Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/McKenzie's Winter Camp, 1812-13

by F. D. Haines

MCKENZIE'S WINTER CAMP, 1812-13

By F. D. HAINES

Late in May, 1812, several partners of the Pacific Fur Company held a meeting at the company post of Astoria, near the mouth of the Columbia River, to make plans for the coming season. Among the several resolutions adopted was the following:

That Mr. McKenzie winter on the Snake river; recover the goods left in cache by Mr. Hunt;^[1] and report the state of the country.^[2]

According to these instructions, Donald McKenzie established his winter post in the great Shahaptian nation late in August, sent John Reed with four men to bring in the goods cached the previous autumn, and began to trade with the Indians. Ross writes:^[3]

The Indians did not take kindly to the idea that they become trappers, pronouncing such work fit only for squaws. Their horses procured them guns and ammunition, the buffaloes provided them with food and clothing and war gave them renown.... McKenzie then resolved to abandon that post and proceed further up the river but before taking that step, he went over to Spokane to visit Mr. Clarke; and while there, Mr. John George McTavish, a partner of the North West Company, arrived with a strong reinforcement of men from the east side of the mountains, bringing an account of the war between Great Britain and the United States. On receiving this unwelcome news, McKenzie hastened back to his post; but instead of removing further up, as he had contemplated, he put his good's in cache and set off with all his men to Astoria, where he arrived January 15, 1813 ...On the second of February, McKenzie turned his face toward the interior, and in two canoes, with eighteen men, pushed on to his post, having letters from Mr. McDougall ... On the twenty-second day after leaving Astoria, Mr. McKenzie arrived at his post on the Shahaptin river but was mortified to find his cache robbed.

McKenzie immediately determined to recover the stolen goods. He asked the chiefs to have the goods returned, but they would not act in the matter. After vainly trying to settle the matter peaceably, he determined to take decisive action. He led his band, fully armed, to the Indian camp. Here his mes, with drawn bayonets, surrounded the first tepee to keep the Indians at bay while McKenzie and an assistant searched the place, cutting and ripping open everything that might be supposed to contain the stolen property. After five or sis lodges had been searched in this manner with some success, the Indians called a truce and soon agreed to return the goods in order to save the rest of the camp. In this manner most of the articles were recovered, but the incident left the Indians decidedly unfriendly.

McKenzie had expected to buy enough horses from the Indians for his pack train and for the winter supply of meat. Now the Indians refused to sell their horses, even at advanced prices, hoping to starve the whites into leaving the country. However, McKenzie was not the man to see his men go hungry with an abundance of food at hand. Under his directions, the hunters stalked the horse herds on the nearby grazing lands, shooting the fatter for camp use. Although the hunters always left a bundle of trade goods in payment for the animals thus killed, the Indians did not care for the arrangement. Not only had they been outwitted, but they were losing many of their best saddle ponies. They decided to end the matter by attacking the camp and laid their plans accordingly. McKenzie got wind of the matter and moved his forces to a nearby island in the river, from which his hunters continued their forays on the herds until the Indians, in desperation, called a truce and agreed to supply the whites with horses at the established price. In this way McKenzie was able to secure all the horses he needed for his own camp, and an additional eighty which he sent to Clarke at Spokane. Late in May McKenzie, again on friendly terms with the Indians, broke camp and joined the other trading parties at the mouth of the Walla Walla on the first of June, 1813.

Regarding the location of this winter camp Irving states:^[4] "Mr. McKenzie navigated for several days up the south branch of the Columbia ... commonly called Lewis River ... Having arrived at the mouth of the Shahaptan, he ascended some distance up that river, and established his trading post upon its banks."

Ross has the following comment on the names of rivers:^[5] "We may here mention that the Great Snake river, Louis river, South Branch, Shahaptin river and Nez Perce river are all one and the same stream under different denominations." Rees designates the Salmon as the river known as the Lewis in early times.^[6]

According to this identification the post would have been located above the grand canyon of the Snake River. Thwaites seems to hold this viewpoint. He states:^[7] "McKenzie's party established their post at the mouth of Reed's (now the Payette) river and named it Fort Boise.” In another volume he states:^[8] "On his map Ross located McKenzie's post on the Snake river at the mouth of Reed's river (the present Boise river). Fort Boise, a Hudson's Bay post was afterward established there." It is obvious that Thwaites was confused here by these two rivers, the Payette and the Boise, each emptying into the Snake very near the site of old Fort Boise. He should have said Reed's River (the present Boise) in both places.

