10/30/2026
FRONTIER FRIDAY Chapter 26
The U.S.A. Enters the Fur Trade
As told by Clarence Dies
Four months after the seagoing party had arrived and started building “Astoria,” a canoe with the Union Jack of the British Empire fluttering in the breeze came into sight from up the Columbia River. The Astorians were excited by the arrival of David Thompson, the former HBC man now exploring and trading for the NWC. For years, the Nor’Westers, as they were called, had worked to secure the Columbia River trade. Despite Astor’s offer for them to partner with him in the “Pacific Fur Company,” the Canadians had assumed their men would reach the Columbia before the Americans, just as they had beaten the HBC into western Canada.
Meanwhile, the overland party under the leadership of Wilson Price Hunt was having problems gathering enough experienced men to take on the journey. Hunt and Donald McKenzie went to Montreal to gather these men, as that was, and had always been, the heart of the fur trade in North America. Among the new partners was Ramsay Crooks, who would become the president of the “American Fur Company” and J. J. Astor’s right-hand man until Astor’s sale of the American Fur Company in 1834.
The overland party got underway up the Missouri River on March 13, 1811. On May 22, Hunt picked up some additional men, Alexander Carson and Ben Jones, and on May 26, John Hoback, Edward Robinson, and Jacob Rezner. All of these men had gone up the river with the Missouri Fur Company under the very capable leadership of Manuel Lisa. Lisa was now leading a new load of supplies to his trading post under the leadership of Andrew Henry at the North Fork of the Snake River.
These new men advised Hunt not to proceed up the Missouri due to the Blackfeet tribe, which was hostile to river travel. Hunt decided to trade for horses at the Arikara villages and strike out across this vast, unexplored country toward the Rocky Mountains. Hunt also traded boats and surplus supplies to Lisa for horses.
Guided by the three most recently hired men, the party made its way over the Bighorn Mountains and followed the Hoback River (named for John Hoback and still known by that name) to its junction with the Snake River, where they arrived on September 26, 1811. Following the advice of the new men, they pushed on to the abandoned Fort Henry.
At Fort Henry, Hunt made the great mistake of the expedition by deciding to abandon their horses, build canoes, and take to the Snake River, which would eventually lead them to the Columbia River. The Snake River became more violent as they traveled farther into the mountains, wrecking their canoes and resulting in the loss of some lives and most of their food supplies.
The parties wound up on both sides of the raging river, now in the dead of winter, and were in real danger of starving or freezing to death. McKenzie, McLelland, and Reed, with a small party on one bank, made their way through the mountains and onto the Columbia River, arriving at Astoria on January 18, 1812.
Hunt crossed the Columbia to the north side and made his way down the river until he came upon the “Long Narrows” (The Dalles, upstream from present-day Portland). Continuing down past the Cascades of the Columbia, Hunt built canoes and headed downstream, arriving at Astoria on February 15, 1812.
Crooks and John Day made it to the Columbia in April but were robbed of everything they had. Sometime later, they were picked up by David Stuart’s party, which was returning from building a post on the Okanagan River. They continued with Stuart’s party and arrived at Astoria on May 11, 1812. There were still thirteen men missing, and seven of them eventually made it into Astoria on January 15, 1813.
All the plans and hard work were put in jeopardy when the U.S.A. declared war on Great Britain in 1812. The NWC was anxious to seize control of the Columbia fur trade, and war seemed the best way of doing that. It dispatched two ships from Britain while its men on the Columbia pressed the Astorians to give up their posts.
Instead of remaining in command at Astoria, Hunt had taken the role of supercargo for the company and was aboard a ship moving furs when the NWC finally convinced the partners to give up Astoria.
On August 25, 1813, the wintering partners who were present, led by Duncan MacDougall and Donald McKenzie, voted to sell out to the NWC. Many of them, former NWC traders, promptly rejoined their old firm. The furs, trade goods, and property were generally sold at ruinously low prices.
The post was renamed Fort George by its new owners. The fur trade in the Northwest was about over for the Americans by the war’s end, and the Russians in Alaska had contracted with the HBC to bring in supplies and trade their furs to them. The U.S. government’s trade embargoes also damaged the China trade.
Fort George would remain the NWC headquarters for the Columbia District until the NWC merged with the HBC in 1821. A new post replaced it upstream, near the Columbia River, and was named Fort Vancouver.
C. Dies
Please like , follow and share!
