St. Vrain's Expedition to the Gila in 1826

"Thomas Maitland Marshall, professor of history at Washington University...an authority on American history...expounded the view that colonial history of the nation was not confined to the Atlantic Seaboard...his writings included...St. Vrain's Expedition to the Gila in 1826." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 13, 1936

The American fur trade in the Southwest which followed the attainment of Mexican independence has received but scant attention from historians.

Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies has been considered the classic for southwestern trade. It is a vivid account of an eye-witness who made eight trips over the trails. But there are two serious faults in Gregg's book. In the first place he did not engage in the trade until 1831, and his knowledge of the preceding decades was based upon hearsay.

Our other great authority is Chittenden, whose admirable history of the fur trade of the Far West has frequently been considered the last word on the subject. But Chittenden was strongly influenced by Gregg and the full significance of the southwestern fur trade did not dawn upon him.

In 1917, Thomas Maitland Marshall (1876-1936) published a short 10-page work titled "St. Vrain's Expedition to the Gila in 1826," in which he details the pre-1931 fur trade expedition of Ceran St. Vrain to Gila in 1826, based on views of Mexican officials obtained from archives in Sonora and Mexico City.

Ceran St. Vrain (1802 870), was the American son of a French aristocrat who immigrated to the United States in the late 18th century; his mother was from St. Louis, where he was born. To gain the ability to trade, in 1831 he became a naturalized Mexican citizen in what is now the state of New Mexico. He formed a partnership with American traders William, George and Charles Bent; together they established the trading post of Bent's Fort. It was the only privately held fort in the West.

Based on his research in this work, Marshall concludes that it seems fair to assume that the history of the Santa Fe trade must be revised, giving the fur trader his place beside or ahead of the merchant.

Dettagli