BIRTH OF AMERICA BOOKS (tm)

PONDER THE PATH

 

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HISTORICALLY ACCURATE AND FUN TO READ

(They're written like novels with dialogue based on journals, diaries and newspapers)

HISTORY AS IT HAPPENS(tm) 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

 

 

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Read Chapter 20 Henry's Fork Rendezvous For The First Rendezvous Of All Time

 

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