The Fur Trade Timeline

[Jay Edward (deceased)]

The French Era 1600-1760
    During the 1500's Europeans explored the east cost of mainland North America. They traded with the natives they met. They traded knives, hatchets, and beads to the Indians for fur and meat. Indian trappers brought furs from the interior to the St. Lawrence River and traded there for manufactured goods from Europe. These goods included iron tools, wool blankets, colorful cloth, and guns.

1608
Samuel Champlain made the first planned move into the interior of mainland America. He sent Etiene Brule to live with the Huron Indians, to learn their language and trade routes. Champlain was the first to realize the great trade potential of the birch bark canoe.

1618
Etiene Brule arrived at the eastern end of Lake Superior. He may have reached the western shores as well. He was on a quest for a route to the Far East. He was one of the first to search for the North West Passage to the Far East.

1634
Jean Nicolet traveled through the Great Lakes to Green Bay on what is now Lake Michigan. He claimed all the land in this area for France.
By the 1630's furs were regularly leaving New France for Europe. These furs were mainly supplied by Indian traders, especially the Huron and Ottawa tribes. In Wisconsin the Winnebago tribes blocked the fur trade routes. They were attacked and defeated by the Ottawa and Huron. New tribes such as the Sauk, Fox, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe began moving into the area that is now Wisconsin.

1659
Radisson and Grosseiliers made an unlicensed trip into the interior. They built a trading post at Chequamagon Bay on Lake Superior and claimed to have found a portage into the west. Could this have been Grand Portage?

1667
Members of many tribes were settling around Chequamagon Bay on Lake Superior.

1670
The Hudson Bay Co. was chartered. They claimed all the lands that drained into Hudson Bay as their trading area. Their post were located on Hudson Bay and the Indians brought their furs there.
About this time the Dakota Sioux attacked and drove the Huron and Ottawa out of the western Great Lakes. After this time many Frenchmen moved into the region and began trading directly with the Indians.

1673
Marquette and Joliet used the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to reach the Mississippi. After this the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers became a major transportation route to the western trading regions.

1679
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Du Luth used the Savannah Portage to reach the interior of Minnesota and Mille Lac. He claimed all the lands for France. He returned to Lake Superior and traveled up the northwest shore and built a post on the Kaministikquai River.
The Ojibwe were moving from eastern Lake Superior to the area around Chequamagon. They took the place of the departed Huron and Ottawa. They even allied themselves with the Dakota with whom they traded goods.

1682
La Salle traveled through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi to its delta. He claimed all the lands drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries for France.

1689
War broke out between France and England. It interrupted trade as far west as Minnesota.

1696
By Royal Edict, New France closed all its western fur posts. Trade was officially abandoned for 20 years. Illegal traders kept up their operations, however.

1712
Wars with the Fox Indians began. The Fox closed the trading route of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. Trade throughout the upper Mississippi region was disrupted.

1730
The Fox Wars ended. The Fox had nearly been exterminated by the French and their Indian allies. The trade routes reopened, but changes had occurred. Indian middlemen traders were eliminated. Trade goods were carried west by licensed traders and brought directly to the Indians.
The truce between the Ojibwe and Dakota was broken. The Dakota had previously allowed the Ojibwe to hunt on their lands and in exchange the Dakota had allowed trade goods to travel through to the Ojibwe. Now the Dakota had direct access to the trade goods and no longer needed the Ojibwe. An attempt was made to push the Ojibwe off Dakota lands, but within 50 years the Ojibwe succeeded in driving the Dakota out of their eastern woodlands.

1754
The French and Indian War began. Trade was interrupted. Most of the licensed traders and their voyageurs were called east to fight the British.
 
The British Era (1760-1816)
   
1760
New France was conquered by the British. All trading rights and privileges became British. Furs were now sent to London instead of Paris and most trade goods were supplied through London Agents.

1762
France ceded all of its lands west of the Mississippi to Spain.

1763
Britain tried several different arrangements to control the fur trade - imperial control, limiting trade to only five posts, and exclusive licensing. In spite of this, unlicensed traders continued to operate.

1765
Alexander Henry received exclusive rights to trade on Lake Superior. He and his partner, Jean Baptiste Cadotte, built a post at Chequamagon and sent outfits into the Fon du Lac region.

