Portland Observer Section II Thursday, February 23, 1978 Page 3
Both men joined Ashley the
next spring and went with him
to the Green River (Idaho) to
meet Jedediah Smith, who had
spent the winter in the moun
tains. Upon reaching the Green
River, Smith and Harris were
sent out to inform the trappers
who were spread through the
mountains that a rendezvous
would be held in Cache Valley,
near Great Salt Lake. The ren
dezvous of 1825 was the first of
what became a significant fea
ture of the fur trade. Prior to
Ashley's entry into the trade,
companies had purchased their
furs directly from the Indians.
Ashley hired trappers who work
ed independently and sold their
fur to his company. The rendez
vous became the social event of
the year and the gathering place
when the trappers sold the furs,
bought supplies.
W agena e ve r the Rockies
The next year the supplies
were taken west by wagon, with
Harris at the helm, jedediah
Smith wrote: “This is the first
time that wagons ever went to
the Rockey Mountains and the
ease and safety with which it was
done proves the facility of com
municating overland with the
Pacific Oceans." This caravan
set the stage for the overland
migration over the Oregon Trail.
Harris was an independent
trapper from 1831 to 1834. In
1834 he helped Sublette build
Fort Williams, later called Fort
Laramie, which became an im
portant way station on the Ore
gon Trail.
Harris served as pilot of the
1836 supply train to the Green
River rendezvous. This caravan
escorted the Whitman-Spalding
missionary part as far as Green
River.
Narcissa Whitman, the first
white woman to cross the Rock
ies, wrote: “...if you wish to see
the camp in motion, look away
ahead and see the pilot and
Captain Fitzpatrick just before
him - next the pack animals...
soon after you will see the
wagons in the rear of our com
pany...we had a few of them (the
gentlemen) to tea with us last
Monday eve - Captain Fitzpa
trick. S’ewart, Major Harris and
Chilam.”
Harris returned to the Mis
souri and the next spring was
with Andrew Drips, new leader
of the American Fur Company
brigade, taking another supply
caravan to the mountains. With
this caravan were four more
missionary couples - the Grays,
Eells, Walkers and Smiths. Har
ris escorted them as far as Fort
Laramie, then headed west to
inform the mountain men the
place of the rendezvous.
On the 1839 caravan, also led
by Harris, was a German doctor,
Frederick A. Wislezenes, who
described Harris: “...the leader
was Mr. Harris, a mountaineer
without special education, but
with fine good sense, that he will
know how to use.”
Harris was a patriot, concern
ed about the United States’ juris
diction over the West. On June
4, 1841, he wrote to Thornton
Grimsley, “Your name is well
known in the mountains by many
of your old friends who would be
glad to join the standard of their
country, and make a clean sweep
of what is called the Oregon
Territory; that is to dear it of
British and Indians. I was one of
several hundred who invited you
to take command and march
through to California, and will be
with you if you can get the
Government of the United States
to authorize the occupancy of the
Oregon Country. I have been as
you know twenty years in the
mountains.
The British have
now taken possession of Fort
Hall, formerly a trading post of
the American trappers and are
repairing it and putting it into
military customs. Why our Gov
ernment suffers these things I
know not.
The North West
Company does not only take from
our territory from one to two
million furs and pelts a year, but
they influence the Blackfeet and
other tribes of Indians to take
our scalps.”
On to Oregon
Because of the declining impor
tance of the fur trade, the last
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