Fur Trade

The first company to set up a trading post on the Pacific Northwest coast was the Pacific Fur Company. John Jacob Astor, a wealthy New York fur merchant, decided to organize the Pacific Fur Company to open up the unexplored territory west of the Rocky Mountains. Astor's fur enterprises were well established east of the Rockies. He hoped to gain control over the entire American fur trade.

In September, 1810, two parties, representing Astor's Pacific Fur Company, set out to establish the first trading post on the Columbia River. One party sailed from New York aboard the Tonquin, under the command of Captain Jonathan Thorn. The other party set out from St. Louis on an overland expedition to the mouth of the Columbia. That party was under the leadership of Wilson Price Hunt, one of the partners of the Pacific Fur Company. Both the overland and the overseas parties expected to arrive at the Pacific Coast about the same time.

In addition to the two parties, Astor dispatched one of his many ships, the Beaver, with a load of supplies and some additional workers for the company post. The overland party, the Tonquin, and the Beaver were the core of Astor's Pacific Coast venture.

Captain Thorn of the Tonquin was an unreasonable and cantankerous man. When the Tonquin reached the mouth of the Columbia, on March 22, 1811, the crew could not locate the channel across the treacherous bar because of stormy weather. Instead of waiting for more favorable weather, Thorn insisted upon sending a small boat ahead to find the passage. The boat and the crew of five were promptly swallowed by the crashing breakers. Before the Tonquin finally crossed the bar a few days later, another small boat and its crew of three also disappeared.

The crew was not satisfied with the site selected for a post and wanted to search for a better one. Before they could pursue this, Thorn departed for Vancouver Island to trade with the Indians, without even taking time to unload all of the supplies. At Vancouver Island, he so antagonized the Indians that they attacked the ship and killed everyone on board, including Thorn. The Tonquin was blown up and destroyed. The loss of the ship left the crew with no means of carrying on their coastal trade and also resulted in the lost of the much needed supplies that were still on board. Their only hope was for the early arrival of the overland expedition. In the meantime, a party, headed by David Stuart, set out from Fort Astoria, the name given to the settlement at the head of the Columbia River, to establish a trading post along the upper Columbia. The others stayed behind to complete the original settlement and to set up trade with the Indians in the vicinity.

Overland Party

The overland party had left St. Louis only a couple of weeks after the Tonquin had sailed from New York. It consisted of 59 persons, including 4 partners of the Pacific Fur Company. One of the partners, Wilson Price Hunt, led the party. It has remained a mystery why he was chosen over Donald McKenzie, another of the partners, who was a man that was experienced in crossing unknown territory and in dealing with the Indians.

Sickness, starvation, drownings, hostile Indians, fatigue and desertion took their toll. By the time the expedition reached Astoria, 17 months after leaving St. Louis, only 35 of the original 59 remained. All the provisions had either been lost or consumed.

In May, 1812, three months after the overland party arrived, the supply ship, the Beaver, arrived at the mouth of the Columbia. The spirits of the Astorians lifted, and they set about getting on with the fur business.

Employees of the fur companies seldom trapped the animals themselves. They were happy to leave this phase of the business in the hands of those most skilled in the art, the Indians. Before actual trading started, gifts were exchanged. Then the men settled down to business. Pieces of wood or bronze served as money, one piece being given for each pelt. The Indians then purchased the goods they wanted with the money they had received for the pelts.

The items most popular with the Indians included blankets, awls, needles, scissors, thread, beads from China, buttons, combs, brightly colored yard goods, cock feathers, files, mirrors, silk handerchiefs, fishhooks, knives, axes and groceries.

It was in 1831, also, that the American Fur Company boat, the Yellowstone, began making annual trips to the upper Missouri River country. H.M. Chittenden, in his classic study of The American Fur Trade of the Far West, says, "in several respects the voyage of the Yellowstone in 1832 has been a landmark in the history of the West. It demonstrated the practicability of navigating the Missouri by steam as far as to the mouth of the Yellowstone with a strong probability that boats could go on to the Blackfoot country." Among the passengers on this voyage was the soon to be famous artist George Catlin who made a valuable written and artistic record of the Indian tribes living along