1766
Johnathon Carver traveled west in search of the North West passage.

1767
Trade regulations were returned to the colonies, exclusive licenses were abolished. The start of unregulated trade increased the use of liquor in the fur trade. British traders were allowed to establish wintering posts amongst the Indians. Construction began on permanent structures at Grand Portage.

1774
The Quebec Act became law. The western Great Lakes and all land north of the Ohio River became part of Quebec and subject to its laws and regulations. Green Bay and Prairie du Chein became interior trading centers. Traders started to exploit the region northwest of Grand Portage, but cut-throat competition reduced the profits. Small partnerships were formed to avoid or oppose the competition. The American Revolution caused some traders to avoid areas south and west of the Great Lakes and encouraged them to go north and west. Hudson Bay Company built a post on the Saskatchewan River.

1778-79
First agreements were made between partners that would become the North West Company, the first joint stock company in Canada and possibly North America. Peter Pond traveled to the Athabaska where he gathered so many furs he was forced to leave some behind. Generally throughout the 1770's fur trade was centered around the large posts. The Dakota and Ojibwe were fighting for control of the St. Croix Valley so traders avoided those areas.

1782
The Dakota no longer had any villages north of St. Anthony Falls. A small pox epidemic killed thousands throughout the Northwest.

1784
In January the North West Company was formed. There were 16 shares in the company. Simon McTavish and the Frobisher brothers hold six shares. The first meeting of the Montreal partners and their winterers was held that summer at Grand Portage. Grand Portage was to be the company's rendezvous point for the next 20 years.
The Treaty of Versailles had ended the American Revolution the year before but caused severe problems for the new North West Company. Some of the partners left the company forming the General Company of Lake Superior and the South.

1786
The North West Company increased its shares to 20.

1787
The Beaver Club was formed. It was a very selective social organization of men who had wintered in Indian country. There were 19 original members. The Hudson Bay Company built more posts in the interior because furs were being taken at the Indian camps by the North West Company.

1789
Alexander Mackenzie searched for the North West Passage and instead reached the Arctic Ocean. Simon McTavish tried to lease transportation rights through Hudson Bay but was refused. The North West Trading Company began construction of trading boats on the Great Lakes. Jean Baptiste Perrault entered the Fon du Lac with six other traders in a two-year partnership. They built posts on the St. Louis River, Leech Lake, Pine Lake and Otter Tail Lake. John Sayer joined a one-year partnership and built a post on the St. Louis River.

1791
Alexander Henry sent a group of traders into the northern war zone between the Ojibwe and Dakota. The first year they traded at Leech Lake and the following year at Red River. They went north and then back to Grand Portage.

1793
Alexander Mackenzie successfully crossed the continent to the Pacific Ocean. The route that he had discovered was so bad that it was little used in the future.

1794
Discontent among the winterers of the North West Company due to small shares and poor trade goods caused the company to increase shares to its winterers and made clerks eligible for partnership. Jay's Treaty gave reciprocal trading rights to British and American traders, each were allowed to cross the border to trade on the other's territory. The treaty also opened New York for direct shipment of furs from Detroit and Michilimackinac. John Jacob Astor became involved in the fur trade.

1795
During this time Alexander Mackenzie broke from the North West Company over bad feelings with McTavish. Mackenize did not agree with some of the policies of McTavish. Subsequently the XY Company formed from several existing companies. McTavish ordered all his departments to undersell the XY traders. This in turn increased the use of rum, tobacco, blue or red laced and braided coats which the chiefs desired and the practice of trading with the Indians during drinking bouts.

1799
Alexander Mackenzie joined the XY Company.

1800
The North West Company operated 117 trading posts.

1803
The Americans purchased the Louisiana territory from the French. The Lewis and Clark expedition left in search of a passage to the Pacific Coast.
 
1804
Simon McTavish died. Consolidation talks between North West Company and XY Company begin.

1808
The American Fur Company was formed by J.J. Astor.

1811
The South West Company was formed by J.J. Astor and the head of the North West Company William McGillivray.

1812
The war between England and the United States disrupted trade all across the continent. The North West Company began operations on the Columbia River of the Pacific Northwest.

1815
The War of 1812 ended. The United States took back lands that had been occupied by the British, but tensions still continued. After this the United States forbid any foreign traders to operate in American territory. The North West Company withdrew.
 
The American Era (1816-1850)
   
1816
By Congressional Act, the United States forbid foreigners to trade on US soil. The American Fur Co. hired ex-North West traders to work for them. A border war began between the North West Co. and the American Fur Co.. The old Fon du Lac District was renamed the Northern Outfit.

