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Fur Trade

The Fur Trade in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest

  • The Idaho State Historical Society Reference Series provides a great deal of information on the fur trade. It is available online at https://history.idaho.gov/reference-series. Accessed 8/22/2018.
  • Baird, Dennis, Diane Mallickan, William R. Swagerty, editors. Encounters with the people: written and oral accounts of Nez Perce life to 1858. Voices from Nez Perce country 1. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press, 2015.
  • Hardee, Jim. Pierre’s Hole! the fur trade history of Teton Valley, Idaho. Pinedale, WY: Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, 2010.
  • De Jong, Thelma Bonham. Exploration and fur trade in Idaho, 1805-1846: an historical narrative made by fur trappers in that portion of the Oregon Country which later became the State of Idaho. Provo, UT: The author/Brigham Young University, 1957.
  • Hafen, LeRoy R., editorial supervisor. The Mountain men and the fur trade of the far West; biographical sketches of the participants by scholars of the subject and with introductions by the editor. Glendale, California: A. H. Clark Co., 1965-1972. 10 volume set.
  • Hamilton, W. T. My Sixty Years on the Plains. New York: Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 1905.
  • Hunt, Wilson Price. The Overland Diary of Wilson Price Hunt. Translated by Hoyt C. Franchere. Ashland, Oregon: The Oregon Book Society, 1973.
  • Lindsley, Margaret Hawkes. Major Andrew Henry in Idaho. Margaret Hawkes Lindsley, 1985.
  • Payette, B.C. The Oregon Country Under the Union Jack; a reference book of historical documents for scholars and historians. Montrea: Print. Priv. for Payette Radio Limited, 1962.
  • Philip Ashton Rollins, editor. The discovery of the Oregon trail ; Robert Stuart’s narratives of his overland trip eastward from Astoria in 1812-13 / From the original manuscripts in the collection of William Robertson Coe, esq., to which is added: An account of the Tonquin’s voyage and of events at Fort Astoria [1811-12] and Wilson Price Hunt’s diary of his overland trip westward to Astoria in 1811-12. Translated from Nouvelles annales des voyages, Paris, 1821. New York; London: Scribner, 1935.
  • Map Showing Route of Overland Astorians 1810-1813. Mountain Men and Life in the Rocky Mountain West: Malachite’s Big Hole. http://www.mman.us/mapwestboundastorians.htm. Accessed February 12, 2019.
  • Archives West provides access to primary sources held by archival collections in the Pacific Northwest.
  • American Journeys – This site, created by universities and historical societies, provides searchable access to primary source documents from the fur trade and exploration era of what is now the United States.
  • The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal. Published by the Museum of the Mountain Man. Browse tables of content on their web page at https://museumofthemountainman.com/the-rocky-mountain-fur-trade-journal/. Accessed August 22, 2018.
  • These are only a few possible sources. Find more digital archives here, and Idaho Collections here.

