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Joint Press Release February 3rd, 2010
Sublette County and Sublete County Historical Society
Sublette County acquires rare fur-trade
documents
Auction a 'Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity'
Sublette County and the Sublette County Historical Society
are proud to announce the acquisition of a number of very
unique and important historical documents related to the
Rocky Mountain fur trade of the early 1800s in Sublette
County.
Just before Christmas, the Historical Society became aware
of an extraordinary public auction of a huge collection
of extremely rare original documents related to American
history. This was an estate auction from the private collection
of Floyd Risvold, who passed away in June 2009 in Minnesota.
Risvold, 97 years old at the time of his death, had been
a collector of historical documents for over five decades,
mostly with a focus on postal routes related to American
exploration and expansion.
The Risvold collection included material from early Indian
wars, American fur trade companies, Civil War, Mormon history,
railroads, steamboats, Pony Express letters, military forts,
and much more. The collection included historical postal
envelopes - many with their original contents, autographs,
manuscripts, rare photos and books - documents which bring
to life the story of America's journey westward.
The documents included a collection of particular interest
to the Historical Society and the Museum of the Mountain
Man: an extensive assortment of letters and business papers
related to the Rocky Mountain fur trade era of the early
1800s. The Upper Green River Valley was one of the primary
locations for fur trapping and trading activity during that
time period, and this history is the main focus of the Museum
of the Mountain Man.
Actual artifacts and original documents that directly relate
to the fur trade are extremely rare, and this auction represented
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase genuine, irreplaceable
artifacts which are a part of American history. Fur-trade
documents rarely come available on the open market.
This estate auction garnered national attention and attracted
over 600 bidders. With very few recent comparables, no one
really knew what the documents were worth or what they would
sell for.
The Historical Society immediately acted to fundraise private
money to obtain as many documents as it could for the Museum
of the Mountain Man in Pinedale. Historical Society members
pored over the catalog of hundreds of documents to come
up with a priority list.
The documents the Historical Society was interested in
were letters and business papers written and signed by some
of the biggest names in the Rocky Mountain fur trade such
as William Sublette, Robert Campbell, Thomas Fitzpatrick,
John Jacob Astor, William Ashley, Jedediah Smith, Nathaniel
Wyeth, Lucien Fontenelle, William Drummond Stewart, and
more.
Creating a sense of urgency to the fundraising efforts
was the news from experts in the field that the document
sale prices could go many times the estimated high bid price
listed for each document.
The Historical Society decided to approach the Sublette
County Commissioners for additional funding for the acquisition
effort. The Sublette County Museum Board and County Commissioners
agreed to use money from the County's Museum Board reserve
fund to assist in purchasing as many top priority documents
as possible. On such short notice, it would have been impossible
for the Historical Society to bring these rare documents
back to Sublette County without the emergency help of the
County Commissioners, and it was an opportunity Sublette
County would likely never have on this scale again.
The three-day auction was held January 27-29 at the Spink
Shreves Galleries in downtown Manhattan. Historical Society
board member Clint Gilchrist, fur trade historian Jim Hardee
and Historical Society member Dawn Ballou flew to New York
for the auction with a Wish List of 65 lots of specific
interest to Sublette County related to the Rocky Mountain
fur trade.
Lots were auctioned at a pace of about one per minute,
with bids entered live in the room, over multiple live telephone
lines, two live internet feeds and mailed-in. Early on the
first day, a John Adams letter set the tone by selling for
$160,000. Later a Stephen F. Austin letter sold for $180,000
- 12 times its estimated value. However, most lots went
in the low thousands range. The final total of 1300 lots
was over $7 million.
Ultimately, Sublette County was able to obtain 35 lots
and the Historical Society obtained 4 lots of the 65 lots
on the Wish List. Some of the lots contained multiple documents,
so the total acquisition was a little over 90 documents
for a total of $271,000.
To the community, the Museum, and to history scholars,
these documents are priceless. They will become the cornerstone
for many future exhibits, interpretive displays and educational
programs for years to come.
These valuable papers are now in a publicly-accessible
repository. They will reside in an institution where the
people of Sublette County, and the nation, will be able
to see and learn from them. Most have never been publically
available before.
Far from the reclusive, old, outcast portrayed in fiction
books and movies, the letters help reveal educated, adventurous,
young men conducting well organized big business that eventually
involved the richest man in the country. For example, in
a series of William Sublette letters, the prominent fur
trader writes about problems with acquisition and transportation
of tens of thousands of dollars worth of trade goods on
the east coast destined for the Green River Rendezvous in
what was to become Sublette County, Wyoming.
The County document collection will be preserved and housed
through an agreement with the Historical Society at the
Museum of the Mountain Man. The Museum will be responsible
for managing, protecting, interpreting and displaying the
documents. The documents may also be displayed at the Green
River Valley Museum in Big Piney. It will take years to
interpret and publish the hundreds of stories related to
the content of this incredible document collection.
