Journal of a Trapper: In the Rocky Mountains Between 1834 and 1843

251 Pages·2004·6.418 MB·English

by  Russell, Osborne

J T
OURNAL OF A RAPPER
IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
BETWEEN 1834 AND 1843
COMPRISING A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY,
CLIMATE, RIVERS, LAKES, MOUNTAINS, ETC
THE NATURE AND HABITS OF
ANIMALS, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF INDIANS
AND A COMPLETE VIEW OF THE LIFE LED BY A HUNTER
IN THOSE REGIONS.
By Osborne Russell
Edited by Aubrey L. Haines
The Narrative Press
TrueFirstPersonAccountsofHighAdventure
I envy no man that knows more than myself and pity
them that know less . . .
Sir. T. Brown
The Narrative Press
P.O. Box 2487, Santa Barbara, California 93120 U.S.A.
Telephone: [phone] Web: www.narrativepress.com
©Copyright 2001 by The Narrative Press
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may
be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 1-58976-052-2 (Paperback)
ISBN 1-58976-053-0 (eBook)
Produced in the United States of America
EDITOR’S PREFACE
The Journal of a Trapper is perhaps the best account of
the life of a fur trapper in the Rocky Mountains when the
trade there was at its peak. It is a factual, unembellished
narrative written by one who was not only a trapper but
also a keen observer and an able writer. Both of the pub-
lished editions1 have been out of print for some time and
unavailable except in a few library reference rooms, so that
this valuable source book is neither as well known nor as
much used as it should be.
The objective in preparing this edition has been not
only to make the journal available to students and readers
but also to give it better editorial treatment. The biographi-
cal material has been expanded considerably through
research into the later life of Osborne Russell, and maps
have been added to show his travels while a trapper. The
journal and its appendix are presented here just as written
by Russell; his arrangement, punctuation, spelling and cap-
italization have been followed as closely as the difficult
chirography allowed. Footnotes and an index have been
added to increase the reference value of the work.
Actually, my interest in the Journal of a Trapper stems
from the need for a footnote. While reading casually in it I
came upon a pencilled note, concerning “Twenty-five Yard
River,” which I found on the margin of a page. Someone
1. L. A. York, editor. The 1914 and 1921 editions appeared under the title ofJ our-
nal of a trapper, or, Nine years in the Rocky Mountains: 1834-1848.
2 — OSBORNE RUSSELL
had written “Shield’s River?” To me it was so apparent that
they were the same that I was surprised by the former
reader’s uncertainty, and, to be sure in my own mind, I took
a map and plotted Russell’s track over the Yellowstone Pla-
teau, by the courses, distances and landmarks given in his
journal. In that area where I had traveled much by car, on
horseback and afoot, I found his description checked
remarkably well with the country as I knew it.
Several years later, while taking a course in Pacific
Northwest History under Dr. Paul C. Phillips at Montana
State University, I mentioned the map I had made of a por-
tion of Osborne Russell’s wanderings while a trapper. He
suggested that I make a map for the entire period covered
by the journal. In that manner the ten maps which appear in
this book as “Osborne Russell’s Travels” had their begin-
ning. But Dr. Phillips did not let the matter rest there; he
also urged me to edit a new edition of the Journal of a
Trapper, a work which was begun with the proper misgiv-
ings.
Of course the editing could not be done adequately
without the original manuscript and attempts to locate it
were, for a time, unsuccessful. Inquiry was first made of L.
A. York, who edited and published the journal previously,
but he claimed to have sold the manuscript to Dr. A. S. W.
Rosenbach, of Philadelphia, soon after publishing the sec-
ond edition in 1921. Correspondence with the Rosenbach
Company failed to reveal the transaction or any clues to the
disposition of the manuscript. At that point I fortunately
told Mr. David C. Duniway, Archivist of the Oregon State
Library, of my failure. He reasoned that a resale was made
by Dr. Rosenbach to one of the two men then diligently
collecting such manuscripts, and a check of the William
JOURNAL OF A TRAPPER — 3
Robertson Coe Collection of Western Americana in the
Yale University Library established the fact that the origi-
nal manuscript of Journal of a Trapper was there. A micro-
film of the original manuscript and related papers, made
available by the Yale University Library Committee with
their kind permission to publish from it, is the basis of this
work.
It is my hope that this presentation of Osborne Russell’s
excellent journal will prove interesting to the casual reader
and yet be adequate for the needs of the scholar.
Aubrey L. Haines
Longmire, Washington.
November 23, 1953.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The work of editing the Journal of a Trapper was often
difficult, but I am sure it would have been infinitely more
so, or even impossible, without the generous help of many
persons. Dr. Phillips made the suggestion which led me to
undertake it in the first place, and his help and encourage-
ment has been vital in bringing it to a conclusion. To Mr.
Duniway I owe a debt of gratitude for locating the original
manuscript, and also for his assistance in searching the
records of the Provisional Government of Oregon. I am
also indebted to the Library Committee of Yale University
Library for permission to publish from the original manu-
script.
The facilities of a number of libraries were used, among
which special mention must be made of the Montana State
University Library at Missoula; the University of Washing-
ton Library at Seattle; the Oregon Historical Society
Library at Portland; the Oregon State Library at Salem; the
