Trapper and Hunter
In November 1829, Charbonneau returned to St. Louis, where he was hired by Joseph Robidoux as a fur trapper for the American Fur Company, to work in Idaho and Utah. He attended the 1832 Pierre's Hole rendezvous while working for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. There he fought in the bloodiest non-military conflict that preceded the Plains Indian wars, which began in 1854.
From 1833–49 Charbonneau worked in the fur trade in the Rocky Mountain Trapping System with other mountain men, such as Jim Bridger, James Beckwourth and Joe Meek.
From 1840–42 he worked from Fort Saint Vrain, floating bison hides and tongues 2,000 miles (3,200 km) down the South Platte River to St. Louis. On one of the voyages, he camped with Captain John C. Frémont on his cartographic expedition. In 1843, he guided Sir William Drummond Stewart, a Scottish baronet, on his second long trip to the American West, which was a lavish hunting expedition.
Seeking employment again, in 1844 Charbonneau went to Bent's Fort in Colorado, where he was chief hunter, and worked also as a trader with southern Plains Indians. William Boggs, a traveler who met him, wrote that Charbonneau "…wore his hair long, was…very high strung…" He reported, "…it was said Charbenau (sic) was the best man on foot on the plains or in the Rocky Mountains."
Read more about this topic: Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
Famous quotes containing the word hunter:
“Every one finds by his own experience, as well as in history, that the era in which men cultivate the apple, and the amenities of the garden, is essentially different from that of the hunter and forest life, and neither can displace the other without loss.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)