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N0KFQ > TODAY 26.03.17 13:01l 62 Lines 2781 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 27475_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 26
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 170326/1154Z 27475@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1832 The steamboat Yellowstone heads for Montana
The mighty American Fur Company adopts the latest in
transportation technology to its business, dispatching the
company's new steamboat Yellowstone to pick up furs in Montana.
A decade earlier, John Jacob Astor had formed the Western
Department of his American Fur Company to begin exploiting the
fur trade in the western reaches of the continent. In 1828, Astor
established a large trading post called Fort Union at the
strategically important point where the Yellowstone River merged
with the Missouri. Located near what would later be the
Montana-North Dakota state line, Fort Union allowed Astor to
dominate the fur trade of the northern plains and Rockies.
With ruthless efficiency, Astor's American Fur Company steadily
undercut and eliminated its competitors. The company had the
financial resources to invest in competitive advantages that
smaller companies like the Rocky Mountain Fur Company could not
afford. Far from being a rustic backwoods operation, Astor's
company was one of the most modern and progressive corporations
of its day. In 1830, Astor saw an opportunity to use a new
technology to further consolidate his stranglehold over the
western fur trade: the steamboat.
The paddle-wheel steamboat New Orleans had begun regular service
on the lower Mississippi only 18 years earlier. During the 1820s,
steamboats occasionally ventured as far north on the Missouri as
Council Bluffs. Now the American Fur Company boldly proposed to
extend regular steam service all the way up to its Fort Union
trading post at the mouth of the Yellowstone.
The company hired a Louisville shipyard to build a boat specially
designed for the treacherous currents of the Missouri. Christened
The Yellowstone, it was a sturdy craft with a large cargo deck to
carry furs and trade goods. It had a high wheelhouse from which
the pilot could see to avoid the many snags and shoals of the
Missouri.
Departing from St. Louis on this day in 1832, The Yellowstone
reached Fort Union in June, where the craft attracted the
marveling admiration of Anglo traders and Indians alike.
Thereafter, The Yellowstone and a fleet of similarly designed
steamboats regularly traveled to Fort Union - when the water level
was not too low or the rivers frozen.
While the American Fur Company modernized with steamboats, its
less affluent competitors continued to rely on small, man-powered
keelboats to move their furs and trade goods. By the mid-1830s,
boats like the Yellowstone had helped Astor eliminate lesser fur
companies and the American Fur Company enjoyed a virtual monopoly
over the Far Western fur trade.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
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