The American Fur Trade of the Far West

[Originally published 1902; reformatted for the Kindle; original spellings kept in place; may contain occasional imperfection].

Capt. Hiram Martin Chittenden‘s account of “The American Fur Trade of the Far West," originally in three volumes, is virtually a connected history of the great West down to the middle of the nineteenth century. The author is an army engineer officer, whose professional career has been largely passed in the trans-Mississippi country, and he has visited nearly every section which was frequented by American traders. In the Missouri valley the traders long preceded the expedition of Lewis and Clark, and it was the traders, in fact, who opened and established the first transcontinental highway, the Oregon trail, as well as the Santa Fe trail. Captain Chittenden has exploited original materials, many of which have never been printed. Among these are the records of fur companies, the early correspondence of fur traders, journals of expeditions, and the records of steamboat voyages up the Missouri from 1840 to 1850s Included in Captain Chittenden's account is the full story of the founding of the settlement at St. Louis; and the publication of these early records of the exploration.
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In 1803 the United States paid France fifty million francs and cancelled debts of a further eighteen million francs for the purchase of the Louisiana territory. It was an action which would change the nature of the United States forever. No longer was it hemmed into the states of the eastern seaboard, continually looking across the Atlantic, now it would change direction and look westwards, out over its new lands in the Far West. Scarcely had the United States come into possession of Louisiana, and before she had fairly taken stock of her new acquisition, her citizens had begun to penetrate its remote interior, impatient to learn what it had in store for them.

But what were the United States and its citizens going to do with these new millions of acres of land?
The single attraction that it offered in a commercial way was its wealth of furs, the gathering of which became, and for a long time remained, the only business of importance in this entire region.

Hiram Martin Chittenden’s seminal work The American Fur Trade of the Far West is a fascinating history of the Far West.
Chittenden provides brilliant biographies of many of the most important figures in the history of the fur trade, from the explorers, Lewis and Clark, to trappers like Hugh Glass and Joseph Meek, to pioneers like Frances Garces and Jim Beckwourth, as well as missionaries like Father P. J. De Smet. The book leaves no stone unturned as it provides a full examination of the events that occurred through the history of the fur trade and the figures who shaped the early history of the Far West.

“As an introduction to, or an accompaniment of the history of the settlement of the Northwest, Captain Chittenden's book is invaluable.” Frances Fuller Victor, Oregon Historical Quarterly.

“Chittenden remains an authority on the trans-Mississippi region.” Pacific Historical Review.

“His works on the Yellowstone, the fur trade, and on Missouri River steamboating were long recognized as definitive ... His style was formal, clear, and undramatic. His works contain a mass of detail.” Gordon B. Dodds, Arizona and the West.

[About the Author]: Hiram Martin Chittenden (1858–1917) was a leading historian of the American West, especially the fur trade. A graduate of West Point, he was the Seattle district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers. |...| Hiram Martin Chittenden was a leading historian of the American West. Prior to becoming a historian he was a graduate of West Point and became a district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers. His book The American Fur Trade of the Far West was first published in 1902 and he passed away in 1917.

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