In
1800, the American West was still wild country--no cities,
no railroads and no cattle ranches yet existed. It
was quiet and untouched. People in the eastern U.S.had heard
stories about the western mountains and the desert, but
no Euro-American had been there. Within a very short time
that would all change.
In
1803, President Thomas Jefferson organized a secret mission
to send a small party overland to the Pacific--a daunting
trek that no one before had tried. Congress met covertly
to approve the trip, because Lewis and Clark would be venturing
beyond the United States--onto British soil.
Jefferson
chose his old friend and neighbor Meriwether Lewis to lead
the venture; and Lewis in turn picked rough-hewn frontiersman
William Clark to be co-leader. In May of 1804, their contingent
of a few dozen men started west up the Missouri River.
Jefferson's
hope was that Lewis and Clark would find an easy water route
to the Pacific--a simple way west for traders and emigrants
alike. He also wanted Lewis and Clark to gather scientific
information about the region--after all, no white man had
seen the west's plants or animals.
The
journey took so long, many assumed the expedition had perished.
But on December fifth, 1805, Lewis and Clark reached the
Pacific. William Clark wrote "We now discover that
we have found the most practicable and navigable passage
across the continent of North America."
He
was dead wrong.
Lewis
and Clark's route was much too difficult for wagon traffic.
No pioneer wagon would ever follow in their footsteps. Lolo
Pass, where the expedition crossed the most difficult section
of the Rockies, is a rough haul even today--almost two centuries
later.
But
their expedition was still considered a success. That's
because their detailed maps and notes provided a wealth
of solid scientific data. The West was a mystery no more.
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The
Astorians
The
second major westward expedition was not funded by the government;
it was backed by the world's richest man--John Jacob Astor.
Astor had read about Lewis and Clark's journey and by 1810
he saw an opportunity to make money. His plan was to set
up a fur-trading enterprise at the mouth of the Columbia
River. Just one problem--how to get his men across the uncharted
American West. Astor sent two groups--the first traveled
by ship around Cape Horn. They arrived safely, but their
ship was later destroyed in a conflict with Native Americans
in the area.
A
second group traveled overland; the first to try since Lewis
and Clark. But things did not go well. At Caldron Linn,
a particularly rough spot on the Snake River, one of the
overland party's canoes capsized--causing the death of one
man and a substantial loss of supplies. Hunt soon discovered
that the river did not become more placid downstream.
Reluctantly,
he came to the inevitable conclusion--the Snake was unnavigable.
There would be no easy water route to the Pacific; an unfortunate
twist of geography that would frustrate pioneers for the
next hundred years.
In
the end, Hunt's overland party did make it to the Pacific,
but the enterprise was in deep trouble. Their only hope
was to send a few men back east to get help from Astor.
Robert Stuart led the mission back to St. Louis--a difficult
journey that took nearly a year.
Along
the way, Stuart made an incredible discovery--he found a
20-mile wide gap in the Rocky mountains--the one passage
where wagons could get through. Named South Pass, this find
would become the key to western migration. Over a half-million
emigrants would eventually follow the ruts through South
Pass. Where Lewis and Clark had failed, Robert Stuart had
unwittingly succeeded.
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Pike
& Long
Despite
Stuart's discovery of a passage through the Rockies, it
would be several decades before the big move west would
begin. Why the delay? Part of the blame goes to Lt. Zebulon
Pike. In 1806, Pike was sent west to explore the great plains
and Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately, in his reports Pike
referred to the plains as "the Great American Desert,"
a name that stuck. Even though much of the region is nothing
like a desert, people back east conjured up images of sand
dunes and cactus. No emigrant in their right mind would
try to cross a severe wasteland--and so the big move west
was delayed.
Pike's
opinion that the west was a vast desert was confirmed by
Maj. Steven Long, who led an expedition west in 1819. Long
and his men passed through what is now Oklahoma, Nebraska,
Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. He concluded that the entire
region was unfit for human habitation.
And
so the west remained largely untouched. Native American
tribes lived in peace. White settlers stayed away. After
all, the west was uninhabitable; at least that's what everyone
thought.
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Mountain
Men
Despite
the negative publicity, a few Americans did trickle west
in the first few decades of the 19th century. They were
a rough-hewn bunch of adventurous entrepreneurs--that came
to be called "Mountain Men."
These
solitary fur-trappers lived thousands of miles from civilization.
Most had no home, no money and no possessions--except what
they could carry on their backs. They lived completely off
the land, with a diet of buffalo, elk and mountain goat.
Many roamed constantly, covering hundreds, perhaps thousands
of miles each year all in search of just one thing--beaver
pelts. A mountain man could trade a beaver pelt for anything
he needed--but then, he didn't need much.
Although
it may seem like an exciting life, it was never easy. At
night, they slept right on the ground and freezing winters
were spent in a drafty teepee. An injured mountain man might
have to set his own broken bone or even amputate his own
limb. Their only friends were the Native Americans they
occasionally met.
Even
before Lewis and Clark finished their epic journey to the
Pacific, mountain men were traveling up and down the Missouri
River in search of beaver fur. Most importantly, they were
pushing the limits of known civilization; exploring new
lands and discovering uncharted places.
In
1808, mountain man John Colter stumbled upon a land where
hot water shot straight into the air and the earth bubbled
as if it were boiling. He had discovered the place we now
know as Yellowstone National Park. But no one believed him.
