A Man of Many Means - But One Dream

Being sheriff was part-time in frontier Missouri, so Walker traded hogs, whiskey and horses.  Horses were $30-$40 each at that time in Missouri.  Joe however found a profitable goldmine -  with military officers stationed in isolated posts throughout Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, Joe found they would pay $100-$`150 per horse in good condition.  Three times what the going rate was for horses.

Walker was never really a trapper by trade, except during the Taos trapper period.  It was tedious and hard work spending spring and fall season in icy streams and winters cleaning and curing hides.  Walker didn't want that kind of life, he wanted to be a guide, a trailblazer like a private "Lewis and Clark".  That took sufficient men and provisions and the freedom to travel and live in unsettled, unpopulated country.

The time finally came in 1830 when Walker was just 32 years old ...but first it's time to meet a new man in the whole scheme of things, one Benjamin Bonneville.

Next time...