It Was A Good Winter

The Crow Indians were an interesting bunch of people...clever, treacherous if it benefited them, quick-witted, an a small nation surrounded by larger and more powerful tribes like the Blackfoot.  Crow had a talent for being thieves who boasted about it afterward.  Their specialty was horse rustling.

Crows got along well that winter of 1834-35 and were hospitable, extremely competitive, humorous and even sentimental.

Walker had moved to the Wind River for buffalo and other game. He was in good health and good spirits.  Leonard wrote in the journal "one of the most beautiful formations of nature - 20 miles wide in some places and as level as a floor with the margin of the riverbank - thriving cottonwood."

It was a good winter in Absaroka...

Next time - the last journal entry...

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.