HISTORIC MARKER
Atypical over-wintering settlement strategy utilized by Rocky Mountain fur trappers in the 1820s to 1840s required access to game, timber and water. The availability of these items made the areas around the Great Salt Lake and Cache Valley attractive for encampments during cold months. Trappers often spent the winters with friendly bands of native peoples, adopting many of their lifeways and benefiting from the protection, companionship, and labor this living situation provided. Down time from November through March was used to repair gear and clothing, hunt, prepare skins, and socialize.
Knowledge of the local natural environment, skills in gathering and preparing food, as well as language skills were learned from the natives. Fur companies also utilized and exploited Indian transportation and communication networks and employed native men as hunting guides. White free traders were usually single and found it convenient to marry or cohabit with native women who dressed pelts for travel and trade. The relationship between trappers and indigenous peoples, built in winter encampments, was partially responsible for the expanded fur trade.
Indigenous Shoshone camped along the Weber River as it emerged from the canyon. During the summer some were known to camp along the creeks in Kaysville. Many artifacts have been found locally in places such as Arrowhead Hill near Burton Lane indicating ancient occupation. Personal histories of pioneers recorded interactions between new settlers and native bands after 1849. These included the descriptions of locations of travel paths along the lake and mountain which had been long-used by Shoshone, Goshute and Ute bands. They also detailed along which local creeks the Shoshone habitually camped, Kay’s Creek being a favorite site.
Sources
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The painting, Trappers Winter Camp created by B. Y. Andelin and commissioned for the nation’s bicentennial, is owned by the Weber State Storytelling Festival and shown by permission.