1818
John Sayer's old clerk, Joseph La Prairie began working for the American Fur Co. He continued working for them until 1821.

1821
The North West Co. and the Hudson Bay Co. merged under the name Hudson Bay Co. A major factor in the decision to merge was the high transportation costs shipping through the Great Lakes. In addition, the Hudson Bay Co. charter had stronger legal backing to right of land by discovery than the partnership claims of the North West Co. After this time, most trade goods were shipped through Hudson Bay for the interior posts. The border war still continued between the Hudson Bay Co. and the American Fur Co. It did not end until 1833 when the American Fur Co. abandoned its posts along the border in exchange for an annual cash payment from Hudson Bay.

1824
Trade in the Snake River area was described as very poor, but trade licenses continued to be issued until the late 1830's.

1834
American Fur Co. was reorganized. Ramsey Crooks now operated the company. American Fur had a monopoly in the Fon du Lac, but due to expenses, cut the number of its posts in the region by half.

1836
Missionaries arrived at Lake Pokegama.

1837
The Ojibwe signed a treaty giving the Folle Avoine to the United States. The Ojibwe were supposed to move to the Crow Wing River. However, some family groups remained in the St. Croix Valley. Lumbering started in the St. Croix Valley. The Northern Outfit was reorganized and Dr. Charles W. W. Borup supervised the area from La Pointe.

1838
The annuity payment time from the Hudson Bay Co. was now more important that the fall hunting and trapping period. The American Fur Co. received $3,500 of the $4,700 given to the Ojibwe.

1840
The post at Lake Pokegama was sold to a government sponsored farmer. The Ojibwe in the area are divided, some retaining traditional life styles, others adopting the agricultural life style recommended by the missionaries.

1842
American Fur Co. fails financially and is replaced by Pierre Chouteau and Co. of St. Louis. Ramsey Crooks kept control of the Northern Outfit, but now traded with both Indians and whites. The white population was rapidly increasing in the St. Croix Valley. Trade companies invested in lumbering, banking, general merchandising, steamboats and land speculation.

1843
The Northern Outfit was falling apart. Many independent traders entered the area and Henry Sibley sent traders in from the south.

1847
Henry Rice moved into Ojibwe territory. He as supplied by Henry Sibley. His "Chippewa Outfit" took many employees from Borup and the Northern Outfit.

1849
The Northern Outfit was sold to Borup who renamed it the Northern Fur Co.. Borup later merged with the Chippewa Outfit. Arguments between Rice and Sibley ended with Rice leaving and Borup left in charge of the "Minnesota Outfit".

1850
The beaver hat was now out of fashion in Europe, signaling the end of the fur trade.

1854
Lake Superior Ojibwe sign a treaty creating reservations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

1858
Minnesota statehood.

1867
Canadian confederation.
The fur trade slowly collapsed. The trade had only worked when the Indians had control of the land. The fur trade did not die entirely from a lack of furs. Furs had become hard to find at a number of times during the fur trade era. The lack of Indians available to assist with trapping and maintaining the trading system was perhaps as important. The change in fashion to the silk hat in Europe was the final blow.

[Jay Edward (deceased)]

[FONT="]Fur Trade[/FONT]

 [FONT="]
The traffic in furs and skins began with the first contacts between European explorers and the Indians along the shores of North  America, and has continued without interruption. Scarcely any part of the continent has not at one time or another been the scene of the trader's activities. The area involved has naturally become more and more restricted with advancing settlement, although in northern Canada the fur trade is still conducted along lines that are in some respects reminiscent of methods that originated in the 17th century. The industry represents a transitional stage in the development of any particular region, to such a degree that it is customary to refer to the "fur trader's frontier." [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Furs always commanded a ready market in Europe, and they were almost the only New World commodity that afforded immediate returns. Furs were fairly compact in relation to their value and could be easily transported, while the aid of the Indians could be enlisted in procuring them. Many circumstances determined the subsequent development of the trade, including the variety and abundance of fur-bearing animals, the conditions of the European market, facilities for transportation, especially by water, and the attitude of the various Indian tribes. Competition between individual traders as well as national groups was also an important factor. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]The fur trade tended to subdivide into regional areas, depending upon the nationality of settlers and political jurisdiction, but especially upon transportation routes. While these areas constantly shifted, the following may be fairly clearly distinguished: the Saint Lawrence-Great Lakes region and the upper Mississippi; New England; the southern Atlantic colonies, with the hinterland converging upon the Ohio Valley; the lower Mississippi and its tributaries, dependent upon New Orleans; and, as the tide of settlement rolled westward, the Missouri River and Rocky Mountain areas and the Pacific coast. To the north there is the vast area continuously exploited by the Hudson's Bay Company since 1670. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]As regards the greater part of the continent, the fur trade has not been a permanent phenomenon, but it has not been without historical significance. Trade and exploration have proceeded hand in hand and it was long an axiom that Indian trade and Indian diplomacy were synonymous terms. In the rivalry among English, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Americans, the fur trade played a major role. The difficult task of regulating the trade, moreover, engaged the attention of government agencies from the beginning. The traders themselves have left a vast body of letters, journals, and diaries that constitute a valuable literary heritage in which one of the most picturesque aspects of American history has been recorded. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Goods Traded for Furs[/FONT]

