Rendezvous

The rendezvous, an annual gathering of independent fur traders at a prearranged site in the Rocky Mountains, was held for the first time in 1825 and for the last time in 1840. From the beginnings of the fur trade, traders often worked in groups for ease of operation in handling tasks requiring more than a single individual and, increasingly, for mutual protection. The system of contracted allegiance to a large-scale employer became more common over time as the trade increasingly became controlled by a few large companies. The most influential of these—the Hudson’s Bay Company, the American Fur Company, and the North West Company—signed on large numbers of trappers and other fur-trade personnel. At the same time that these large companies provided credit and protection, they also paid minimal prices for furs and contracted with trappers who could sell only to them. As the fur trade became more competitive in the early 19th century, the great companies tried to hire trappers away from competitors.

Amidst this consolidation of fur-trading companies came the reemergence of the individual fur trader. The person most responsible for this change was William Henry Ashley, a trader from St. Louis. The difficulty for Ashley and others was purchasing furs from the trappers in the field and resupplying them on a regular basis. Ashley proposed to do both by freighting supplies to a designated point in the Rocky Mountains on an annual basis. (One of the unusual features of Ashley’s plan was that he freighted the supplies overland rather than up the Missouri River). Trappers would then bring their winter harvest of furs to this site, where Ashley would purchase the furs and sell them supplies for the coming year.

This annual gathering came to be called the “rendezvous.” It was a week of commercial transactions, but it also served as a social occasion. The trappers ate, drank, gambled, sometimes fought, and engaged in contests of skill. The first rendezvous was held at Henry’s Fort on the Green River in spring 1825. Although Ashley sold out his interests and left the fur trade for land speculation and politics after the second rendezvous in 1826, it continued annually until 1840.The rendezvous provided an occasion for bringing together some of the most famous mountain MEN associated with the frontier of the West. Its passing marked the decline of the fur trade.

Further reading: Richard M. Clokey, William H. Ashley (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968); Dale L. Morgan, The West of William H. Ashley (Denver, Colo.: Old West Publishing Company, 1964).