1975 Gowens Map of Fur Trade Rendezvous Sites in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming

This is a c. 1975 Fred Gowans map of the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous sites in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. 'Rendezvous' were annual gatherings organized by fur trading companies where trappers could sell their furs and resupply without leaving the mountains.

A Closer Look

This map illustrates part of the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming and marks the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous sites. Circles identify Rendezvous locations, and dates are provided for each one. Gowans also notes relevant settlements, rivers, lakes, and mountain passes. An illustration on the right captures a beautiful landscape of trees and a field. Tepees and covered wagons appear in the distance, representing a Rendezvous and underscoring the convivial, multicultural nature of the gathering.

Rocky Mountain Rendezvous

The Rocky Mountain Rendezvous was an annual event between 1825 and 1840 at various locations across Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Fur trading concerns organized Rendezvous to attract trappers to a centralized location to trade furs and replenish their supplies. The fur companies sent teamster-driven mule trains carrying supplies (and whiskey), and the teamsters packed out the furs to Fort Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest or St. Joseph, Missouri, and other Missouri River ports. Rendezvous were welcoming events where trappers and their families (often American Indian wives and children), Native American trappers, and even tourists would mingle, sing, and dance and take part in sport events, including target-shooting and racing. The era of the Rendezvous ended after the 1840 Rendezvous at Green River. American expansion into the West helped make the Rendezvous obsolete, with frontier forts providing points of contact for fur trappers to sell their pelts and buy supplies. Time was also pushing fur trapping as a profession into the realm of history, making this tough way of making a living unprofitable.

Publication History and Census

This c. 1975 map was created by Fred Gowans and Steve Harrison. We note only one other cataloged example of the separately-issued edition, which is in private hands. A reduced, folding edition was published in the 1975 first edition of Gowans' book Rocky Mountain Rendezvous: A History of the Fur Trade Rendezvous 1825 - 1840.