  [FONT="]Items traded with the Indians for furs included weapons, utensils and tools, clothing and ornaments, tobacco, and alcohol. The Indians were greatly impressed with metal objects, both as weapons and as implements. Knives, hatchets, axes of several shapes, awls and needles, scrapers for dressing skins, hoes, traps, wire for snares, fishhooks, spearheads, fire steels, and kettles were always in demand. They sought the white man's firearms, and in the 18th century a special weapon known as the "Northwest gun" was manufactured in England for the Indian trade. With these weapons went powder, lead, gunflints, worms for cleaning, and the several parts of the gun for repairs. [/FONT]
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  [FONT="]The most valued item of clothing was the blanket, made in various sizes called points--a three-point blanket was the ordinary size, a two-point was for a child. The women also coveted combs and looking glasses. Ready-made clothing had good exchange value; shirts, cloth leggings, coats, hats with feathers for the chiefs, silk handkerchiefs, neck cloths, and breechcloths were carried in the traders' packs, along with bolts of red and blue cloth (called stroud), ribbons, worsteds, and braid for decoration. Other ornaments were known as argenterie, or silverware, including armlets, rings, earrings, brooches of many shapes, and gorgets. These became standardized and were produced in France, in Canada, and in England. Beads, used to replace the native wampum for ornaments and records, were made in Holland, France, and Italy. Strings of beads were called rassade by the French traders. The bead belts were known as collars among the British. Bells were also used as ornaments. Jew's harps were occasionally included among the traders' wares. [/FONT]
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  [FONT="]The most universal and most devastating trade goods were different sorts of liquor. The French carried brandy and fine wines; the British and Americans carried whisky and rum. It was the universal custom to give the customer a small gift of an intoxicant. Although the tribesmen had a native tobacco, called Kinnikinnick, they preferred "Brazil" tobacco, which they secured from traders. Few traders went among the Indians without packages of vermilion, which the natives used for personal adornment to paint their faces and parts of their bodies. [/FONT]
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  [FONT="]All these goods were traded on a system of credits, the Indian securing from his trader items such as ammunition, blankets, and kettles that he needed for hunting. These credits were paid off with furs; sometimes the trader took food--pemmican, wild rice, maple sugar--to repay credits. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]New England[/FONT][FONT="] Fur Trade[/FONT]

  [FONT="]Trade with the Indians in the New England area began with the visits of explorers and fishermen to the shores of North America in the early 1600s and continued throughout the colonial period, although it declined in importance after King Philip's War. In fact, the economic basis of the earliest settlements, especially Plymouth, consisted largely in the fur trade. Although the early New Englanders did not lack energy, the geographical situation tended to circumscribe their trading activities, preventing any considerable expansion. There were no great waterways leading to the interior of the continent and the presence of New Netherland (later New York) on the west and New France on the north held New England trade in check, while the expansion of settlement exhausted the local supply of furs. At first the Dutch in the Connecticut Valley had a monopoly, but in the 1630s keen rivalry from Massachusetts traders succeeded in breaking it up. William Pynchon founded a post on the site of Springfield, Mass., and he and his son John dominated the fur trade of this region for many years. Meanwhile, Massachusetts traders were pushing up the Concord and Merrimac rivers and northeastward along the Maine coast, their trading posts often becoming centers for settlement. Simon Willard was one of the most prominent traders of the Merrimac region during the middle of the 17th century. The United Colonies of New England (1643) had as one object the protection of the trading interests of its members. Overseas commerce came to absorb a relatively larger share of the energies of New Englanders, although the fur trade continued in the Maine country. From 1694 until the Revolution Massachusetts Bay attempted to limit the trade to government truck houses, which showed no commercial profit but probably aided in keeping peace with the Indians. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Atlantic States[/FONT]