They thought he was telling tall tales.
Similarly--on
a bet--mountain man Jim Bridger sailed down the Bear River
in Utah until he found a huge body of salt water. He thought
he had reached the Pacific Ocean. In reality, Bridger had
discovered the Great Salt Lake. Bridger was one of the best
known mountain men; largely for his trailblazing skills.
In one adventure he took an arrowhead in the back. He finally
had it removed three years later--without anesthetic.
Later
in life--in the 1840s--Bridger built a
fort in what is now Wyoming. His goal was to sell supplies
to the flood of emigrants then heading for Oregon. But the
fort tied him down, and so within a few years, Bridger sold
his fort and got back to the only lifestyle he knew--adventure.
Perhaps
the greatest mountain man of them all was Jedediah Smith.
Incredibly tough, he once sewed on his scalp after an angry
bear had torn it off. In 1825, Smith re-discovered South Pass--a key passageway through the treacherous
Rocky Mountains. South Pass had been visited by an earlier
explorers but its location had been kept secret. Smith made
sure everyone knew about this important corridor.
But
Smith's greatest achievement was his epic expedition to
the Southwest. In 1826 he set out from the Great Salt Lake--intent
on visiting lands no white man had seen. He would spend
the next four years fulfilling that dream. Smith's journeys
took him from what is now Canada to Mexico--but it wasn't
his route that was important. After all, no settler ever
followed his path. What was important was the map he left
behind--the so-called "Fremont-Gibbs-Smith map"
was the only accurate and comprehensive map of the era.
It would be decades before a better guide to the American
West would be available.
The
only mountain man who could rival the greatness of Jedediah
Smith was Joe Walker. For over half a century he roamed
the west, trapping beaver, blazing trails, and leading expeditions.
Perhaps Walker's greatest triumph was the trail he blazed
to California in 1832. But Walker wasn't alone, he was under
the employ of a US army captain-- Benjamin Bonneville. Bonneville
claimed he was on leave from the army to take up fur trapping,
but many historians think he was an undercover agent for
the US government--sent to spy on the Mexicans in California.
We'll never know for sure.
It
is sure, however, that the route blazed by Bonneville and
Walker was critically important because it turned out to
be the only practical route to California. In future years
hundreds of thousands of pioneers would follow their footsteps
to the promised land. Nearly a half-century later, the transcontinental
railroad--seeking the best route west--would lay their tracks
directly on top of Joe Walker's trail to California.
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Fur
Trading Companies
Early
on, at least one American saw there was money to be made
by organizing the mountain men into large fur trading companies.
His name was Manuel Lisa. Ruthless and violent, Lisa was
hated by his men but he was a very successful businessman.
Starting in 1807, he quickly built a chain of forts along
the Missouri and his men fanned out in all directions to
harvest the abundant beaver.
Hoping
for similar success, William Ashley, in 1822, put an ad
in a St. Louis paper, to recruit able-bodied men for his
new enterprise. There was no shortage of willing young men.
Unlike
Lisa, Ashley did not build a chain of forts to manage his
fur trading operation. Instead, he sent his men out alone
and made arrangements to meet them all at a centrally-located
place a year later. At the pre-determined time, Ashley would
load up his wagons with supplies to replenish his men and
then head off to meet them. Ashley's yearly journey began
in St. Louis and took him deep into the heart of the Rockies.
Importantly, his wagons were the first vehicles to penetrate
the west. He was, unknowingly, blazing a wagon road for
the settlers who would follow a decade later.
When
Ashley finally reached his men each year, it was cause for
celebration--a wild party they called "the rendezvous."
Every year throughout the 1820s and 30s it was the same:
gambling, drinking, storytelling that went on for days.
Ashley
and his successors got rich, but his trappers largely got
fleeced. Nonetheless, the interplay was critical--because
the Ashley took important information about the West back
to civilization.
By
the late 1830s, beaver hats were going out of style in New
York and London, and so pelts were no longer in demand.
As a result, many mountain men were forced to find a new
livelihood. Some became farmers, others led pioneer wagons
trains--that were just now beginning to stream west. The
era of the mountain man had passed and the age of the pioneer
was beginning.
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Fremont
Explorer
John Fremont became one of America's biggest heroes because
of his journeys west along the Oregon Trail in 1842 and
1843. He got the job largely because his wife's father was
the powerful Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton. Benton
believed America had an innate right to all the lands of
the west, an idea that came to be called "Manifest
Destiny." And so Fremont was under strict orders to
make the west seem attractive--worth settling. That he did.
Fremont's reports on his journeys were decidedly upbeat.
They made the trip west seem easy--enjoyable. The reports
were widely read in the east, stirring up excitement and
encouraging pioneers to head west.
However,
even though the reports bear his name, Fremont didn't write
them. He gave up and left the work to his wife--the intelligent
and articulate Jesse Benton Fremont. It was she--as much
as anyone--who lit the spark of America's big move west.
Jesse
Benton Fremont: Far West Sketches
The full text of Mrs. Fremont's reminiscence about her earlier
stay in California.
The
Life of Col. John Charles Fremont, and His Narrative of
Explorations and Adventures, in Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon
and California
Full text of John Fremont's masterwork (actually written
by his wife Jesse).
Lewis
and Clark
PBS'
site on the early explorers
