Name/Title
Across the Wide MissouriEntry/Object ID
L2019.13.117Description
Across the Wide Missouri. 1833-1838. History of the fur trade in the American West, during its peak in the 1830's. The trapping of beaver and other animals caused conflicts between the trappers and the various Native American tribes of the Upper Missouri River Basin. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Price for History in 1948.
Hugh Lewis research notation:
Page 70: Joseph Robidoux, 1830. "The Company now had a system of fixed posts among tribes which never before had found goods so easily available. And, incorporating the system of the Opposition, McKenzie had already sent brigades into the heart of the Opposition's country, the mountains. His partisans were Joseph Robidoux, of a numerous family that had pratically dug the Missouri, Lucien Fontenelle, Andrew Drips, and Henry Vanderburgh. They were river traders, who must now learn the mountain craft by following the Opposition brigades. In 1830-- the year when Smith, Sublette & Jackson sold out to the RMF Company-- Drips and Robidoux and Fontenelle followed them through their most private preserve, the Utah-Idaho-western Wyoming field, Cache Valley, Bear Lake, Salt Lake Valley, Ogden's Hole, Bear River Valley, The Snake, Ham's Fork. They ran into a fight between the RMF Company and the Hudson's Bay company which, invigorated by its great McLoughlin, was trying to take over the field from the northwest."
Page 192: Joseph Robidoux, Fort. Rendezvous. "Here Captain Stewart comes out of the wings again. Presumably he had been with Jim Bridger's brigade which had wintered near the site of the rendezvous and had then moved south through Colorado east of the Front Range. We can only speculate that Bridger had started in that direction, that Fraeb or Gervais or both joined him somewhere along the way, and that with one or the other of them Stewart traveled to Taos and thence to the Gila. The footnote in Edward Warren already quoted ties him up with Bent and St. Vrain. Kit Carson was also of connection with Lee and their party had wintered at a fort lately built by Joseph Robidoux somewhere up the Uintah River before it flows into the Green. (Uintah county, Utah, up river from Quray.) Lee was in Taos that spring and Carson left him to join Fitzpatrick, who had first taught him mountain craft."
Page 218: Joseph Robidou'xs new post, eventually becoming St. Joseph. "Fontenelle had brought it as far as Fort Laramie, his newly acquired mountain headquarters, and there had turned it over to his new partisan. He had left Liberty, across the river from Independence, on May 15, a little later than the average jump-off. Instead of making for the Platte by the usual route he took his train up the bank of the Missouri to Bellevue, which had been his own post before he joined the Company. The reason for the change appears to have been the increased development of and emphasis on Joseph Robidoux's new post, which was eventually to become the city of S.t Joseph. Bellevue was only a few miles from the mouth of the Platte and the route which Fontenelle thus took-- to Plattsmouth and then up the river to where the old train reached it near Grand Island-- Was to be an alternate route for caravans from now on and eventually a route for emigrant trains."
Page 227: Joseph Robidoux and the American Board's representatives. "Thus the introduction to the American Board's representatives of a young man who was in the top rank of his profession. All who rose to distinction in that profession were necessarily fit instruments. We have seen a number of masters: two Sublletters, Campbell, Harris, Dripes, Fontenelle, Gervais, Berger, Fraeb, Joe Robidoux, Joe Walker. Others who were just as distinguished as they have not been mentioned because they worked other portions of the mountains, mostly the Colorado Rockies, or because they happened not to cut the train of this narrative..."
Page 374: Antoine Robidoux's posts on the Gunnison and Duchesne. "The Carson men went mostly into the Colorado Rockies, which now became the most important field in the trade. The trapped-out country to the north and northwest did come back somewhat, beaver increased, but only slowly. The importance of Brown's Hole is of this period; some veterans spoke of it mellowly, others abominated it. There was not difference of opinion about South Park; is was a paradise, the last place in the mountains where the old life could be lived to the full. Many of those who have appeared in these pages were associated with it at one time or another but it is primarily the Bill Williams country, thanks to Lieutenant Ruxton. Antonie Robidoux had a post on the Gunnison for a while and another one on the Duchesne. Henry Fraeb with John Sarpy and in some relationship with the Company had a post on St. Vrain's Fork (Boulder Country, Colorado) for a while. Then on Battle Creek, a tributary of the Little Snake, in August 1841 he died as a mountain man should, in an all-out battle with the Sioux, taking enough of them to hell with him to pay his toll."
450/Paperback/Blue with illustration of men riding on horsebackCollection
Robidoux Collection by Hugh LewisLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
BookNomenclature Sub-Class
Other DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsSearch Terms
Fort Union, Fort Laramie, American Fur Company, Blackfeet, Green River, Missouri River, Sioux, Native American, Robidoux, Antoine, Robidoux, Joseph, Robidoux FamilyBook Details
Author
DeVoto, BernardPlace Published
City
BostonState/Province
MassachusettsDate Published
1947Call No.
Robidoux DEISBN
0-395-08374-5Notes
Copy No.: 2Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Captain Benjamin Louis BonnevillePerson or Organization
Jim BridgerPerson or Organization
Robert CampbellPerson or Organization
Kit CarsonPerson or Organization
Andrew DripsPerson or Organization
Tom FitzpatrickPerson or Organization
Lucien FontenellePerson or Organization
Henry FraebPerson or Organization
William H. GaryPerson or Organization
Moses HarrisPerson or Organization
Joe MeekPerson or Organization
Alfred Jacob MillerPerson or Organization
Samuel ParkerPerson or Organization
Osborne RussellPerson or Organization
Lieutenant Frederick RuxtonPerson or Organization
Captain William Drummond StewartPerson or Organization
Sublette, WilliamPerson or Organization
John Kirk TownsendPerson or Organization
Walker, Joseph ReddefordPerson or Organization
Whitman, MarcusPerson or Organization
Whitman, NarcissaPerson or Organization
Wyeth, Nathaniel JarvisPerson or Organization
Robidou, JosephPerson or Organization
Robidou, Antione