Here, in 1838 mountain men, traders, and Native Americans met to trade pelts for supplies. Among those who attended were legends such as Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, and Moses “Black” Harris, to name a few.
Organized meetings of mountain men, or rendezvous, set the basis for the latter-half of the fur trade in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. Before the rendezvous, furs had to be carried out of the wilderness by individual men or small groups. After the first rendezvous began, however, the fur companies were the ones going into the wilderness to take supplies in, and the furs out.
Mountain men, after all, were profit-driven, yet also for the large part loners. Many liked the idea of an organized rendezvous that allowed them to make their money without having to head too far into civilization. And the fur companies profited by cutting out a large part of the Indian trade, as well as other middlemen that might come between them and their profits.
The rendezvous usually began in late spring or early summer and became an annual event, the locations of next year’s rendezvous told even before the current rendezvous ended. Shipments of supplies were driven into the areas where the rendezvous was to take place, usually through mule trains or on keel boats. Many times a cache of supplies would be buried and retrieved later.
The rendezvous also had another benefit for the fur trading companies, and that was the end of their dependence upon the Indian tribes for support. Men could live year round in the mountains now that they had supplies, and since the site was pre-decided the year before, men could hang around the general area all through the winter, making fur trapping forts a thing of the past. So each year supplies were shipped in, and furs were shipped out, and the arrangement suited everyone involved, except the over-trapped beaver and the natives who soon found themselves cut out of the action.
Since 1989 the 1838 Rendezvous Association has been working to preserve one of the rare historical sites associated with the American mountain men. This site is at the confluence of the Wind River and Popo Agie (now Little Wind) rivers and was used for the 1830 and 1838 Rendezvous and Captain Bonneville`s camp in the summer of 1835.
The 1838 Mountain Man Rendezvous takes place on the actual historical site and is one of Riverton’s most popular annual events for those who want to step back in time and authentically experience the days of the mountain man–camping out and walking on the same grounds as trappers and traders, Native Americans, pioneer travellers and missionaries of old–enjoy games, black powder shooting matches, hawk/knife throws, council fires, seminars, and historical re-enactments.
Two of the Mountain Men there present in 1838 were Osborne Russell and Moses ‘Black’ Harris.
Because of the journal Osbourne kept, we are able to see through to the past of what it took to be a trapper and remain a living resident of the mountains of the west. His book, Journal of a Trapper edited by Aubrey L. Haines, reveals a very tough and resourceful man but also a very lucky one.
He and his companion White made it from Pelican Creek in present day Yellowstone Park to Fort Hall Idaho via the Teton Range with Blackfoot arrow wounds through their thighs.
Mr. Russell also claimed to be educated in the “Rocky Mountain College. He was an avid reader and always had a book (always a copy of the Bible) or two in his possession (from Fort Hall or wherever he could obtain one). He was appointed in his later years as a judge in the Oregon territory due to his ability to read and the fact that he also studied law. Mr. Russell was also a very religious man and studied the bible most of his life. He was raised in the Baptist faith but in his later life in Oregon became a member of the Presbyterians and Congregationalists under the church of the Reverend Harvey Clark. Mr. Russell avoided what he considered “noisy religion.
Osborne lived to see the age of 78 years which was most uncommon for the fur trappers of the Rocky Mountains. Osborne survived all he encountered in his journeys as a mountain man but was finally undone in his undertakings as a miner in the Oregon territory. An explosion in a mine left him blind in one eye and affected his health for the remainder of his life. He also suffered in his later years from an ailment termed as miner’s rheumatism. At the end of his lifetime, he was paralyzed from the waist down and he died on August 26, 1892. As most of the early mountain men were destined though, he ended up in an unmarked grave and unfortunately his likeness was never recorded because the only picture of him was destroyed in a fire set by “youthful vandals to a house he owned but sold to Mr. Albert Tozier in Portland.
Almost nothing is known of Moses “Black Harris prior to his entry into the fur trade. Harris was probably a native of Union County, South Carolina. The nickname “Black” was given to Harris because of the dark coloration of his skin. Harris “was wiry of frame, made up of bone and muscle with a face composed of tan leather and whipcord finished up with a peculiar blue-black tint, as if gun powder had been burnt into his face.” Harris was famous as a man of “great leg able to walk great distances alone and for extended periods (James Beckwourth reference).