The papers will come to the Museum by private carrier sometime
this week. Once they arrive, the Museum's curator will carefully
inspect and stabilize them. The documents will be scanned
at high resolution so the originals can be safely stored
and the process of transcribing the handwritten documents
will begin using the scanned copies. Some of these documents
are extremely fragile, so it is important that the originals
be handled as little as possible.
No decisions have been made as to when the documents will
be on public display, but it will be as soon as possible
once a preservation plan is developed. There has already
been much discussion about the endless opportunities for
interpretation, education and public displays related to
these valuable documents.
About the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade era - 1824 to 1840
The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Era started in 1824 when a
small group of trappers including Jedediah Smith, William
Sublette, and Thomas Fitzpatrick came over South Pass to
find the Green River Valley, full of beaver and few hostile
Indians. They quickly developed a system of trappers working
the winter in the mountains and a re-supply train meeting
them at summer rendezvous taking beaver pelts back to St.
Louis, Missouri for sale.
The Green River Valley became the center of the mountain
fur trade hosting half of the summer rendezvous, and six
were held near present day Daniel at the confluence of the
Horse and Green rivers. With the decline of beaver and beaver
prices, the era ended with the last formal rendezvous in
1840. But the trails blazed by the trappers would open the
way for the flood of emigrants on the California and Oregon
Trails just a few years later.
Just like those of us today who have chosen Sublette County
as our home, some of the men could not stay away from the
mountains they grew to love. Jim Bridger built a fort in
the southern end of the valley which became an important
resupply post for pioneers on the Oregon Trail. Well after
the hey-day of the rendezvous, William Drummond Stewart
and William Sublette travelled 1000 miles from St. Louis
in 1843 for a two-week rendezvous reunion vacation on the
shores of Fremont Lake and the banks of the New Fork River.
Many current landmarks are tied to the era of the mountain
man. In 1922, the newly formed Sublette County was named
after William Sublette. The Jim Bridger Wilderness in the
Wind River Mountain range and the Bridger-Teton National
Forest are named for the famous mountain man who spent his
whole adult life in the mountains. The Fitzpatrick Wilderness,
named for mountain man Thomas Fitzpatrick, is on the eastern
slopes of the Wind River Range. The Jedediah Smith Wilderness
is located west of Jackson Hole. Fort Bonneville, an early
fur-trade post, is located just northwest of present-day
Daniel, Wyoming. The Hoback, Greys, Labarge, Fontenelle,
Blacks Fork, and Hams Fork rivers are all named for mountain
men. These all stand as reminders of the mark these brave
and enterprising men left on the land and on our heritage.
Each summer for the past 75 years, Sublette County has
celebrated Green River Rendezvous Days, a re-enactment of
the rendezvous and activities of the mountain men who frequented
the Green River Valley.
The trappers and their time can seem like a distant or
faded memory. These 175-year-old documents represent an
opportunity to learn more about the events of the fur trade
era through the actual words of the people living it in
the 1820s and 1830s, bringing the men and our history back
to life.
About the Sublette County Historical Society and the
Museum of the Mountain Man
The Historical Society is a non-profit foundation organized
in 1935. It is the oldest historical society in Wyoming.
The Museum of the Mountain Man is operated by the Historical
Society in a public-private partnership with Sublette County.
The Museum of the Mountain Man was opened in 1990 in Pinedale.
The Historical Society holds over 15,000 artifacts ranging
from pre-historic to the settlement era.
Approximately one-half of the Historical Society's yearly
budget is from private funds and one-half is public funds,
via the Sublette County Museum Board. This unique 50-year-old
partnership is a commitment by local government and private
citizens to work together for local history. Sublette County's
community heritage is preserved and interpreted by a private
foundation that can raise private funds to maximize the
power of the public funds.
Founding members of the Historical Society began the modern-day
rendezvous reenactment program in 1936 in Daniel, to celebrate
the 100th anniversary of the 1836 rendezvous, which was
attended by the first white women to cross the Continental
Divide. The Rendezvous Pageant is still performed every
year in July by the Green River Rendezvous Pageant Association
during Rendezvous Days in Pinedale.
Artifacts directly traceable to the mountain man are extremely
rare. The Museum's collection has many period-correct pieces
from the fur-trade era, but few directly attributable to
the mountain men. Genuine artifacts in the Museum's collection
include a rifle owned by Jim Bridger after the fur trade
era and archaeological pieces from the site of Fort Bonneville.
Sublette County's acquisition of the fur-trade papers significantly
expands the Museum's genuine artifact collection and ability
to interpret the Rocky Mountain fur-trade era.
Our mountain man heritage is the kinship we have to those
adventurous young men who chose this remote and harsh environment
to make a living, much like those of us who live here today.
We have a multi-generational history of embracing and celebrating
the men who opened the West and expanded a country.
For more information contact the Museum of the Mountain
Man, PO Box 909, Pinedale, Wyoming 82941 - Email:director@mmmuseum.com
- Phone: 877-686-6266 - Fax: 307-367-6768
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