Wyeth
Effected His Intention Of Establishing A Trading Post On The
Portneuf, Which He Named Fort Hall.
Here, for the first time, the
American flag was unfurled to the breeze that sweeps the great
naked wastes of the central wilderness.
Leaving twelve men here,
with a stock of goods, to trade with the neighboring tribes, he
prosecuted his journey to the Columbia; where he established
another post, called Fort Williams, on Wappatoo Island, at the
mouth of the Wallamut. This was to be the head factory of his
company; whence they were to carry on their fishing and trapping
operations, and their trade with the interior; and where they
were to receive and dispatch their annual ship.
The plan of Mr. Wyeth appears to have been well concerted. He had
observed that the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, the bands of free
trappers, as well as the Indians west of the mountains, depended
for their supplies upon goods brought from St. Louis; which, in
consequence of the expenses and risks of a long land carriage,
were furnished them at an immense advance on first cost. He had
an idea that they might be much more cheaply supplied from the
Pacific side. Horses would cost much less on the borders of the
Columbia than at St. Louis: the transportation by land was much
shorter; and through a country much more safe from the hostility
of savage tribes; which, on the route from and to St. Louis,
annually cost the lives of many men.
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