From the references cited above we have the following definite information concerning the location of the post in question: First: It was located in good grazing country near a river. Second: It was in the Nez Perce country. Third: It was within easy traveling distance of Spokane. Fourth: McKenzie reached it by boat.

These last three items definitely rule out the possibility of the post having been located at or near Fort Boise. This fort, located in the Shoshone country, was more than a hundred miles from the nearest Nez Perce village, and separated from it by a range of mountains. The Nez Perces visited the Fort Boise region on hunting trips or in war parties, but they did not live there.

Between December 10, 1812, and January 15, 1813, McKenzie made the trip from Spokane to his post, cached his trade goods, and made his way to Astoria. Under winter conditions, it would be extremely difficult for him to even make the trip from Spokane to Fort Boise in this short time, as the air line distance between the two is more than two hundred sixty miles and much of it would be across mountains covered by many feet of snow. Also, it would not be feasible to send eighty horses across this trail in the spring before the high trails were open. This stretch of trail in those days was comparable to the Lolo trail, which Lewis and Clark found snowbound until late June. McKenzie's visit to Spokane and his furnishing Clarke with horses indicates there was a comparatively short and easy route between the two posts.

The only approach to Fort Boise by boat is up the canyon of the Snake River. The list of activities given above would have required McKenzie to make his trip through the canyon at least four times—once to reach the post in August, once to reach Astoria in January, once to return in February (using but twenty-two days for the trip) and the last time when he left in the spring. Actually neither he nor any of his party made this trip at this time. This can be proved by the report of McKenzie's first trip through the same canyon early in the year 1819. This report is taken from Ross:^[9]

After a short respite of only seven days at Nez Perces (Fort Walla Walla) allowing himself scarcely time to repose and recount his adventures, this indefatigable man set out anew, through ice and snow, to examine the state of navigation in the Snake country by the South Branch. For this purpose, he and his handful of Canadians, six in number, embarking on board of a barge, left Fort Nez Perce and proceeded up Lewis river. ... After a voyage of two months, the boat with four of the men returned to this place while McKenzie and the other two pushed forward. ... McKenzie's letter by return of boat was dated "Point Successful, Head of Narrows, April 15, 1819." He stated that "the passage by water is now proved to be safe and practicable for loaded boats, without one single portage; therefore the doubtful question is set at rest forever. Yet from the force of the current, and the frequency of rapids, it may still be advisable and perhaps preferable to continue the land transport. ... We had often recourse to the line. ... There are two places with bold cut rocks on either side of the river, where the great body of water is compressed within a narrow compass, which may render those parts doubtful during the floods, owing to rocks and whirlpools."

It is obvious from the above discussion that the post must

have been located down stream from the grand canyon of the Snake River. The description of the surrounding country would limit the location to the vicinity of the mouth of the Clearwater. It is probable that the Shahaptin River of Irving is the same as the Chopunnish of Lewis and Clark, or the present Clearwater, as this is the only stream that meets the conditions given. A quotation from Astoria strengthens this probability:

This appeared to be a great thoroughfare for the tribes from the neighborhood of the falls of the Columbia in their expeditions to make war upon the tribes of the Rocky Mountains, to hunt buffalo on the plains beyond or to traffic for roots and buffalo robes. ... Wandering bands of various tribes were seen along this river.... Some of these people were driving large gangs of horses as if to a distant market.^[10]

This clearly indicates that the post was located on the old Indian trail that crossed the Snake River about five miles below the forks and followed the right bank of the Snake to the fork. Here it swung up the Clearwater for a few miles before it branched, one trail leading on up the right bank and one crossing the river toward Kamiah. The post was probably located on the north bank of the Clearwater a short distance above its mouth. This location would meet all the conditions given, even to the island in the river for the retreat. However, without more evidence on the matter, it is not possible to make a positive identification.

1. This refers to the goods cached by Hunt and McKenzie at Milner Rapids, near the present town of Twin Falls, Idaho, the previous fall when they were forced to abandon their boats at this point and finish the journey on foot, suffering a great deal on the way.
2. Ross, Adventures of First Settlers, 194.
3. Same, 219-21.
4. Irving, Astoria, 1836, II, 193.
5. Ross, already cited, 217.
6. Rees, Idaho, Chronology, Nomenclature, Bibliography, 88.
7. Thwaites, Early Western Travels, VI, 277, note 86.
8. Same, VII, 214, note 76.
9. Ross, Fur Traders, I, 205-06.
10. Irving, Astoria, 1836, II, 193.