BIRTH OF AMERICA BOOKS (tm)
PONDER THE PATH
REAL PEOPLE, TRUE STORIES
HISTORICALLY ACCURATE AND FUN TO READ
(They're written like novels with dialogue based on journals,
diaries and newspapers)
HISTORY AS IT HAPPENSä IN HIGH ACTION AMERICAN HISTORY BOOKS
PONDER THE PATH RENDEZVOUS LEGACY
"Ponder The Path", "Behold The Shining Mountains" and "Trails Of The White Savages" relive Mountain Man Rendezvous. Our high action nonfiction American History books (1808-1836) put you in the moccasins of real Mountain Men fighting arctic cold, grizzlies, Blackfeet, bad whiskey and each other for the vast beaver fortunes that lured many men to shallow graves.
GENERAL ASHLEY'S RENDEZVOUS LEGACY [1825-40]
Historians credit General
William H. Ashley with fathering the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous in 1825.
Originally planned as a cunning commercial change of pace for the American fur
trade, Rendezvous suddenly evolved into a combination trade fair, gaming and gambling
fit interrupted by mating rites and fist fights. The traders mule-trained the
furs back to Missouri, while sick, sober and penniless trappers wandered into
the wilderness to scrounge enough plews -- for next
year's Rendezvous!
As background, in the
1790s, forest runners like John Jacob Astor ferreted
Indians and traded for furs. Then fur firms like American Fur Company and
Hudson's Bay Company built trading posts where they waited for Indians to bring
furs to trade for utensils, weapons, cloth and other trade goods. General
Ashley and his partner Major Andrew Henry by-passed their competition and the
Indians, leading masses of men out to trap the beaver streams. Soon, most firms
aped Ashley & Henry. Losing many men to Indians, grizzlies, Arctic weather
and accidents, Ashley altered the fur trade dramatically in 1825 with his
Rendezvous. He hauled trade goods to the trappers and the Indians at an advertised wilderness
hub to corner all the furs and trade all his supplies at bloated prices before his
competitors got a crack at any of them. His Rendezvous scheme was so lucrative
Ashley retired from the Mountains in 1826 and from supplying the Mountain trade
in 1830 to become an often re-elected U.S. Congressman. Ashley died rich of
pneumonia in Missouri at age 60 in 1838. Most of Ashley's trapper customers
succumbed well before him, parts of their bodies hacked off by Indians for
souvenirs and their bones cracked for marrow in shallow, unmarked graves by
wolves as wild as they themselves once were -- at the Rendezvous.
|
YEAR |
RENDEZVOUS LOCATION[S] |
OUR BOOK[S] & PAGES |
|
1825 |
Wyoming -Henry's Fork near Green River |
Ponder The Path 166-70 |
|
1826 |
Utah - Cache Valley [west of Bear Lake] |
Ponder The Path 182-7 |
|
1827 |
Utah - South End of [Sweet or] Bear Lake |
Ponder The Path 203-6 |
|
1828 |
Utah - South End of [Sweet or] Bear Lake |
Ponder The Path 237-42 |
|
1829 [#1] 1829 [#2] |
Wyoming - Popo Agie River [near Lander] Idaho - Pierre's Hole [near Tetonia] |
Ponder The Path 249-51 Ponder The Path 251-2 |
|
1830 |
Wyoming -Wind River & Popo Agie River [near Riverton] |
Ponder The Path 256-62 |
|
1831 |
Utah - Cache Valley [west of Bear Lake] |
Behold The Shining Mountains 21 |
|
1832 |
Idaho - Pierre's Hole [near Tetonia] |
Behold The Shining
Mountains 43-9, 54-60 Trails Of The White Savages 261-2 |
|
1833 |
Wyoming - Green River & Horse Creek [Fort Bonneville] |
Behold The Shining Mtns 100-19 Trails Of The White Savages 270-6 |
|
1834 |
Wyoming - Strung Out - Ham's Fork & Green River |
Behold The Shining Mtns 148-81 |
|
1835 |
Wyoming - Green River & Horse Creek [Fort Bonneville] |
Behold The Shining Mtns 239-50 |
|
1836 |
Wyoming - Green River & Horse Creek [Fort Bonneville] |
Behold The Shining Mtns 281-306 |
|
1837 |
Wyoming - Green River & Horse Creek [Fort Bonneville] |
Our Books Do Not Go Past 1836 |
|
1838 |
Wyoming -Wind River & Popo Agie River |
Our Books Do Not Go Past 1836 |
|
1839 |
Wyoming - Green River & Horse Creek [Fort Bonneville] |
Our Books Do Not Go Past 1836 |
|
1840 |
Wyoming - Green River & Horse Creek [Fort Bonneville] |
Our Books Do Not Go Past 1836 |
Click below for Ponder The
Path's
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Read Chapter 20 Henry's Fork Rendezvous For The First Rendezvous Of All Time
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