Joseph Reddeford Walker

With his good looks and plumed hat and 6' stature, Joe Walker was the romantic stereotype of the mountain man.  His escapades with ladies were legendary - so was his knowledge of the West.

Walker operated as trapper and trader out of Independence, Missouri for 12 years, was sheriff of Jackson County until a promise of waters rich in beaver, wine and women lured him on an expedition to California in 1833.  Walker understood the ways of the Indian, was kind and affable to men, and loved to explore unknown regions.

From Salt Lake down the Humboldt River, over the Sierras near Yosemite and reaching the Pacific Coast, Walker covered most of the West.  In 1833 he discovered Walker Pass in the San Joaquin Valley.  Walker Pass provided an easy wagon train trail around the south end of Sierra Nevada. In 1869 the transcontinental railroad would follow the Humboldt River route.

After Joe married an Indian chief's daughter who was lost (along with is children) to cholera, his career would span 47 years as a trapper, trader and guide.  He advised wagon trains to California, bought and sold cattle and led gold prospecting parties to California and Colorado. 

His lists of "firsts" equals and surpasses Jedediah Smith's in the discovery of the West.

When his eyesight began failing, he retired to his ranch in California where he died at the age of 78.  For more in depth on Joseph Walker - search this blog...we have followed him from his birth through his life. 

Next time...Trapper Wives
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Today in Pioneer History: On April 7, 1805 after a long winter, the Lewis and Clark expedition departs its camp among the Mandan Indians and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.

John Colter - "Mad Man" and "Colter's Hell"

For some reason Colter was sent out to find new trapping routes, and reach agreements with Blackfoot Indians.  Colter started out on foot alone

His route took him through much of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho country.  He crossed the Continental Divide at Union Divide and visited the Yellowstone Park area.  He came across steaming geysers and bubbling mud.  The tales he told of these gave him the name "madman" and were dismissed as deranged hallucinations.  His discovery was know as "Colter's Hell."

Without knowing it, Colter had become the stereotype of a mountain man.  He survived alone in the wilderness, killed his own game, trapped to make his own clothes, endured extreme cold and heat to become a legend. 

Colter escaped death at least twice.  In 1808 he was captured by the Blackfoot, his clothes taken, and told to run for his life while warriors pursued him.  He made the river six miles away, hid underwater until night fall when he made his way away in the darkness.

In 1810, Colter was the only one of six who survived a Blackfoot ambush, to which he said, "If only God will let me off, I will leave this country and never come back again."  He immediately went back to St. Louis where he died in poverty in 1813.

Next time...John Jacob Astor
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On this Day in Pioneer History:  On March 17, 1804,  Jim Bridger is born in Richmond, Virginia. Twenty years later, Bridger, heading West along the routes Lewis and Clark pioneered, became one of the greatest mountain men of the 19th century.  For more on Jim Bridger search this blog...

Mountain Men Beginnings

he first to exploit North American resources for profit were the French in the 17th century.  When England gained the monopoly over the fur trade in 1763, their Hudson Bay Company moved all the way to the Rockies by 1787,

The first mountain men encountered Lewis and Clark's expedition in 1806.  Around the Yellowstone River, 150 miles from St. Louis, they came across a couple of shaggy beaver trappers - Joseph Dickson and Forrest Hancock who had left Illinois in the summer of 1804. 

The American trappers asked if anyone in the expedition would like to join them on the hunt.  Pvt. John Colter of Virginia, along with a couple of other men, were eager to go.  The Trappers moved along the river making winter camp in a Rocky Mountain Valley.  By spring, the two companions had had enough and headed back to the expedition.  Colter however, stayed on to trap, hunt, and hone his wilderness skills.

By 1807 Colter was in St. Louis to sell his catch.  He met one swarthy Manuel Lisa, a St. Louis businessman and schemer.  He was ruthless, unprincipled, and violent, but he could sniff out profit from 1000 miles.  Genius or just a crook, in 1807, he took 50 frontiersmen into two boats up the Missouri to the Far West.  John Colter was among them as a guide.  They halted at the Yellowstone and Big Horn River to build a fort. 

