in many places drifts; to the depth of six or eight feet deep. At night we encamped on a small dry spot of ground on the south side of a steep mountain, where there was little or no vegetation excepting wild sage.

Some time after we had stopped it was disclosed that one man was missing—a young English shoemaker from Bristol. We found he had been seen last dismounted and stopping to drink at a small branch at some distance before we entered the snow. On the following morning I was ordered to go back in search of him. I starte [...]