  [FONT="]The trade in furs and coarser skins constituted an important element in the economic life of the seaboard colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. As in New England, the first explorers and settlers took advantage of a traffic that afforded immediate returns. At first proprietary and governmental authorities tended to reserve the trade for themselves, but it proved impossible to maintain an effective monopoly for any considerable period of time. Early settlers traded with the Indians as a sideline to agriculture but, because of a need for capital and effective business methods, trade fell gradually under the control of the merchant class. Three fairly distinct regions are recognizable--New York, which dominated the Hudson-Mohawk route to the Great Lakes and the Northwest; the Pennsylvania-Virginia frontier and the Ohio Valley; and the area extending from the southern seaboard to the Mississippi, which was exploited by traders from the Carolinas and Georgia. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]The trade of the New York area was established by the Dutch, monopoly rights being granted in turn to the New Netherland Company and the Dutch West India Company, the latter chartered in 1621. Important posts were established at Fort Orange, later Albany, and the House of Hope, on the Connecticut River. The Dutch at Fort  Orange laid the foundations of the long-continued trade with the Iroquois, who acted as middlemen for tribes farther west. The English took New  Netherland in 1664 and continued the trade along much the same lines followed by the Dutch. They soon came into conflict with the French and the fur trade became a vital factor in the Anglo-French rivalry that did not end until 1763. Vigorous efforts were made to undermine the French commercial system, and as a part of this program the English in 1722 established the post of Oswego, N.Y., to intercept the French trade with the interior. The English enjoyed a marked advantage in the form of cheap goods of superior quality, but the Albany merchants caused embarrassment by trading directly with the French at Montreal in spite of all regulations. After 1763 a considerable part of the New York trade was diverted to Canada, a trend that continued after the Revolution. [/FONT]
  [FONT="] [/FONT]
  [FONT="]The Dutch and Swedes were pioneers in the fur trade of the middle region but were soon supplanted by the English. Traders from Virginia and Pennsylvania pushed forward during the 17th century, but Pennsylvania enjoyed the advantage of position in exploiting the Ohio region. By 1750 the traders' frontier had reached the Wabash and Maumee rivers, where the English clashed with the French. Philadelphia and Lancaster became important centers of the Pennsylvania trade, and prior to the Revolution large companies grew up, among them Baynton, Wharton and Morgan and David Franks and Company. Traffic with the upper Ohio was largely by pack train. [/FONT]
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  [FONT="]As early as the 1670s and 1680s, traders from Carolina were pressing toward the South and West. After the founding of Georgia in 1733 they met with competition from that quarter. As time went on a three-cornered rivalry developed among English, Spanish, and French for the trade of the region extending to the Mississippi, creating important diplomatic repercussions. Deerskins constituted the most important item in this southern trade, and, as in the middle colonies, transport was largely by pack train. The peltry traffic of this region was more valuable than has sometimes been assumed and in time a considerable part of the business was taken over by Scotch merchants. As in the region to the north, the advance of settlement after the Revolution spelled the doom of the fur trade. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Great Lakes[/FONT][FONT="] Region[/FONT]

