Historic St. Louis: 250 Years Exploring New Frontiers

Above: Trappers on the Prairie: Peace or
War? Lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1866.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION.
Below: Replica Medal of the Upper Missouri
Outfit, dominated by Pierre Chouteau, Jr.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION.
Predictably, Indians attacked white intruders
stealing their resources, and by 1831, had
killed at least 170 trappers. From 1823 to
1828, St. Louis companies lost $100,000
to Indian thefts of horses, mules, guns,
traps, supplies, and pelts. Despite those
losses, trapping was very profitable, netting
$1.65 million in 1831 after expenses of
$2.1 million, partly because trappers earned
only $150-$200 per year for risking their
lives. Ashley also created the rendezvous
system, which kept mountain men in the
West year-round without the need to build
expensive permanent forts. He reaped a fortune
on markups of 2,000 percent for essential
supplies (and recreational liquor) needed by
about 600 western trappers per year.
In 1826, Ashley sold his successful company
to fellow St. Louisans, where neighbors and
even family members fought fiercely for
supremacy in the fur trade. At least eight
Chouteau kinsmen, for instance, served in
four different fur companies, until Bernard
Pratte’s French Company of five Chouteau
cousins drove the others out. In 1822 the
American Fur Company (AFC) owned by
the German immigrant, John Jacob Astor,
established a “Western Department” in
St. Louis. Historian Walter Stevens claimed
that Astor was “baffled” by the Chouteaus’
“well-established relationship with the
Indians,” and in 1834, he sold the “Missouri
River Outfit” of the AFC to St. Louisans
Pratte and his cousin, Pierre Chouteau, Jr.
H I S T O R I C S T . L O U I S
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