Pacific University Library at Forest Grove, Oregon; and
the public libraries of Missoula, Montana; Tacoma, Wash-
ington; and Portland, Oregon. In addition, correspondence
with the Library of Congress, the Free Library of Philadel-
phia, and the California State Library at Sacramento, was
of material assistance. I must also mention the helpfulness
of Superintendent David L. Hieb, of Fort Laramie National
Monument, who, by giving me access to unpublished
JOURNAL OF A TRAPPER — 5
material and through conversations and correspondence,
did much to clarify obscure points.
Lastly, among those whose help I acknowledge, is that
of my wife Wilma. She has been typist, proof-reader, and
consultant, working patiently with micro-films, rough
drafts and revisions; and, throughout, her enthusiasm and
faith has been that of an author.
INTRODUCTION
The author of Journal of a Trapper is not nearly so well
known as his priceless book. He was more than a trapper or
a mere journalist, for out of the adventurous years he so
faithfully records emerged a mature man of high character
and good works who should not be forgotten.
Osborne Russell was born June 19, 1814,2 at the little
village of Bowdoinham, Maine, on the estuary of the Ken-
nebec River. He was one of nine children in the family of
George G. and Eleanor (Power) Russell; a family which
had New Hampshire roots. Osborne’s boyhood was proba-
bly typical of the Maine farmboy of that day, and there is
no doubt the environment was a wholesome one, for,
despite the limited schooling which Russell mentions, he
developed into an able young man of good morals and
sound judgment. According to his great-nephew, L. A.
York, Russell ran away to sea at the age of 16 but soon
gave up that career by deserting his ship at New York, after
which he spent three years in the service of what was called
the Northwest Fur Trapping and Trading Company, operat-
ing in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Nothing else is known of
him until he joined Wyeth’s expedition to the Rocky
Mountains and the mouth of the Columbia River in 1834.
Nathaniel J. Wyeth had become interested in colonizing
the Oregon country, and in the business possibilities there,
2. “Hallowell, Maine, Vital Records,” Vol. I (Births), p. 255.
JOURNAL OF A TRAPPER — 7
through the influence of Hall J. Kelley, a one-time Boston
school teacher. After years of effort, Kelley succeeded in
1831 in organizing the Oregon Colonization Society, to
which Wyeth agreed to attach himself with a company
which he would raise. Kelley’s plans for an overland expe-
dition to Oregon failed, but Wyeth went ahead and led his
party across the country in 1882 along the route which later
became the Oregon Trail.
The first expedition was pushed with the resourceful-
ness characteristic of Wyeth, but inexperience, desertion,
sickness and the loss of his supply ship, the Sultana, on a
South American reef, completely defeated his efforts.
Wyeth returned home empty-handed, but with new plans
and a contract to deliver $3,000 worth of supplies to Milton
Sublette and Thomas Fitzpatrick, of the Rocky Mountain
Fur Company, at the rendezvous of 1834. He hoped in that
manner to partially finance a second expedition to the Ore-
gon country, where he intended to establish a salmon-fish-
ing and fur-trading enterprise. Wyeth was joined in the
venture by three Boston merchants and the Columbia River
Fishing and Trading Company was formed.
Again a vessel laden with trade goods and supplies was
dispatched to the mouth of the Columbia River, to meet an
overland expedition which would, enroute, transport the
supplies contracted for by the Rocky Mountain Fur Com-
pany. The men of this “second expedition” were recruited
on the frontier at St. Louis and Independence, Missouri.
Among those who joined at the latter place, was Osborne
Russell who agreed to serve the Columbia River Fishing
and Trading Company eighteen months for a wage of
$250.3 Thus, he entered the Rocky Mountain fur trade as
an inexperienced hand, but he entered it with an enthusi-
8 — OSBORNE RUSSELL
asm which illuminates the opening page of the journal he
so fortunately began to keep.
When the overland party arrived at the rendezvous on
Ham’s Fork of Green River, Wyeth found the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company dissolved and a new company
formed. As a consequence, the agreement to bring out sup-
plies was not fully honored, so that Wyeth was left with
much of the freight on his hands. The decision of the part-
ners of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to escape their
financial obligations through reorganization was the result
of a period of fierce competition with the American Fur
Company. The brigades of that company were determined
interlopers and they hung on the tracks of the Rocky
Mountain men with the intention of learning where lay the
best trapping grounds, but the latter were as determined to
lead the newcomers a fruitless chase. Neither company
profited from the struggle and the Rocky Mountain men
were brought to the verge of ruin so that they came to the
rendezvous without the fur to pay the wages of their men.
The easiest way out of financial embarrassment was to
default on the contract with Wyeth, who had to alter his
plans to rescue his own enterprise.
Accordingly, Wyeth proposed to build a fort on the
plains of Snake River and enter into the fur trade with the
goods which the Rocky Mountain men did not take. The
fort was soon built and named for Henry Hall, one of the
partners of the Company, and was left in the care of a garri-
son of twelve men, among whom was Osborne Russell.
The late summer passed with nothing to ease the
monotony of completing the rude post except occasional
3. Account-books of Fort Hall, 1884-1837, Ledger No. 1, “John Russell in acct Cur-
rent with the C.R.F. & Trading Co.”, pp. 13-14. Although Russell says he joined on April 4,
1834, his wage was computed as beginning on April 19.