  [FONT="]The area that includes the Saint Lawrence and Great Lakes system, and the upper Mississippi with its tributaries, may be regarded as an economic unit with respect to the fur trade. At times the trade centering in this area extended beyond these limits and included the region between the Ohio and Mississippi, as well as the valley of the Missouri. Until about the close of the War of 1812, the trade of this vast territory centered largely in Quebec or, later, Montreal. While traders operating from Canada were dominant, the region was at times invaded by outsiders--by French or Spanish from the lower Mississippi, or by New Yorkers approaching along the Hudson-Mohawk waterway. This regional unity shows how important the geographical factor was in determining the general organization of the fur trade. [/FONT]
  [FONT="] [/FONT]
  [FONT="]The Great Lakes region was one of the rich fur-bearing areas of North  America, and the peltry trade flourished on a large scale for some 200 years. Beaver skins were the most important single item but the country also yielded the pelts of the raccoon, otter, mink, muskrat, fox, and many other animals. The traders dealt with many different Indian tribes, and the characteristics of the natives, their intertribal relations, and their attitude toward the whites influenced the operational methods of the traders. The Iroquois, occupying the New York area, were an important factor in the Anglo-French rivalry prior to 1763 and determined to a certain extent the general channels of trade. [/FONT]
  [FONT="] [/FONT]
  [FONT="]The Great Lakes fur trade may be divided into three fairly distinct periods, the first extending from the early French explorations of the 17th century to the completion of the military conquest of Canada in 1760; the second, or British, period, from 1760 to the surrender of the Northwest posts to the Americans in 1796; and the third, or American, period, from 1796 until the decline of the trade in the mid-19th century. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]New France[/FONT][FONT="] had its genesis largely in the fur trade, which began with the earliest contacts of French explorers with the natives in the 17th century. Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608; with this settlement as a base the trade extended to the interior with amazing rapidity. The industry received the active support of the French authorities, who devoted much attention to matters of regulation and control, and at times the fur trade largely overshadowed all other interests. Every effort was made to establish the trade as a French monopoly and the privilege of exporting furs to France was vested in a succession of companies, including the Company of the Hundred Associates, founded in 1628, the Company of the West  Indies, the Company of Canada, and the Company of the West. Commercial firms that carried on the trade with the "upper country" through agents or correspondents sprang up within the colony. At first the Indians were encouraged to bring their furs down to great annual fairs held at Three Rivers or Montreal, but gradually French traders penetrated the Great Lakes region, establishing themselves at various posts, among the more important of which were Niagara, Detroit, Michilimackinac, Sault Sainte Marie, La Baye, Saint Joseph's, and Vincennes. The French policy of control varied from time to time, but as a rule the trade of particular posts was farmed out to individuals with monopoly privileges. The coureurs de bois, or unlicensed traders, presented a considerable problem during the 17th and early 18th centuries. As time went on, forts were built at many of the trading posts of the interior. [/FONT]
  [FONT="] [/FONT]
  [FONT="]During the French period, methods developed that were taken over in turn by the British and Americans. Routes were explored, methods of transport developed, and a trained personnel including merchants and voyageurs built up. Bitter rivalry grew up between the French and English traders from New  York and Pennsylvania, and the struggle for the fur trade became one of the causes of the intercolonial wars, which finally resulted in the expulsion of French authority from the continent. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Following the capitulation of Montreal in 1760, and the fall of the interior posts, there was an influx of British merchants, including many Scots, whose energy and ability led to rapid expansion of the trade during the next four or five decades. They took over the system built up by their predecessors, gradually supplanting the French merchants, and the furs exported from Canada were diverted to the great market in London. The British abandoned the system of government monopoly characteristic of the French regime, but a new trend toward economic monopoly appeared, centered in the hands of a few great companies that sprang up during the last quarter of the 18th century. Of these concerns the North West Company became by far the most powerful. During this period the "merchants of Montreal" extended their operations to the upper Missouri and into the region northwest of Lake Superior. The British refusal to surrender the Northwest posts to the United States until 1796 strengthened their grip on the trade of this vast country. [/FONT]
  [FONT="] [/FONT]
  [FONT="]After 1796 American interests made a strong bid for commercial control and finally secured the trade south of the Canadian boundary, although British influence among the Indians remained strong until after the War of 1812. In 1795 the United States inaugurated a system of government factories to undermine British influence. Trading houses were set up at Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay, Mackinac, Sandusky, Fort Wayne, and Prairie du Chien. The system was never a great success and was discontinued in 1822. The figure of John Jacob Astor looms large during the American period and from the close of the War of 1812 until his retirement in 1834 he virtually controlled the trade of the Great Lakes region within the United   States. His American Fur Company was chartered in New York  State in 1808. There were successive reorganizations, and by 1817 Astor's influence had become dominant on the American side of the boundary. In 1822 he set up the Northern and Western departments, with headquarters at Mackinac and Saint Louis, respectively. In 1834 Ramsay Crooks took over the Northern Department, which continued under the name of the American Fur Company until it failed in 1842. Although the Great  Lakes fur trade continued sporadically thereafter, it was obvious by the middle of the 19th century that its great days were over. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Rocky Mountains[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]

