Tag Archives: Fur Trade

LECTURE: Historic Tales of St. Louis

Join the Camp­bell House Muse­um for a Lec­ture on “His­toric Tales of Saint Louis” on Sun­day, Octo­ber 15! Local his­to­ri­an, Mark Zeman will be giv­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion on his new book with the same title and will include sto­ries of top hats, opi­um, and the exter­mi­na­tion of the buffalo.

The event is free and no reser­va­tions are required. There is lim­it­ed free park­ing in the lot adja­cent to the house. Street park­ing is free on Sundays.

Lecture: Out of the Shadows, Researching Robert Campbell

 

New Research on the career of Robert Camp­bell has revealed how Fur Trade his­to­ri­ans, often with lit­tle research, repeat­ed­ly repro­duced wrong infor­ma­tion. Join Alan McFar­land here at the Camp­bell House as he explores con­flict­ing infor­ma­tion about Robert Camp­bel­l’s life and career, and how authors often rely on out­dat­ed and poor­ly researched sources. It will also cov­er new dis­cov­er­ies and talk about the Camp­bell let­ters that are still miss­ing. Camp­bell descen­dent Alan McFar­land will trav­el from Ire­land for the lec­ture and set the record straight.

Alan McFar­land is Robert Camp­bel­l’s great-nephew and was born just a stone’s throw from the Camp­bell ances­tral home near Plumbridge in Coun­ty Tyrone.  A retired mil­i­tary offi­cer and politi­cian, McFar­land has made the study of Robert Camp­bel­l’s life his hob­by and is work­ing on a book about the Fur Trade. 

All lec­tures are at the Camp­bell House and are free and open to the pub­lic. Reser­va­tions are not required. There is lim­it­ed free park­ing in the Muse­um lot and street park­ing is free on Sundays.

For more infor­ma­tion call 314–421-0325

 

LECTURE: Jim Bridger, Trailblazer of the American West

Jim Bridger lived a life that leg­ends are made of, not just as a moun­tain man but as co-own­er of Fort Bridger dur­ing the days of the Ore­gon and Cal­i­for­nia Trails. Bridger then guid­ed map mak­ers and Smith­son­ian sci­en­tists and ulti­mate­ly played a cru­cial in keep­ing sol­diers and trav­el­ers alive dur­ing the Plains Indi­an wars in the 1860’s.

Jer­ry Enzler, an award win­ing his­to­ri­an and muse­um direc­tor, brings to light a wealth of new infor­ma­tion about this icon­ic fron­tiers­man, includ­ing new infor­ma­tion from the Camp­bell papers.True West Mag­a­zine just announced its 2022 Best of the West awards, and Enzler’s Bridger biog­ra­phy won the Read­er’s Choice Non­fic­tion Award. 

Copies of the book of the same title will be avail­able for pur­chase and autograph.

Robert Campbell Documentary Premiere

A new one hour doc­u­men­tary titled “Robert Camp­bell, Moun­tain Man” was com­mis­sioned by the BBC for a series of famous Irish immi­grants who become suc­cess­ful in Amer­i­ca, Robert Camp­bell was the first per­son they picked!  Last June, Alan McFar­land and Michael Beat­tie (producer/director) were accom­pa­nied by an Irish film crew in the U.S. for 13 days of film­ing. View­ers are treat­ed to stun­ning new footage of the Rocky Moun­tains and the Great Plains and inter­views with the Camp­bell House staff and experts on the his­to­ry of the fur trade.  Watch a pre­view of the documentary.

There will be a pan­el dis­cus­sion imme­di­ate­ly after the screen­ing with direc­tor Michael Beat­tie and pre­sen­ter Alan McFarland.

Screen­ing is FREE and open to the pub­lic. Reser­va­tions are request­ed, please reserve online at nineNET.org/campbell or by call­ing 314–421-0325.

Park­ing is free in the lot adja­cent to Nine Net­work, enter on Spring Street. The event is out­doors, bring chairs for seating.

Can’t attend this event? Watch the broad­cast one Nine PBS on Mon­day, July 2 at 8 P.M.

Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Tour

By Andy Hahn

A few weeks ago Camp­bell House docent Tom Gron­s­ki and I returned from a 2,500 mile trip West, vis­it­ing the impor­tant sites of Robert Camp­bell and Rocky Moun­tain fur trade.

Red Rocks Canyon on the road up to the South Pass through the Wind Riv­er Range of the Rockies.

We fol­lowed the route of the Ore­gon Trail, which had been blazed by Camp­bell and oth­er moun­tain men and fur traders dur­ing the 1820s and 30s. Our first stop was at the Joslyn Art Muse­um in Oma­ha, Nebras­ka. The Joslyn holds one of the most impor­tant col­lec­tions of art of the Amer­i­can West, includ­ing works by Karl Bod­merAlfred Jacob Miller and George Catlin.

Fol­low­ing a 500-mile dri­ve along the Plat­te Riv­er through Nebras­ka we arrived at Fort Laramie, where we met Alan McFar­land, Robert Camp­bel­l’s g‑g-g-grand nephew, fresh off the plane from his home in North­ern Ire­land. Alan has a spe­cial inter­est in his uncle’s career in the fur trade and has made numer­ous research trips to Amer­i­ca. Fort Laramie was the per­fect place for our meet­ing because Camp­bell and his part­ner Bill Sub­lette found­ed Fort Laramie (orig­i­nal­ly called Fort William) in 1834. At this Nation­al His­toric Site we were able to view an authen­tic fur trade encamp­ment recre­at­ed by mem­bers of the Amer­i­can Moun­tain Men. The group lat­er cre­at­ed tableau vivant from one of Alfred Jacob Miller’s art­works depict­ing a fur trade camp.

A lit­tle fur­ther west we fol­lowed the Sweet­wa­ter Riv­er across Wyoming towards the Wind Riv­er Moun­tain Range and the South Pass. Bill Sub­lette was the first per­son to take a wag­on this far into the Rocky Moun­tains in 1830, set­ting a course for thou­sands that would fol­low the Ore­gon and Mor­mon Trails. The next few days were spent in the vicin­i­ty of Jack­son, Wyoming where we vis­it­ed most all of the sites of the Rocky Moun­tain Ren­dezvous. The high­lights includ­ed vis­its to the Muse­um of the Moun­tain Man where we were able to see some orig­i­nal Camp­bell let­ters and Pier­re’s Hole, site of the 1832 Ren­dezvous and sub­se­quent bat­tle.  Camp­bell hero­ical­ly saved his friend Bill Sub­let­te’s life dur­ing the bat­tle as recount­ed by Wash­ing­ton Irv­ing in the Adven­tures of Cap­tain Bon­neville. Our trip end­ed with vis­its to oth­er Ren­dezvous sites at Bear Lake, Cache Val­ley and final­ly Fort Bridger.

Enjoy the pic­tures and fol­low us West!