Harris probably was a member of William Ashley’s first brigade to the mountains in 1822. In 1823 Harris accompanied Ashley’s second expedition up the Missouri River to the mountains. Passing the Arikara villages was always difficult and this year it would prove disastrous for Ashley.
On June 1, 1823 Ashley along with Jedediah Smith, James Clyman, Moses “Black” Harris and the now legendary Hugh Glass, whose story inspired the movie The Revenant, fought in a ruinous engagement on the beach below the fortified Arikara Indian village. The trappers were routed with great loss of life.
William Ashley soon had enough of the uncertainties of fur trade and hardships of life in the mountains. At the 1826 Rendezvous Ashley sold out his interests in the company to Jedediah Smith, David Jackson, and William Sublette, the new company being known as the Smith, Jackson and Sublette. At the breakup of rendezvous, the three partners each took out a separate brigade of trappers out for the fall hunt. Harris apparently accompanied Sublette’s brigade.
It was at this time that Sublette’s brigade passed through the area now included in Yellowstone Park, and observed the geysers, mud pots, and petrified forests in the area. Based on his observations, Harris stretched and embellished the truth till he had established his reputation as a storyteller.
In 1834 Harris was one of the men with Sublette taking a supply train to the mountains. The caravan stopped at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers, where Sublette left behind a contingent of men and supplies to establish Fort William (Laramie). While at rendezvous, Sublette called in debts owed by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to Sublette and Campbell, forcing the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to dissolve.
The rendezvous` continued to be held, however, as the mountain trade was now dominated by the American Fur Company and its affiliated organizations. In 1836 Harris was acting as guide for the supply train going to rendezvous under the leadership of Thomas Fitzpatrick (1836 Rendezvous).
1838 was the year of the “secret rendezvous. The business environment in the mountains had become increasingly cut-throat, and the American Fur Company decided to keep the location of the rendezvous as quiet as possible in hopes the other companies would not show up. The ploy wasn’t successful as a brigade of Hudson’s Bay Company under Francis Ermatinger also arrived at the rendezvous.
Andrew Drips was leader of the supply caravan this year with Harris again acting as guide. The caravan also included another party of missionary couples, the Grays, Eells, Walkers, and Smiths.
A more fractious group of people purporting to share a goal would be hard to imagine. The individuals and couples of the missionary party, by turns hated and quarrelled with each other, but were united only in their disgust for the unspeakable and appalling sin they were forced to witness and even participate in. Imagine being forced to travel on a Sunday! Andrew Drips at one point offered (threatened) to leave the missionaries behind, which brought them to their senses.
The caravan arrived at Fort William (Laramie) on June 2, 1838. Shortly thereafter, Drips sent Harris on ahead to spread word of the location of the rendezvous. At a rundown log structure at the site of the Green River rendezvous Harris posted a note scrawled in charcoal on the door. The note read “Come on to the Popo Asia, plenty of whiskey and white women”. The note demonstrates a definite sense of humour on the part of Harris, because at this time he well knew from traveling with the missionaries that any trapper expecting to have a good time, friendly conversation, or to even receive a warm greeting and smile from this particular group of white women was likely to be greatly disappointed.
In 1840 Andrew Drips led another small supply train to rendezvous (1840 Rendezvous). This year would be the last such gathering. Missionaries, including Father De Smet, again accompanied the pack train, with the goal of reaching the Oregon Country. Harris offered to guide the missionaries from the rendezvous site to as far as Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Hall. It’s not known what his charge was to be, but the missionaries considered his price too high. Instead, they hired Robert “Doc Newell. Apparently, Harris considered this interfering in business negotiations and he took a shot at Newell with his rifle but missed.
With the decline of the trade in beaver fur and the end of the rendezvous system, Harris chose to utilize his knowledge of the mountains and west as a guide to emigrant trains heading to Oregon. In 1844, Harris guided west one of the largest immigrant companies formed in that year. James Clyman, who was also part of Ashley’s company in the mid 1820`s, and who also must have known Harris since that time, was traveling the Oregon Trail that summer. Of Harris, Clyman notes “all of us seated ourselves around our campfire and listened to the hair-breadth escapes of Mr. Harris and other Mountaineers.”
Harris spent the next couple of years in Oregon at times searching for a wagon friendly route through the Cascade Mountains, and at other times rescuing immigrant parties. In 1847 he returned to Missouri and to guiding immigrant companies west.
In the spring of 1849, he had accepted a contract as guide with an immigrant party and had lead them as far west as Independence, Missouri. While at Independence he contracted cholera, and within a few hours died.