  [FONT="]The abundance and excellent quality of the furs to be obtained in the Rocky Mountains made this region, during the first half of the 19th century, the most attractive fur-trading area within the limits of the United States. Furthermore, the widespread activities of the fur traders were of great significance in exploring and making known an extensive region that might otherwise have long remained unknown and unoccupied. The trade was developed almost entirely by Americans. Frenchmen had pushed up the Missouri River, and Spaniards had made a few attempts to trade for furs in the Southwest. But after the purchase of Louisiana and the return of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Americans entered vigorously into the trade of the newly acquired region. In 1807 Manuel Lisa of Saint Louis led an expedition up the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers and established a trading post at the mouth of the Bighorn River. The Saint Louis Missouri Fur Company, founded in 1809, and the Missouri Fur Company, founded in 1814, extended their operations as far west as what is now southwestern Montana. [/FONT]
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  [FONT="]Before the Missouri Fur Company passed out of existence about 1830, a group of the most resourceful, energetic, and picturesque men who ever pursued the fur trade under the American flag formed what was later known as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Beginning in 1822, these traders experienced two disastrous years along the Missouri River. Then, in 1824, they abandoned the river and the practice of establishing trading posts, struck out boldly into the mountains, and inaugurated the famous rendezvous at such places as Jackson Hole and Pierre's Hole. In this group were such well-known mountain men as Jedediah S. Smith, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Christopher ("Kit") Carson, David E. Jackson, Jim Bridger, William L. Sublette, and Milton G. Sublette. [/FONT]
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  [FONT="]From 1832 to 1834 the Rocky Mountain Fur Company engaged in bitter rivalry with Astor's American Fur Company, which had actively entered the fur trade of the upper Missouri a few years earlier. During this contest the fur trade exhibited its worst features. The Indians were debauched with liquor and instigated to attack parties of the rival's traders. In the end, the American Fur Company won out, and thereafter dominated the trade of the northern mountain area. It also introduced steamboats on the upper Missouri River. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]All the American traders met effective competition on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the continental divide in the old Oregon country. In addition to the companies already mentioned, several smaller groups and numerous individual "free trappers" operated in the Rocky  Mountain area. Some of these men, like Ceran St. Vrain and Charles and William Bent, erected forts or trading houses that became noted landmarks. Others, including Capt. Benjamin L.E. Bonneville, Nathaniel J. Wyeth, Jacob Fowler, Sylvester and James O. Pattie, and Ewing Young, headed parties of traders who made extensive expeditions into the mountains. [/FONT]
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  [FONT="]The passing of the great days of the fur trade, about 1850, brought to a close one of the most colorful phases of the history of the Far West. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Southeast and Lower Mississippi[/FONT]

  [FONT="]English traders from Carolina were already among the Indians on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers when Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claimed the Mississippi Valley for France in 1682; by 1700 the English were passing down these rivers to the Ohio and Mississippi. Jean Couture, whom Henry de Tonti had left in command of Arkansas Post in 1686, deserted the French service and became a leader of the Carolina traders. Permanent French settlement in the lower Mississippi Valley after 1699 brought on a struggle for control of the trans-Allegheny fur trade, and by 1717 the French had won over all important tribes except the Cherokee and deprived the Carolina traders of half their Indian traffic. The new French policy of inducing traders to take up agriculture, their exorbitant prices for European goods, and their war with the Natchez enabled British traders to recover their former position by 1730. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]The establishment of Georgia in 1733 diverted some British fur trade from Charleston,  S.C., previously its center. After Louisiana reverted to royal control in 1732, French traders operating from Mobile offered English goods to the Indians, thus regaining part of the fur trade during the following decade. Wars between England and France, 1744-63, severely handicapped the French fur traders; and the expulsion of France from the Mississippi Valley in 1763 left British traders without serious competitors in the entire region, though a small portion of the fur trade still centered in Spanish New Orleans. From their new posts at Mobile, Pensacola, Fla., and Manchac, La., and their old ones in the Carolinas and Georgia, British traders controlled the southeastern fur trade until the close of the American Revolution. Although the Floridas became Spanish in 1783, and the Americans tried to stop the British traders, British operating from Mobile and Pensacola maintained a thriving fur trade. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 brought the fur trade centering in New Orleans under United States control, the War of 1812 loosened the hold of the British traders at Mobile and Pensacola, and the acquisition of the Floridas in 1821 brought the entire southeastern fur trade into American hands. The fur trade gradually decreased in importance with the expansion of agriculture in the trans-Allegheny region and virtually ceased as an organized activity in that quarter with the removal of the Indians beyond the Mississippi in the 1830s, although it continued to provide a livelihood for a considerable number of people well into the 20th century. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Upper Mississippi and Missouri  Rivers[/FONT]

