December 1996 Blazer

Important visitors at Fort Uinta

THE HISTORY BLAZER ArEIt'S OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grailde Salt Lake Citv. I'T 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 333- 3503 Important Visitors at Fort Uinta WHENAN TOINER OBIDOUEXS TABLISHEDF ORTU INTAn ear the forks of the Uinta River and White Rocks Creek in northeastern Utah in 1832, he was able to engage in a thriving fur and horse trading business as well as illegal traffic in guns and alcohol to the Indians. Robidoux built his fort on the site of an earlier post purchased from William Reed. It was a convenient location in the heart of good fur country, and many mountain men visited the fort, including such notables as Kit Carson, Joe Meek, and Miles Goodyear who trapped the Uinta, Green, and other northeastern Utah rivers and their tributaries. Native Americans, particularly the Utes, lived in the vicinity. Trade with them was brisk and profitable for Robidoux since he wuld buy pelts relatively cheaply and sell them at good prices in Santa Fe. He could supply his post with trade goods purchased on trips to New Mexico. Some believe that Robidoux may also have been involved in the Indian slave trade, perhaps with women as a prime trade item, although more documentation is needed on that subject. Isolated as the location seems, Robidoux's fort ( also called Fort Wintey, Tewinty , Uintah, and Robidoux) saw a fair amount of traffic, especially in the 1840s as whites other than trappers began to pass through the area. One early visitor, the Reverend Joseph Williams, left a record of his stay at Fort Uinta. He had traveled to Oregon in 1841 and was returning to the East in 1842. A highly moralistic man, he left a colorful account of life at Fort Uinta when his route took him there in the summer of 1842. Swarms of flies and the rugged terrain of northeastern Utah made traveling difficult. Williams's group journeyed down the " Wintey" ( Uinta) River to amve at Fort Uinta. Robidoux and some of his men would accompany them to New Mexico, but Robidoux was not ready to depart, so Williams had to wait for 18 days. The delay gave him plenty of time to observe life at the trading post. It thoroughly disgusted him. The wickedness, drunkenness, and swearing disturbed him. He was especially upset by the debauchery of the men who bought and sold the Indian women. The mountain men delighted in telling him stories of depraved behavior that horrified him. In Williams's mind Fort Uinta was equal to any place for sin and wickedness. The minister's judgments may have been too harsh since other visitors to the fort either overlooked or did not see the depravity reported by him. Rufus Sage was also a visitor later in 1842, having traveled with Robidoux from Taos to Fort Uinta. Sage mentioned nothing about the iniquity at the fort but tended strictly to business matters. According to his account, trapping parties came to the fort to trade. Snake and Utah Indians bartered beaver, otter, deer, mountain sheep, md elk skins for ammunition, guns, knives, tobacco, beads, awls, etc. Native Americans traded finely finished skins for just a few rounds of ammunition or other items because game was very abundant. Sage noted how profitable the business was for the fort's owner. ( more) Marcus Whitman stopped at Fort Uinta early in November 1842 on his way east to seek support for his mission in the Northwest. Traveling with him was Asa L. Lovejoy, who left a record of the trip. At Fort Hall they were told by Richard Grant, the Hudson's Bay factor, to avoid the South Pass route because of Indian hostilities. Lovejoy and Whitman picked up a guide and headed for Santa Fe via Fort Uinta. On the way Whitman met his old friend Miles Goodyear who had traveled to the mountains with Whitman in 1836. Whitman carried a letter east for Goodyear. Lovejoy and Whitman stayed only briefly at the fort, purchasing a few supplies and acquiring a new guide to accompany them to Taos. Lovejoy gave no details of life at the fort in his account. The most distinguished visitor at the fort was likely Captain John C. Fremont in 1844. He was returning to the East from his 1843 expedition for the government to Oregon and California. He traveled up the Spanish Trail from southern California, passing through Utah Valley, then turning eastward toward the Duchesne River, Lake Fork, and finally arriving at Fort Uinta on June 3. Guides from the fort helped Fremont's party to ford the Uinta River, swollen with the spring runoff. The group camped near the fort, which Fremont in his official report called a " motley garrison" of Canadian and Spanish trappers and hunters. He also saw several Indian women. Fremont purchased some sugar, coffee, dried meat, and a cow, that he and his men found a welcome change from their recent diet. He also added to his exploring party the services of Auguste Archambeau, a highly skilled guide, hunter, and mountain man. The Fremont party left Fort Uinta on June 5 and continued eastward on their journey to the States. A few months later Fort Uinta met a violent end. Indian hostilities had increased as a result of the kidnapping of women and children for the slave trade and the killing of Indians by whites. The problem was worsened by the selling of whiskey to the native peoples. The Utes attacked the fort, killing the men there- five or six Spaniards and one American. Apparently the women were carried off, and Robidoux was not at the fort. Then the attackers burned the fort. The days of the mountain man and the fur trade had been declining for several years by the time Fort Uinta came to an end as a business enterprise. Even if the Indians had not attacked, the fort's days we= likely numbered as the times were changing. The era of the fur trade was passing into history. Sources: William S. Wallace, " Antoine Robidouxn in LeRoy R. Hafen, ed., lh Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West, vol. 4 ( Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1966); John D. Barton, " Fort Robidoux" in Allan Kent Powell, ed., Utah History Encyclopedia ( Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994); Joseph Williams, Tour to Oregon 184142: Narrative of a Tourfiom the State of Indiana to the Oregon Territory in the Years 1841- 42 ( New York, 1921); Rufus B. Sage, " His Letters and Papersn and " Scenes in the Rocky Mountains" in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Ihe Far Wart and the Rockies, vol. 5 ( Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1956); Myron Eells, Marcus Waitmun, Pathfinder and Patriot ( Seattle, 1909); Clifford M. Drury, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and the Opening of Old Oregon, vol. 2 ( Seattle, 1986); John C. Fremont, Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon and Northern California in the Years 1843- 44 ( Washington, D. C., 1845). THE HISTORBLYA ZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone] ( LC)