Until We Meet Again...

When Captain Walker and Benjamin Bonneville met up again on Bear River in the summer of 1834 supplies from St. Louis were waiting for them.  The two planned their operations for the next year amid a good feeling of plenty.

Bonneville would make his fall hunt on the Columbia River with 50 men, while Captain Walker would go across the Rockies to the Missouri River with 55 men.  Unknown to them was the next time they met would be along the Big Horn exactly a year later in July 1835.

Walker's men trapped successfully across the Rockies along the Yellowstone and Big Horn River (the region was called Absaroka, the home of the Crow Indians).  For the winter Walker divided up his men and took most of them to Wind River to camp and set up a trading post 60-70 miles east of the Continental Divide. 

Next time...A Good Winter

The Final Goodbye

While Walker was busy organizing his next expedition, Bonneville applied for a passport for Joseph R. Walker and a Visa from the Mexican counsel which gave Walker and his men papers to enter California legally.  

Did Walker and Bonneville discuss this beforehand? Since Bonneville did not apply for his own passport or Visa (or anyone else's for that matter) it is thought that they had agreed that Walker would go on alone.

It was probably the only reason Walker joined Bonneville in the first place was for his help with the government.  Thus concludes the partnership between Captain Walker and Benjamin Bonneville.

It is interesting to note that when Bonneville returned to MO in 1835 he left the mountains for good and found the government administration completely changed, in addition no one knew about his "project" so he had been dismissed from the army for unauthorized leave of absence.

Bonneville appealed to Andrew Jackson and was reassigned, but it was a long time debate whether a frontier army captain should have been granted a leave to pursue private commercial interests, not even complete it and overstay his leave.   It remains one of the unsolved mysteries of the 19th century American military.  Many concluded, as Walker did, that there was more to it than just trading - perhaps a covert assignment to gather information which the government wanted to move against the British or the Mexicans.  We will never know for sure.

Next Time...the Choice of Men  

Dreaming of the Ocean

The rendezvous of 1833 drew 350 white trappers, traders and tourists along with about 500 Indians.  Camps were strung out for 10 miles along the Green River and Horse Creek all the way to Fort Nonsense.  

Cerre was getting ready to take Walker's furs back to Missouri to sell and agreed to stop in Washington to deliver Bonneville's message to the navy that he would need 2 more years of leave in his task of exploration.


Walker meantime was visiting other camps of his friends and acquaintances - he was a considerable figure, having earned the reputation by his performance that spring and winter.  Walker also made a point of showing up at these affairs with some big, fast horses which he raced, bet on, and usually won almost daily.

Walker also passed the word that he wanted to recruit 40 good men for an expedition from the Green River all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  The response was enthusiastic even though no one knew much about California, except the rumors that it was a warm, golden, natural Eden.  

Next time...Separate Ways One Last Time   

Final Count

During this time, Bonneville figured out that the trappers were more interested in injuring their rivals than actually doing any trapping.  Nevertheless, the final count of the 1832 fur trapping season was 62 packs of fur for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, 51 packs for the American Fur Company, and 30 for the free trappers.  

Bonneville's men cashed in 22 1/2 packs with $15,000 which was quite respectable for 40 men in the early 1800s west.

By the time Bonneville got to the rendezvous, Walker had already been there a month before.  The Snake chief had provided Walker with an escort of 200 men for protection and Walker had dug up the stored furs at Fort Nonsense and begun trading.  Once that task was done, Walker took 6 men and hit the trail again.
 
Walker's conduct and success in the 1832 fur trapping season indicates that he was already an experienced furman.  The ease and assurance with which he moved and maneuvered in the central Rockies in 1832-33 suggests that he may have been there before - maybe with the Tais trappers as a younger man?

Next time...Tourists and Trappers

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow?

Walker returned to Fort Nonsense with his group of free trappers.  Bonneville found them as interesting as the Delaware and one convinced him that a much better camp for the winter lay 200 miles west on the Salmon River.

