Rendezvous (fur trade)
Rendezvous were the annual meetings of trappers and fur traders in the Rocky Mountains , at which in the 1820s and 30s the fur hunters operating in the wilderness and their Indian trading partners met with emissaries from the fur trading companies to deliver the skins of the season and new provisions and barter goods as well as receiving their wages. The rendezvous method was invented by trappers from the Rocky Mountain Fur Company , particularly Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick, and company director William Henry Ashley ; the first meeting took place in the summer of 1825 at Henrys Fork , a tributary of the Green River , near present-day McKinnon , Wyoming .
A total of 16 rendezvous took place before fur hunting became unprofitable because of the largely exploited beaver populations. The meetings in 1829, 30 and 38 took place on the east side of the continental divide , all others in the more difficult to access but therefore more productive hunting areas beyond the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains. The meetings were held in the summer, which was not hunting anyway, before the autumn campaign. Beavers lost a lot of hair between mid-June and mid-September; her fur was of less value at that time.
The method of the fur trade
In the remote Rocky Mountains, goods such as firearms and ammunition were vital for the trappers or goods such as brandy, coffee, sugar and tobacco were very popular and could be exchanged for furs at significantly higher prices than in St. Louis . Thanks to this price difference, the rendezvous system was so financially productive for Ashley that after two years as a wealthy man he was able to retire and get into politics. Three of his captains , Jedediah Smith, David Jackson and William Sublette , bought the company from him in 1826.
For the trappers, too, the business was lucrative in the beginning. A good trapper brought 300 to 400 furs to the rendezvous in a successful year; Jedediah Smith even brought 668 furs in 1825. For the sale of the furs, the trappers often received up to 2000 US dollars, which they, however, often immediately invested in goods that were up to 20 times more expensive than St. Louis prices.
The furs were transported to St. Louis after the meetings. The route along the North Platte River became the centerpiece of the Oregon Trail in the late 1830s, as settlers crossed the Rocky Mountains to the west coast.
In the first few years, the meetings were held at different locations to encourage the trappers to look for new fishing areas.
History of the rendezvous
Already at the first rendezvous in 1825, not only 91 trappers from Ashley's company came, but also some Indians from the Cheyenne and Crow and even fur hunters from the British Hudson's Bay Company , who broke their contract and sold their skins to the Americans. In the years that followed, the meetings quickly developed into large gatherings, at which Indians from the near and far area also arrived and offered their skins for exchange. They were “paid” with diluted whiskey, glass beads and colored textiles, and the greatest profit arose from this exploitation. In addition, the rendezvous became orgy-like celebrations that played a major role in the spread of venereal diseases , especially syphilis , among the Mountain Men and the Indians. Shoshone horse races, wrestling matches, races, shooting competitions and other competitions turned the meetings into circus-like performances.
In 1832, Captain Benjamin Bonneville built Fort Bonneville near today's Daniel , Wyoming, the first building in the Rocky Mountains west of the main ridge, but let it fall into disrepair again in the same year due to an unsuitable location. From 1833 on, almost all rendezvous took place nearby. Bonneville's accounts of the 1833 meeting were written down by Washington Irving and published in 1837. Today they are among the most important sources about the rendezvous.
Around the same time, businessman Nathaniel J. Wyeth attempted to supply the fur traders of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company from the Pacific with goods. When he arrived at the rendezvous in 1834, however, the company was already bankrupt and dissolved, as the fur hunt was in decline and William Sublette had skimmed the last of the proceeds through an exclusive contract at his prices. Wyeth did not understand the context and accepted a broken word or a bribe. Wyeth took his goods to the Snake River and built Fort Hall , which it was able to sell to the Hudson's Bay Company the following year . This year the fur hunters were looked after by the American Fur Company , which was represented at a rendezvous for the first time on a large scale and which subsequently organized the meetings.
The meetings were not always peaceful. At the rendezvous in 1827, 28 and 32 there was serious fighting between trappers and Blackfoot Indians, in 1832 also with the participation of the Nez Percé Indians on the side of the trappers. In 1835, Kit Carson defeated fellow Bully Shunar in a duel and shot him from his horse. That same year, missionary and doctor Marcus Whitman caused a stir when he operated a Blackfoot arrowhead on Jim Bridger's back. Alfred Jacob Miller was the only painter to venture out on a rendezvous in 1837, recording, for example, how a trapper known as Francois bought a bride from her father for goods worth US $ 600.
At the last rendezvous in 1840, the Catholic priest and missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet was present and held the first Catholic mass in the area of what would later become Wyoming.
Places of rendezvous
- 1825: McKinnon , Wyoming
- 1826: in Cache Valley , Utah , either at present-day Cove or at more southern Hyrum - Jedediah Smith, David Jackson and William Sublette buy the trading company from its founder Ashley
- 1827: Bear Lake , near what is now Laketown , Utah - Fights with the Blackfoot at the meeting point
- 1828: Bear Lake, near Laketown, Utah - Fights with the Blackfoot at the meeting point
- 1829: Lander , Wyoming
- 1830: Riverton , Wyoming - Company sold to Jim Bridger , Thomas Fitzpatrick , Milton Sublette (William's brother), Henry Freab and Baptiste Gervais
- 1831: Cache Valley , Utah (see 1826) - the supply train was too late, so no actual rendezvous took place
- 1832: Pierre's Hole , Idaho
- 1833: Daniel , Wyoming
- 1834: Granger , Wyoming - The Rocky Mountain Fur Company is dissolved, the American Fur Company takes over the Rendezvous business
- 1835: Daniel, Wyoming
- 1836: Daniel, Wyoming
- 1837: Daniel, Wyoming
- 1838: Riverton, Wyoming
- 1839: Daniel, Wyoming
- 1840: Daniel, Wyoming
Aftermath
In Bear River State Park in Wyoming is held annually each weekend before Labor Day , the Bear River Rendezvous instead. The historical rendezvous of the trappers are recreated.
literature
- Washington Irving : The Adventures of Captain Bonneville . George P. Putnam, New York, New Edition 1849 (Original: 1837). Online: Google Book Search
- Dietmar Kuegler: Freedom in the wilderness , Publishing House for American Studies , Wyk 1989, ISBN 3-924696-33-0
- Max Mittler : Conquering a continent. The great departure in the American West. Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich, 1968
Web links
- The Fur Trapper Rendezvous sites (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dee Brown : The sun rose in the west. (Original title: The Westerners. ) Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-455-00723-6 , p. 61
- ↑ Irving, 1849
- ↑ Nathaniel Wyeth's diary of June 19, 1834
- ↑ Bear River Mountain Men Club: Bear River Rendezvous (accessed May 9, 2019)