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Show Mountain Men and Fur Trappers The Utes learned of the inhabitants of the United States in the first half of the 19th century largely through the activities of the so-called mountain men or fur trappers. During that period, furs were extremely valuable for making the felt hat which was fashionable for gentlemen in the United States and Europe. The area occupied by the Utes was very rich in beaver and those mountain men began to trap every place where beaver "sign" occurred. Often called the "pathfinders" of the West, the mountain men were actually following game trails and trails which had been known to the Utes for generations. The first entrance of Anglo-Americans into Ute territory occurred in 1806 when Lt. Zebulon Pike entered the San Luis Valley and built a stockade on the Conejos River before being arrested by Spanish authorities.1 In 1811, Ezekiel Williams was trapping for beaver pelts in southwestern Colorado and the following year Robert McKnight was in the same region. In 1816 and 1817, Auguste Pierre Chouteau and Julius DeMunn moved into southwestern Colorado for the same purpose. In 1821, control of the southwestern portion of present day United States passed from Spanish hands into the hands of authorities of Mexico. Anglo-Americans found it much easier to deal with Mexican authorities than with Spanish officials, because of the inflexibility of Spanish law in an area so far removed from the seat of authority. So -in 1821 also, there began the famous Santa Fe trade between Independence, Missouri, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and increased activity in trapping throughout Ute territory. In the same year, Col. Hugh Glenn and Jacob Fowler led a trapping expedition into the San Luis Valley and possibly even into present Archuleta and Mineral counties.2 In 1824, William Becknell, "The Father of the Santa Fe Trade," led a party of trappers to the Green River and William Huddart headed an expedition of fourteen men from Taos to the same area. Probably 1 For a thorough explanation of this expedition led by Pike, with letters and related documents, see Donald Jackson, ed., The Journals of Zebulon Pike, 2 vols., (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1966) ; also, Elliott Coves, ed., The Expeditions of Zebulon Pike, 3 vols., (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1895). A more readable and recent account is W. Eugene Hollon, The Lost Pathfinder: Zebulon Montgomery Pike, (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1949). 2 D. H. Cummins, "Social and Economic History of Southwestern Colorado," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation in History, University of Texas, 1951), p. 188. |