The Fur Trade Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter 5 presents the western area and how the Colorado Fur Trade really began in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, with Taos and Santa Fe being the trade centers. It all began with the “coarse fur” trade (deer, antelope and elk) with northern New Mexico by the Spanish beginning in the mid-1600s and lasting well into the 1850s, later expanding into the “fine fur” trade (beaver and muskrat) in the 1800s. From here, it’s hard to follow exactly how the trade was conducted as until the early 1800s, most trades outside of Santa Fe, Chihuahua city, or other specified locations in the states were forbidden, leaving many jailed in Mexico for the attempt. The Spanish would continue trading, as far north as Wyoming until 1821 when Mexico would

gain independence from Spain creating The Republic of Mexico and New Mexico governor Facundo Melgares would open New Mexico to all traders expanding the fur trade. This chapter overall, is easily the most confusing as Butler bounces back and forth from the new Mexican trade to various forts across Colorado later establishing Antoine Robidoux as a trade-post power house as had had 5 posts across the state all within a heavy trapping area making Robidoux a very rich man.
Butler starts chapter 6 by briefly introducing the importance of the Arkansas River Valley in the southeast, as it was a very important travel corridor brimming with fresh beaver. The river begins on the Continental divide and flows south and eastward out of the mountains through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas where it joins the Mississippi. This river was important to trappers as trails of the upper Arkansas provided quick access to the trapping grounds such as South and Middle Parks, Eagle River Valley, and even passing close to Bent’s Old Fort and the Santa Fe Trail. The Chapter then trails off toward traders, and other important posts one of which was Bent’s Old Fort. Bent’s Fort (aka Fort William) was the most successful and famous posts in the fur trade. Founded in 1828 by Bent and St. Vrain and Co, they took full advantage of the trade along the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail near the buffalo country as at this time the beaver was on the decline and nearly trapped out leaving the bison robe market to boom. Although trappers traded the usual goods, the focus of the fort was to bring trade to the Indians in which Bent was very successful until the Mexican War broke out in 1845 effectively ending the St. Vrain partnership and Bent’s old fort was later blown up as Bent could not sell the fort for a decent amount.
Chapter 7 covers the northeast area of Colorado and the importance of the South Platte River Valley, where many posts were located along the South Platte River itself. This area covers the South Platte drainage from the Continental Divide eastward to the Kansas and Nebraska borders, and south to the Palmer Peninsula, as well as a few other areas. One of the first recorded trappers in the area may have been Jean de la Maisonneuve and Penelope, who traded with Indians along the Platte River in 1799. After sending some furs to St. Louis, Maisonneuve and Penelope, along with Ten engages and six Indian guides, they began a trek up the Platte river in June later arriving in Denver on July 20th where they met with Spanish Dragoons the results of this meeting were unknown but Maisonneuve’s party was the first to trek up the river. This chapter concludes with many different trade posts in the northeast such as Louis Vasquez, who built 5 or more very successful posts in Colorado.
Finally yet importantly, we come to chapter 8, which provides the end of the fur trade and its legacy best summed up by 1800s historian Henry Inman “The trappers of the Rocky Mountains belonged to a genus that has disappeared. Forty years ago, there was not a hole or corner in the vast wilderness of the far West that had not been explored by these hardy men.” In short, the fur trade had ended when a change in fashions in Europe had moved from felt hats to silk hats in 1838. Although the bison trade had gone strong to a silent end in 1850, the trade would never have the scope it did when beaver was plentiful and demand was high. This goes to show that not only did these men pioneer a vast business, the mountain man had explored the vast Colorado wilderness creating many of the paths and trails we know today. This chapter ends strongly telling the life of the “True Mountain Man” Kit Carson, born in Madison County, Kentucky in 1810, when Carson was 16 he had joined a small caravan headed along the Santa Fe Trail. Carson later spent the winter of 1826-1827 with trapper Matthew Kinkead in Taos learning all he could. From 1830 to 1860, Carson was a very active trapper afterward, he reluctantly retired to the land he had owned in Boggsville passing away on May 23, 1868 closing the book on the mountain men and thus, ending Butler’s expansive collection.
Now we come to analyzing Butler’s composition, its historical relevance as well as how well Butler presents his facts.

The fur trade today is extremely relevant as the trade was one of, if not the first international big business across the Midwest, not just Colorado. In fact, most of the fur trade depended on the demand for luxury furs in Europe and it was the lack of demand that ended the trade in the first place. Europe moved toward silk hats instead of felt in 1838, it was softer and easier to produce. Another way the book is relevant today is the presentation of rivers and other trails, trappers like Jean de la Maisonneuve (the first known explorer to the Platte) are reasons why we have many of the hiking trails and known rivers today. There are a lot strengths to the book, as some business today use some of the practices used by trappers like building “trade posts” where your supply was i.e.: a river or bison plain, or going to multiple buyers for a single product as to get the best price, also catering to supply and demand as well as consumer tastes. In retrospect, the entire trade managed to last 50 years spanning from the early 1800s into the 1850s and even when beaver had been trapped out in 1838, the trade still managed to go strongly trading bison robes instead, after the trade had been long gone many trappers moved to farming land or guided settlers through the country. This goes to show how adaptive the mountain man was as to keep his lifestyle. Butler’s text even relates back to a Bent’s Fort presentation in class, where homestead museum curator Ben Stinley presented the standard trade rifle, the flintlock system, and just how buying one gun would control your life as a trapper, to maintain the rifle you had to maintain the lifestyle to live and survive. The book gives us a little more detail on the firearm stating its probable worth was 16 beaver skins, and although the trade gun was the popular and reliable choice, flintlock weapons would be

replaced by the Hawkins Plain Rifle, which would make excellent use of the percussion cap system that allowed for greater accuracy, fire rate, and reload time. This does not mean to say that Butler’s work is perfect as one of the bigger weaknesses of Butler’s composition was his sources. From the beginning, Butler made it very clear that there was a lacking of firsthand accounts for the time. What was available was scattered and incomplete, leaving most of the primary sources on the trade to come from notes from visitors to active trade posts, excerpts from traveling parties, and personal accounts from Rufus Sage, John C. Fremont, and Henry Inman to name a few. This makes the history difficult to fully understand, as much information in this book is presented as secondary sources via collected conjecture from other historians and “The Fur Trade in Colorado” is almost presented as a travel log most of the time, stating who was where moving towards how it affected the trade. There are also quite a few discrepancies, 90% of the men who trapped and explored this great land would go unnamed and lost to history, or how throughout Butler’s work there’s a large discrepancy regarding the “actual end” of the trade, in this report it is presented as of 1850 the most mentioned date in the book. However, it has argued that the trade ended with the over-trapping of beaver in 1838, when the fur market would take its biggest hit leaving many trappers to retire early. On the other hand, it has also argued to end with the last rendezvous 1942 or even with the end of the deerskin trade in the late 1860s. Another discrepancy can be with the presentation of the massive number of forts in Colorado. Whilst we have plenty of information on Charles Bent and his forts and commercial empire or Vasquez and his forts along Denver, there’s barely any information on others such as Fort Nepesta, Adobe Creek Post which are covered in less than a paragraph or Fort Uintah which is unknown to be either hexagonal shaped or a small post with many cabins.
Overall Butler’s book does exactly what it set out to do; compile all known and supposed information in one place and although the book’s historical accounts are a little shaky The Fur Trade in Colorado proves to be an interesting yet engaging read of the mountain men.