User:Captain2020Hindsight/sandbox

= The Rocky Mountain Fur Company =



Overview
The Rocky Mountain Fur Company, sometimes called Ashley's Hundred, was organized in St. Louis, Missouri in 1822 by General William Henry Ashley and Major Andrew Henry. Among the employees was Jedediah Smith. Who went on to take a leading role in the company’s operations.

The company became a pioneer in Western exploration, most notably in the Green River Valley. Other aspiring organizations like the American Fur Company would many times overlap in operation causing a fierce rivalry. Overlapping lands and a growing competition motivated the trappers to explore and head deeper into the wilderness. Effectively, this lead to greater knowledge of the topography and to great reductions in the beaver populations.

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Eventually the incredible competition – for fewer and fewer beavers – and the transient style of fur hats brought the Rocky Mountain Fur Company down. Nearly a decade after its founding, the stock holders sold all their shares, leaving behind a legacy that, in-part, helped form the West, regarding both settlement and folklore. The American federal government, seeking geographic knowledge or advice specific to the West would seek out former members of the company as consultants. Ashley, himself, later became a congressman whose expertise was Western affairs.

Creation
By the early 1820’s General William Ashley, of the Missouri militia, was looking to enter his state’s politics on a grand scale. One necessity in pursuing this venture was a healthy nest egg of cash. Having barely survived a slew of past entrepreneurial and military pursuits, Ashley was looking at an insolvent future. To counteract his previous financial failures, he looked west; he looked to the fur trade.

The growing fur industry of the time enticed Ashley. It was his route to financial and political success. But he could not strike it rich alone. Joining him as a partner was Major Andrew Henry, a long-time friend of Ashley’s. Canvasing the local St. Louis area in 1822, together they published an ad in the Missouri Republican (266 Chittenden). It targeted "One Hundred enterprising young men . . . to ascend the river Missouri to its source, there to be employed for one, two, or three years." The caliber of men sought out by Ashley and Henry would serve as the prototypical ‘mountain man’. The criteria assumed by the position was simple enough – masculine, well-armed, and able to work (trap) for up to three years.

The ad attracted ample attention; roughly 150 men signed up. Among those hired were Jedediah Smith, the four Sublette brothers, including William and Milton, Jim Beckwourth, Hugh Glass, Thomas Fitzpatrick and David Edward Jackson, who in 1826, bought the Company and helped run it for the next seven. Other mountain men who worked for the Company were Jim Bridger, Joseph Meek, Robert Newell, George W. Ebbert, and Kit Carson.

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The payment method was uniquely designed by Ashley. Leveraging employment costs, Ashley and Henry saw fit that their trappers would keep half of their loot and forfeit the other half to management. In turn, Ashley and Henry would provide many of the materials needed to trap.

Operation
Ashley and Henry had, by 1822, begun a fur trapping company that would help to shape the development of the American West. In the early days, Ashley’s hundred worked the upper-Missouri, but this changed. As the company entertained the idea to build outposts along the river, Ashley soon discovered that the Missouri Fur Company had already undergone that endeavor. Eventually Ashley and his company moved farther west to the mountain range from which it is named.

Forging new paths and discovering landscapes – as far as Western Civilization is concerned, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company ultimately pioneered a new style in the fur trade. Known as the brigade-rendezvous system, Major Henry's plan was formed in part to a July 1822 law prohibiting the sale of alcohol to Indians. Prior to this point, the fur trade had relied on Indians to do the actual trapping and hunting that produced the furs; they were then brought to trading posts where, with increasing frequency, the Indians were given liquor both as an actual medium of exchange, and in order to render them pliant and easily cheated. The pattern was so firmly established that it was difficult to conduct business without a substantial supply of alcohol. Henry's plan made Indian trappers and trading posts unnecessary—he trained young American men to trap, and had them meet him at rendezvous, which were temporary, and could be located wherever it was convenient.

Ashley and his men had mixed success. By the middle of the decade, the company had a firm grasp of the Rockies. Headquartered in the Green River Valley, trappers found numerous spots to collect valuable pelts. Some of these locations included: Horse Creek, La Barge Creek, Fontenolle Creek, and Black Fork. Two popular trading destinations were Pierre’s Hole and Fort Nonsense. But in some cases, the company would take heavy losses. Loosing supplies and even men, would be an unwelcomed feature to the company’s operation. Some expeditions ended in catastrophe. On two separate occasions, trappers were killed by Blackfeet and Arikara Indians. Another blow was when Major Andrew Henry, considered the most experience trapper, left by 1824. Soon after, Ashley followed suit. His journey in trading furs was ending, and his political carrier was just beginning. So in 1826 he sold his company off to a selection of his employees. Nonetheless, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company continued for eight more years.

None of these set-backs would spell the end for Ashley’s hundred. The company would fall for the same set of problems that faced the entire industry.

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Decline and Demise
Like all Fur companies at the time, Ashley’s hundred went out of business by the burdensome financial forces of the time. Competition, which bred bitter rivalries, helped to price The Rocky Mountain Fur Company out of the market. Declining beaver populations and shifting fashions did the rest of the damage.

Rocky Mountain trappers encroached on competitors’ soil resulting in bitter turf wars. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company was a rival to Hudson's Bay Company and John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. They frequently held their rendezvous near a Hudson's Bay Company post to draw off some of their Indian trade, and their trappers went into the Snake, Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, all of which were considered the domain of the Hudson's Bay Company.[1]By 1832, the competition was at its height. So too was the growing Native-American resentment, which was materialized through elevated skirmishes. Unbridled competition dwindled the available fur supply. A once healthy population of beaver, otter, bear, and muskrat disappeared; the companies found it harder and harder to trap. This only led to more struggle for the zones still abundant with game. The larger American and Hudson’s Bay companies also had an advantage over the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. With access to a wider array of land, these two companies undersold their smaller competitor. Even more catastrophic was the transient style of the fur hat. Once a staple to European and American fashion before, the 1830’s began to see shifting styles, which changed everything for the industry. The more expensive fur headwear gave way to silk hats. By 1834, the company was in trouble. Facing insolvency, the partners decided to sell off their assets. A once bitter rival, the American Fur Company quickly absorbed Ashley’s creation.

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The policy of underselling fur companies in the Rocky Mountains during the 1830s succeeded in destroying the American system and led to the failure of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Additionally, the fur trade tapered off due to major declines in the beaver population.

Trapping a Legacy
No one knew the Rocky Mountains better than Ashley’s hundred. They had the greatest knowledge of a vast and treacherous terrain. This indispensable wisdom was later utilized by the federal government. Easily the most notable of Rocky Mountain Fur Company members was William Ashley. He eventually did get his wish for political power. By the early 1830’s Ashley became an integral member of Congress. He quickly positioned himself as an expert in Western affairs. None of which would have been possible without his time spent with his company. Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, and other mountain men continued to trap, beyond the Rocky Mountains. They in turn were used as guides for subsequent settlers.

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Not only were maps influenced by this small company, but so too was the heritage of the fur trapping era. The company developed the defining brigade-rendezvous system of the time. Moreover, the idea of a quintessential mountain man did not come to fruition until Ashley and his men trapped the Rockies.