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Show 15 The fur traders in Utah ( Exception 8 ) The fur trader played an important part in the exploration and the civilization of the western country . For decades his business was first in size in the West . The ( fur-trading furtrading ) business necessarily carried the trader into the wildest parts of the United States . The success of the fur trade depended largely upon transportation . It was necessary for the fur trader to bring in his articles of trade and , as exchanges were made , to transport his furs out of the wilderness . In every section of the country , each large river played its part in the fur trade . The fur traders , by Durham boats by flatboats and by canoes traveled , , , the Mississippi , the Missouri , the Ohio , the Fox , the Wisconsin , the Desplaines , and the Columbia rivers . Each of those rivers yas recognized as an important link in transportation between civilization and the ( fur-producing furproducing ) wilderness . The Colorado , the San \ Juan , and the Green rivers were never so used . The history of the Columbia ( Rive'r River Rivor ) was otherwise . . ( See The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West , Chittenden , Vol . 2 , page 790 . ) : In spite of its many rapids and the difficult portages at the Dalles and Cascades , , boats were the universal means of transportation during the fur trade era from the mouth to the source of the Columbia . . The lighter craft ascended the tributaries for long distances , , and if the total navigable length of all these streams , , as actually used by the traders , , could be ( deter- deter ) |