The Hudson Bay Company

  • Black, Samuel, and Dennis W. Baird, editor. “Faithful to their tribe & friends”: Samuel Black’s 1829 Fort Nez Perces report. Moscow: University of Idaho Library, 2000.
  • Brydges, Charles John, edited by Hartwell Bowsfield, PH.D.; with an introduction by J.E. Rea, Ph.D. The Letters of Charles John Brydges, 1883-1889: Hudson’s Bay Company Land Commissioner. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1981.
  • Dunn, John. The Oregon Territory, and the British North American fur trade. With an account of the habits and customs of the principal native tribes on the northern continent. Philadelphia, G.B. Zieber & Co., 1845. Digital copy on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/oregonterritoryb00dun. Accessed August 22, 2018.
  • Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. Archives of Manitoba. https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/. Accessed August 22, 2018.
  • Hudson’s Bay Record Society. Publications of the Hudson’s Bay Record Society. London [etc.]: The Hudson’s Bay Record Society [etc]. Vols. 1-12, 1938-1949 published in Toronto by the Champlain Society.
  • McDonald, Archibald, and Malcolm McLeod. Peace River [microform]: a canoe voyage from Hudson’s Bay to Pacific by the late Sir George Simpson (governor, Hon. Hudson’s Bay Company), in 1828: journal of the late chief factor, Archibald McDonald (Hon. Hudson’s Bay Company), who accompanied him. 1872. https://archive.org/details/cihm_15542. Accessed August 22, 2018.
  • Ogden, Peter Skene, edited by K.G. Davies, M.A., assisted by A.M. Johnson, with an introduction by Dorothy O. Johansen. Peter Skene Ogden’s Snake Country Journal, 1826-27. London: The Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1961.
  • Oregon Treaty, August 5, 1846. National Archives. General Records of the United States Government, 1778 – 2006. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/299808. Accessed August 22, 2018.
  • PBS. The Oregon Treaty. Archives of the West. http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/two/oretreat.htm. Accessed August 22, 2018.
  • Rich, E. E., editor, with an introduction by John Clapham. Minutes of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1671-1674. London: Published by the Champlain Society for the Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1942.
  • Rich, E.E., assisted by A. M. Johnson. With an introd. by K. G. Davies. Hudson’s Bay Copy Booke of Letters, Commissions, Instructions Outward, 1688-1696. London: Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1957.
  • Rich, E.E., editor, with an introduction by G.N. Clark. Minutes of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1679-1684. London: Published by the Champlain Society for the Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1945-1946.
  • Rich, E.E., with a foreword by Winston Churchill. The History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1670-1870. London: Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1958-59.
  • Schefke, Brian “The Hudson’s Bay Company as a Context for Science in the Columbia Department”. Scientia Canadensis 31, no. 1-2 (2008): 67–84. doi:10.7202/019755ar. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/scientia/2008-v31-n1-2-scientia2574/019755ar/abstract/. Accessed August 23, 2018.
  • Simpson, George, and Frederick Merk, editor. Fur Trade and Empire; George Simpson’s journal; remarks connected with the fur trade in the course of a voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-1825; together with accompanying documents. Cambridge: Harvard University press; London: H. Milford, Oxford university, 1931.
  • Simpson, George, edited by E.E. Rich; with an introduction by W. Stewart Wallace. Part of dispatch from George Simpson, Esqr., Governor of Ruperts Land, to the governor & committee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, London: March 1, 1829, continued and completed March 24 and June 5, 1829. London: Published by Champlain Society for the Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1947.
  • Simpson, Sir George, and Archibald McDonald, edited, with notes, by Malcolm McLeod. Peace River: a canoe voyage from Hudson’s Bay to Pacific, by Sir George Simpson (governor, Hon. Hudson’s Bay Company) in 1828; journal of the late chief factor, Archibald McDonald (Hon. Hudson’s Bay Company) who accompanied him. Rutland, Vt.: C. E. Tuttle Co., 1971.
  • Stern, Theodore. Chiefs & change in the Oregon Country: Indian relations at Fort Nez Perces, 1818-1855: volume II. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1996.
  • Stern, Theodore. Chiefs & chief Traders: Indian relations at Fort Nez Perces, 1818-1855. Corvallis, Or.: Oregon State University Press, 1993.
  • Ward, Geoffey C., based on a documentary film script by Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan; with contributions by Dayton Duncan [and others]. The West: An Illustrated History. Boston: Little, Brown, 1996.
  • Weir, Stuart K., editor. Reader’s Guide to The Mountain Men of the American West. Last update July 21, 2014. http://westernexplorers.us/FurTrade.html. Accessed August 22, 2018.

The Hudson Bay Company’s Fur Desert Policy

The North West Company

  • Ross, Alexander, with editorial notes by T.C. Elliott. Journal of Alexander Ross: Snake Country Expedition, 1824. Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society. Volume 14, p. 366 (December 1913). https://user.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/html/ross.html. Accessed 8/22/2018.
  • Henry, Alexander, Elliot Coues, editor. New light on the early history of the greater Northwest: The manuscript journals of Alexander Henry, fur trader of the Northwest Company, and of David Thompson, official geographer and explorer of the same company, 1799-1814; exploration and adventure among the Indians on the Red Saskatchewan, Missouri, and Columbia rivers. Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1965.
  • Ross, Alexander, Milo Milton Quaife, editor. The Fur Hunters of the Far West. Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, 1924.
  • Ross, Alexander, and Reuben Gold Thwaites. Ross’s Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813. (other titles: Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, Alexander Ross’s Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River). Early western travels, 1748-1846. v. 7. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904. https://www.loc.gov/item/04027135/. Accessed August 22, 2018.
  • Thompson, David, and M. Catherine White, editor. Journals relating to Montana and adjacent regions, 1808-1812: Transcribed from a photostatic copy of the original mss. Missoula: Montana State University Press, 1950.
  • Henry, Alexander, Elliot Coues, editor. New light on the early history of the greater Northwest: The manuscript journals of Alexander Henry, fur trader of the Northwest Company, and of David Thompson, official geographer and explorer of the same company, 1799-1814; exploration and adventure among the Indians on the Red Saskatchewan, Missouri, and Columbia rivers. Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1965.

 

This page updated by Ronnie Joiner on February 12, 2019.