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Show 14 The Southern Utes both expeditions traveled along the western slope of the Rockies through Ute country. At about the same time, Kit Carson and Jason Lee left New Mexico and went to the Uinta River in Utah, where they met Antoine Robidoux. In 1826, James Ohio Pattie passed through the present site of Grand Junction in Mesa County after departing from Santa Fe, going south to the Gila River and following that river to the Colorado River and then ascending that river into Ute territory.3 In the 1830's, beaver pelts became even more valuable and many more fur trappers and traders entered Colorado and Utah. In 1830, the "Old Spanish Trail" was established between Santa Fe and San Gabriel, California. Mexicans from Santa Fe used this trail for several years and came into contact with most of the bands of the Utes, whom they traded with for slaves and many articles which the Utes possessed. In 1832, Antoine Robidoux, a fur trader from St. Louis, Missouri, established Fort Uncompahgre, a fort and fur trading post just below the junction of the Gunnison and Uncompahgre Rivers near the present site of Delta, Colorado; and he later established a similar outfitting and trading post on the Uinta River in Utah.4 Philip Thompson and William Craig founded Fort Davy Crockett on the Green River in 1837, None of these trading posts in Ute country prospered. The Utes burned Fort Uncompahgre and about 1840 Fort Davy Crockett was abandoned right after Kit Carson and James Baker had headquartered there through the fall and winter of 1839-40. In 1842 Rufus Sage left Taos, passed through southwestern Colorado to the post on the Uinta, probably passing along the old Ute trail through Archuleta and LaPlata counties.5 Thus the whole country of the Utes became known to Anglo-Americans and the Utes became acquainted with their products. The fur trappers and traders from the Linked States were generally on very friendly terms with the Ute people. The Indians were willing to trade buffalo robes and beaver pelts for flour, cloth, tobacco, trinkets, and 3 Ibid., pp. 188-90. 4 Floyd A. O'Neil and John D. Sylvester, eds., Ute People, An Historical Study Salt Lake City: Univ. of Utah Press, 1970), p. 7; John B. Lloyd, "The Uncompahgre Utes," unpublished Master's thesis, Western State College of Colorado, 1932), pp. 2-3, 5 LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, eds., Rufus Sage: His Letters and Papers, 1836-1847, Vols. V and VI of the Far West and the Rockies Historical Series, (15 vols.; Glendale: Arthur H. Clarke Co., 1955-61), V, 89-90; Cummins, "Social and Economic History," p. 191. |