Missionaries, Fur Traders,
and Explorers
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© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Expanding Westward
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Population growth was stimulated by
expansionism motivated by patriotism of
America after the War of 1812 and relative
calm of internal events. While one in seven
Americans lived in the west in 1810, one in
four Americans lived west of Appalachian
Mountains by 1820.
Reasons for Westward Expansion
Between 1800 and 1820, the population of
the United States nearly doubled.
 Exhausted agricultural lands in the East.
 The spread of the plantation system in the
South.
 The federal government’s policy toward
Indian tribes in the West.

Father Kino
 1700’s
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- Father
Kino brings
Christianity and
agriculture to
Indians.
Peaceful
relations with
Indians allows
silver mining in
Tucson & Tubac
Circuit Riders
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Circuit rider is a popular
term referring to clergy in
the earliest years of the
United States who were
assigned to travel around
specific geographic
territories to minister to
settlers and organize
congregations. Circuit
riders were clergy in the
Methodist Episcopal
Church and related
denominations.
THE FUR TRADE AND MOUNTAIN MEN
Up until 1840, beaver felt hats were fashionable in Europe and the U.S. The felt hat
industry became the driving force behind the fur trade. Beaver were extinct in western
Europe and were close to extinction in Scandinavia and Russia. The North American fur
trade became a new source. The British Hudson’s Bay Company was the preeminent
force in the fur business in North America but soon American companies challenged
their control.
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John Jacob Astor established
the American Fur Company in
1808. Later he set up the Pacific
Fur Company and Southwest Fur
Company with trading posts
across the country to meet the
growing demand for furs. He built
a fort in Astoria Oregon which
became a base for exploration
and fur.
Astor’s fur trading post, Astoria,
on the Columbia River
Trade and Trapping in the Far West
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Mexican independence in 1821 opened new trade as
merchants brought American made goods to sell; Mexico also
opened new lands for settlement for America’s growing
population
Fur traders trapped their own pelts for trade rather than relying
on trade to supply them
Andrew Henry and William Ashley founded Rocky Mountain Fur
Company in 1822; joined by Jedediah S. Smith
Trappers sometimes were employees of companies like the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company earning salaries for furs supplied
This market economy exchanged furs for needed goods when
supply trains that arrived in the west
Intermarriage with Indians and Hispanics became common
Trappers or “mountain men” established themselves in Utah
and New Mexico where they lived peacefully and successfully
with the Native Americans
Reports from explorers like Zebulon Pike and Stephen Long
enticed more people to settle in the west
Map of Lewis and Clark's journey of exploration
Sacagawea was the Shoshone
Indian wife of the interpreter
Toussaint Charbonneau, a
French fur trader that Lewis
and Clark hired. She was
instrumental in providing
friendly relations between the
explorers and the various
tribes they encountered on
their expedition.
What did Lewis and Clark accomplish?
Their main goal was to find an all-water route across the
continent, a Northwest Passage. Although such a route
does not exist, the journey had a major impact on the
future course of U.S. history. The immense amount of
geographic information undid much of the erroneous
thinking of the time. Americans were made aware of the
great potential of the new lands; the stage was set for
increased exploration, trade, settlement and annexation.
Zebulon Pike led the second expedition
Pike was a career army officer and explorer who led two parties
of exploration (1805-1807) into the Louisiana Territory. He and
another party explored the Arkansas and Red Rivers, which
formed part of the boundary between the lands of the Louisiana
Territory and New Spain. Finding their headwaters was important
to the U.S. However, a second part of Pike's instructions, to make
a reconnaissance of the Spanish settlements in New Mexico,
actually meant spying on a neighboring country in peacetime.
Stephen Harriman Long’s expedition
Long was an army topographical engineer whose
expedition lasted from 1818-1823. He explored between
the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Later in
1823, he searched for the sources of the Mississippi by
steamboat, ending far up the Missouri in Yellowstone
country. The steamboat was built to resemble a dragon
to impress the Indians. The highest summit of the Rocky
Mountains was named Long's Peak in his honor.
Great American Desert
This was the term to describe the region between the Mississippi
river and Rocky mountains. It was believed this region was
unsuitable for cultivation. This area was skipped over by the early
pioneers in favor of Oregon and California. The reports of Pike and
Long did much to form public opinion that this was a “desert”.
Great American Desert
John C. Fremont
During the 1840s and early 1850s,
John C. Fremont, a noted western
explorer renowned for his active role
in the conquest of California during
the Mexican War, made four
expeditions with his cartographer
Charles Preuss throughout the
western United States. Preuss's
seven-sheet map of the twothousand-mile Oregon Trail was
published as a congressional
document in 1846. Migrants relied
heavily upon this series of maps.
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Considered one of the most influential accounts of the American Far West, John C. Fremont's
Report of his expeditions was published in more than two-dozen editions in the first fifteen years.
The popularity of his Report is due in large part to the literary skill of his wife Jesse (1824-1918), the
daughter of expansionist Senator Thomas Hart Benton. This view of the dividing ridge of the
Sierras, February 14, 1844, drawn shortly before Fremont's descent into the Sacramento Valley,
documents the party's daring winter crossing guided by the mountaineer Kit Carson.
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