The overland party was led by Wilson Price Hunt. He set out from St. Louis late in 1810, and wintered near present-day St. Joseph, Missouri. In April 1811 he set out again, reaching the villages of the Arikara Indians (South Dakota). There he traded with the famous Spanish trader Manuel Lisa. to get horses, as he wanted to continue by land and not by river, so as to avoid the area of the much feared Blackfoot Indians.
From there he went straight west until he reached the Wind River. He and his men were awed by the sight of the great herds of buffalo that used to roam around in that region. He crossed the Rocky Mountains through the Union Pass, and reached the Snake River.
Although the Indians warned him that the river could be dangerous, Hunt decided to let the horses run loose, and descended the river by canoe. For nine days they did so without difficulties, but then they arrived at the rapids. One canoe was torn to pieces, killing one man. They tried to find a way around the rapids, but when scouting parties reported that the river went on in the same vein for a large distance. The decision was made to continue the expedition by foot.
This last part of the voyage was the hardest by far. Winter was falling in, and the men started to suffer from hunger. They had to resort to eating roots and skins. Some men decided to join the indians, others were simply lost. But the remainder of the group managed to reach Fort Astoria in January and February 1812. Although their voyage was full of hardships, the western part of their route later being incorporated in the Oregon trail.
In the meantime Fort Astoria itself was also not free from problems either. It had suffered losses from an Indian attack, and the year before discoverer David Thompson had reached the fort, claiming the whole basin of the Columbia for the Northwest Company, a group of Canadian fur traders based in Montreal. It was decided to dispatch a group of men, led by Robert Stuart, eastward, to inform Astor.
Stuart left with six men on June 29, 1812. He went back to the Rocky Mountains much by the same way as Hunt had come, but in southern Idaho met an Indian who told them of a shorter route across the mountains than the one Hunt had followed. This was the South Pass, which was to become the eastern part of the Oregon trail. On the way towards it, the group's horses were stolen by Crow Indians.
Fort Astoria was not saved by Stuart's brave journey. In early 1813 (as part of the war of 1812) the Northwest Company had sent an army to the fort, demanding its surrender, threatening with British war ships that were sent to the place. The warships took till November to arrive, by which time the Astorians had decided to safe their faces by selling the fort to the NWC.
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This page was created for Discoverers Web by Andre Engels