The Corps of Discovery completed their trek when they reached St. Louis in late September of 1806. During the last few hundred miles they had met several groups of traders heading up the Missouri who were planning to try their hand at trading with the tribes that lived as far upriver as current day Nebraska. Surely the talk of the Expedition’s adventures was on many lips and creating more than a few dreams and even plans to challenge the Rockies for the great wealth to be had from the abundance of furs.
Spring 1807 found St. Louis businessman Manuel Lisa leading a group of 50 men up the Missouri on their way to Montana. About a week into their journey, they met John Colter who was finally almost home after his years with the Lewis and Clark Expedition followed by a season trapping with two others, he had met the summer of 1806 in the Mandan area. Colter would not actually return to St. Louis for six years after he left in the spring of 1804.
Colter agreed to Lisa’s offer to join his group, possibly because several other former members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were already in the party. This group included George Drouillard, Peter Weiser, John Potts, Richard Windsor, and Baptiste LePage.
By November they were at the mouth of the Bighorn River on the Yellowstone where Manuel Lisa planned to build a trading fort. This was one of the locations that Captain Clark had noted in his journals would be a good location for such a trading fort.
While the main party set to work cutting logs and constructing the fort, John Colter, George Drouillard, and Peter Weiser, all former members of the Corps of Discovery, were sent out in separate directions to find as many tribes as possible to come in and trade with Lisa at the new Fort Raymond at the mouth of the Bighorn.
A fourth scout, Edward Rose, was selected to spend the winter with the Crows to trade and promote Lisa’s fort. Exactly where he went or where he spent the winter in not known, although it was later said he spent two years living with the Crows. Rose would later become one of the most notorious mountain men in history. He was known to all Indians as Cut Nose. A large and powerful man with no fear was best to be left alone.
Colter was sent south to the Wind River and then west to Jackson Hole then on into what is now Yellowstone Park. He traveled 500 miles alone in mid-winter, returning to Fort Raymond in the Spring of 1808. His stories of the thermal pools and other phenomenon gave the area the name of Colter’s Hell.
Drouillard’s first trip followed the Yellowstone west back to the location of present-day Billings where a band of the Crow tribe was camped. He made a second trip east into the Bighorn Basin eventually covering much of northcentral Wyoming.
Weiser was sent to the west following the Yellowstone River until reaching the area of the Bozeman Pass where he turned to the northwest, following the Gallatin River to the Three Forks area. This was the same route Clark had used on his exploring trip from Travelers Rest the previous year. From the Three Forks he followed the Madison to the Idaho border and the Snake River.
continued next week
Spring 1807 found St. Louis businessman Manuel Lisa leading a group of 50 men up the Missouri on their way to Montana. About a week into their journey, they met John Colter who was finally almost home after his years with the Lewis and Clark Expedition followed by a season trapping with two others, he had met the summer of 1806 in the Mandan area. Colter would not actually return to St. Louis for six years after he left in the spring of 1804.
Colter agreed to Lisa’s offer to join his group, possibly because several other former members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were already in the party. This group included George Drouillard, Peter Weiser, John Potts, Richard Windsor, and Baptiste LePage.
By November they were at the mouth of the Bighorn River on the Yellowstone where Manuel Lisa planned to build a trading fort. This was one of the locations that Captain Clark had noted in his journals would be a good location for such a trading fort.
While the main party set to work cutting logs and constructing the fort, John Colter, George Drouillard, and Peter Weiser, all former members of the Corps of Discovery, were sent out in separate directions to find as many tribes as possible to come in and trade with Lisa at the new Fort Raymond at the mouth of the Bighorn.
A fourth scout, Edward Rose, was selected to spend the winter with the Crows to trade and promote Lisa’s fort. Exactly where he went or where he spent the winter in not known, although it was later said he spent two years living with the Crows. Rose would later become one of the most notorious mountain men in history. He was known to all Indians as Cut Nose. A large and powerful man with no fear was best to be left alone.
Colter was sent south to the Wind River and then west to Jackson Hole then on into what is now Yellowstone Park. He traveled 500 miles alone in mid-winter, returning to Fort Raymond in the Spring of 1808. His stories of the thermal pools and other phenomenon gave the area the name of Colter’s Hell.
Drouillard’s first trip followed the Yellowstone west back to the location of present-day Billings where a band of the Crow tribe was camped. He made a second trip east into the Bighorn Basin eventually covering much of northcentral Wyoming.
Weiser was sent to the west following the Yellowstone River until reaching the area of the Bozeman Pass where he turned to the northwest, following the Gallatin River to the Three Forks area. This was the same route Clark had used on his exploring trip from Travelers Rest the previous year. From the Three Forks he followed the Madison to the Idaho border and the Snake River.
continued next week
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