Next time...the Story of John Colter continues
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On this Day in Pioneer History: On March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein is born, the son of a Jewish electrical engineer in Ulm, Germany. Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity drastically altered man’s view of the universe, and his work in particle and energy theory helped make possible quantum mechanics and, ultimately, the tomic bomb.

Mr. Zebulon Pike - Explorer

Ironically Aaron Burr's shady activities actually gave the US some benefits in creating interest in new explorations.  In 1805, Wilkinson ordered Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a young officer under his
command to lead an expedition up the Mississippi River to locate the source, inform the Indians of American sovereignty and warn the Canadian fur men off US soil.  He was also to report on mining activities around the French settlement of Dubuque.   The lead mined there was necessary for making bullets.

On August 9, 1805, Pike started out with 20 soldiers, totally innocent of any plots or schemes.  He inspected the lead mines and fought the Sioux in Minnesota.  They wintered in Little Falls. In December Pike set out with a small party to find the headwaters of the Mississippi.  Only by being given shelter by the Canadians at a trading post was he and his party able to survive being frozen to death.  Pike then ordered the hosts to evacuate US Soil or pay American duties. When Pike was refused he shot down the British flag. 

Pike thought he found the headwaters at Leech Lake, but was mistaken.  He returned to St. Louis in April 1806. 

Next time...Pike goes Southwest
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On this Day in History: "On January 14,  1639,  the first constitution in the American colonies, the “Fundamental Orders,” is adopted by representatives of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford in Connecticut.

Across the Mountains to the Sea

On August 30, 1805,  Lewis and Clark set out northward once more to find the waterway to the Pacific, using pack horses obtained from the Shoshone. They went through narrow, rocky crevices where both men and horses struggled constantly - up 7500 feet on ridges in snow, hail, sleet, rain and hunger.  There was not a single game to be found.

After 10 days they emerged in a valley - the home of the Flathead Indians.  The Indians were friendly and helped guide the explorers to a westward flowing river, the Clearwater River, navigable but difficult.

Lewis and Clark set out on October 7 and three days later they ran into dangerous rapids on the Snake River. The peril of the river seemed far more expedient than the prospect of winter spent in the mountains!

On October 16, the Snake River took them to the Columbia, the legendary river of Oregon Territory.  This was their main objective of the whole expedition but they were too exhausted to celebrate - actually they barely noticed it!  Ahead lay more days of running rapids and a final journey around the upper and lower Cascade Mountains.  Add bouts of seasickness to it...all in all a really fun journey! :)

Next time...Eureka! The Pacific
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On This Day in Pioneer History: "On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders aboard. On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around the moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so.

What's Out There?

For 28 months Meriwether Lewis and William Clark searched for a water route across the unchartered American west.  They endured months of cold, weeks of hunger and fatigue from days of backbreaking labor on the prairie.  Their party of 26 soldiers and one civilian were harassed by Indians all along the way.

The Corps of Discovery, as they were called, trained for months for survival in the wilderness.  They lost only one man to probable appendicitis.

On May 14, 1804 Lewis began from Camp Dubois, outside of St. Louis.  Clark joined him at St. Charles days later.  With a 55 foot long keelboat and 2 pirogues (long canoes), they left civilization behind to travel up the Missouri River. It proved to be a nightmare of sandbars, obstacles, changing currents and changing river banks.

Clark was the navigator, Lewis the journalist.  By July they had arrived at Council Bluffs and had their first Indian encounter.  Ottos, Omahas, and Missouri were given medals from President Jefferson and urged to live in peace with the white man.  President Jefferson was known as the "Great White Father in Washington".

Next time...clash with the Tetons.
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Today in Pioneer History: " On December 10, 1830, Emily Dickinson is born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Dickinson was a witty and popular student but was viewed as somewhat unconventional. She rarely left Amherst,  preferring her home, her stern lawyer father, invalid mother, spinster sister, and domineering brother as her family life. Dickinson had only one romance that is known about today, with Judge Otis Lord. who people thought she might marry but the romance ended."