Surprisingly Bonneville quickly agreed which got Captain Walker wondering why Bonneville built the fort - maybe for entirely different reasons than fur trapping over the winter. Nevertheless they stored extra supplies at Fort Bonneville, then packed up and moved to the Salmon River.

The Salmon River offered little improvement in shelter, game or trapping for the winter.  Walker thought it a miserable establishment - not even sheep could be found for food.  Walker had no intentions of spending the winter of 1832-33 at this camp.  Walker began to think that this might just be a way for the fur companies to get rid of Bonneville - to an isolated place where he would be too busy trying to survive to do much fur trapping.

By this time Old Joe realized that it was impossible to educate Bonneville and to continue on with him would not only cost him his reputation with other mountain men, but may affect his own survival as well.

So two days after arriving, Walker took 20 men and left, heading northwest to the Madison River to trap beaver.

Next time..Not so fast buster...

You Snooze, You Lose

At North Platte the expedition met 60 Crows who had been chasing Cheyennes.  Bonneville partied with the Crows and thought they were most hospitable and friendly until he found out they had robbed him of his knives, wallet - even his coat buttons.  Poor naive Ben...

By July of 1832 they were at the Sweetwater River and the Shining Mountains (the Rockies) were in view.  They became the first substantial wagon train to go through the South Pass - which in 10 years would be the Gateway to the Pacific.

The party continued to the Green River, a northern branch of the Colorado and camped at Horseshoe Creek in Wyoming. 

 Next time...before we go further some background on the Fur Trading Companies of the 1830s.

White Plume

In 1832 the expedition left Fort Osage with more supplies than needed for 5 expeditions - 110 men, extra horses and mules for each man, 20 freight wagons...traveling west through Kansas and north along the Platte River Valley, they met the first Indians in Kansas.

White Plume was a long winded chief, a begger and a scalawag.  Bonneville thought him a fine fellow nevertheless and wanted to discuss "white bee hunters" who conduct was disrespecting Indian territory, but Walker was not impressed

Walker had known White Plume back at Council Grove in 1825 at the Santa Fe Trail Treaty.  Those "white bee hunters" were also most likely Walkers relatives!

Next time...to the Rockies

Three's a Charm

When we last left Captain Joseph Walker, he was looking for an expedition party to explore the unknown parts of the West...Benjamin Bonneville was looking for a man who could lead him through the Rockies and recruit and manage a team of fur trappers. Soon to join Walker and Bonneville on the expedition was Michael Cerre, of old St. Louis mercantile heritage. He had the experience in business that Walker and Bonneville needed. 

Bonneville went back to John Jacob Astor in 1832 for money to finance the expedition.  Cerre went to St. Louis for supplies and Walker went to Fort Osage for men.  Captain Walker hired Delaware Indians who had relocated from the Appalachians and who hired out to the British and American fur traders.  They were expert trappers as well as hired guns, so they had the wilderness skills and aggressiveness, but were hated by the native tribes of the West. 

Walker made an excellent choice....

Next time...White Plume

Walker and Bonneville - a Perfect Fit

Joseph Walker and Benjamin Bonneville met at Fort Gibson in 1830.  Both knew Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston so they had an immediate topic of conversation between them

Walker was looking for an expedition to explore unknown parts of the West and Bonneville was looking for a man who could lead him through the Rockies, and recruit and manage a team of fur trappers....Kirk and Spock circa 1830??

Walker's good instincts told him this was more than just a fur trading expedition.  Bonneville knew a good man for the job when he met one, so the deal was made.

Off to the Rockies these two new friends went...next time.

A Parisan on the Frontier

Benjamin Bonneville was a Brigadier General in the United States Army stationed at Fort Gibson.  Born in Paris in 1796, Bonneville moved with his family to America during the French Revolution.  His original plan was to take a temporary leave of absence from the army for a fur trapping expedition into the central and northern Rockies.

John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest man in America at that time financed the expedition under the American Fur Company.  Actually Bonneville had little interest in fur trapping itself and spent most of his time mapping, setting up temporary forts and investigating routes to the Pacific Ocean.  So much time, that when he reported back to the Army, he said he would need two more years to finish his mission.

Then he met Joseph Walker...next time.