  [FONT="]The fur trade in this region was inaugurated in the latter part of the 17th century by French hunters. As early as 1694, Frenchmen from Illinois began dealing with the Osage Indians. The Osage nation contributed more than any other to the profitable trade subsequently developed. French settlements were built up in Kaskaskia and Cahokia, both in Illinois, about 1700, and in 1723 Étienne Veniard de Bourgmont established Fort Orleans on the Missouri, in present Carroll County, Mo. The French were active on the plains west of the Mississippi striving to control the trade of the Indians between the Platte and Missouri rivers and the eastern limits of New   Mexico. In 1763, when Great Britain acquired the territory east of the Mississippi, the French were carrying on trade by land and by water up the Mississippi, along the Wisconsin, Fox, Chicago, and Illinois rivers to the Great Lakes, and up the Ohio to the territory inhabited by the Wabash Indians. Under a license granted to Maxent, Laclede and Company, Pierre Laclede Ligueste moved up the Mississippi from New Orleans, reaching the present site of Saint Louis late in 1763, and established a trading post there the following year. He became the principal Indian trader, so that it was said "the whole trade of the Missouri, that of the Mississippi northwards, and of the nations near La Baye, Lake Michigan and Saint Josephs by the Illinois River, is entirely brought to him." After the English took possession of the territory east of the Mississippi in 1765, there was a general exodus of the French to the western shore. While that area remained under British control English competition restricted traders operating from Saint Louis principally to the Mississippi below the Des Moines and the Missouri with its tributaries. After the British lost this territory to the American colonies the Saint Louis traders moved again into the upper Mississippi and Missouri to fight it out with the North  West and the Hudson's Bay companies. They had the advantage of a waterway both to their hunting and trapping domain and to New Orleans, to which their packs of furs were taken for shipment to Europe. [/FONT]
  [FONT="] [/FONT]
  [FONT="]In 1794 the Spanish Commercial Exploration Company was promoted by Missouri Lt. Gov. Zenon Trudeau to exploit the fur trade of the upper Missouri, combining the capital and energies of the most prominent merchants of Saint Louis, and subsidized by the Spanish government to the extent of $10,000. After the return of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the Saint Louis Missouri Fur Company was organized. Many expeditions went forth from Saint Louis up the Missouri. Other companies and individuals followed and forts were erected along the Missouri and its tributaries. After the death of Manuel Lisa, who led most of the expeditions and was the prime mover in the various reorganizations of the Saint Louis Missouri Fur Company, Astor entered the field. He had failed in his earlier enterprises in the West. In 1834 Astor withdrew from the company and left the field largely to P. Chouteau, Jr., and Company, which became the largest and most successful fur-trading company until it went out of business in 1866. Conservatively speaking, the average annual value of furs received at Saint Louis from 1808 to 1847 was between $200,000 and $300,000, and from 1847 to 1860 between $300,000 and $500,000. [/FONT]
  [FONT="] [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Hiram M. Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Dan E. Clark, The West in American History. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Charles A. Hanna, The Wilderness Trail. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Louis Houck, Spanish Regime in Missouri. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]H.A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Louise Phelps Kellogg, The French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]David Lavendar, The First in the Wilderness. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Douglas MacKay, The Honourable Company: A History of the Hudson's Bay Company. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]F.X. Moloney, The Fur Trade in New England, 1620-1676. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Paul C. Phillips and J.W. Smurr, The Fur Trade. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]K.W. Porter, John Jacob Astor. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Lewis Saum, The Fur Trade and the Indian. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]Wayne E. Stevens, The North-West Fur Trade. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]John E. Sunder, The Fur Trade on the Upper Missouri, 1840-1865. [/FONT]
  [FONT="]C.A.[/FONT][FONT="] Vandiveer, The Fur Trade and Early Western Explorations.[/FONT]
 

[Paul Hoskins]

Really intresting reading, Jay. Furs and trapping is still a fairly thriving business today but mostly as a supplimental income in the lower forty eight. Maine has a lot of trappers compared to other states. My bear and deer hunting buddy traps in winter to suppliment his income when it's impossible to do stone work in winter, which is his trade............Paul H

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