Fort Hall was a
fort
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
in the
western United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
that was built in 1834 as a fur trading post by
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth (January 29, 1802 – August 31, 1856) was an American inventor and businessman in Boston, Massachusetts who contributed greatly to its ice industry. Due to his inventions, Boston could harvest and ship ice internati ...
. It was located on the
Snake River
The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snak ...
in the eastern
Oregon Country
Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, c ...
, now part of present-day
Bannock County in southeastern
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...
. Wyeth was an inventor and businessman from
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
,
, who also founded a post at
Fort William, in present-day
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
,
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...
, as part of a plan for a new trading and fisheries company. Unable to compete with the powerful British
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...
, based at
Fort Vancouver, in 1837 Wyeth sold both posts to it. Great Britain and the United States both operated in the
Oregon Country
Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, c ...
in these years.
After being included in United States territory in 1846 upon settlement of the northern boundary with Canada, Fort Hall developed as an important station for emigrants through the 1850s on the
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kans ...
; it was located at the end of the common stretch from the
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
shared by the three
far west Far West may refer to:
Places
* Western Canada, or the West
** British Columbia Coast
* Western United States, or Far West
** West Coast of the United States
* American frontier, or Far West, Old West, or Wild West
* Far West (Taixi), a term used ...
emigrant trails. Soon after Fort Hall, the
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...
and
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
trails diverged in northwesterly and southwesterly directions. An estimated 270,000 emigrants reached Fort Hall on their way west. The town of
Fort Hall later developed to the east, and
Pocatello developed about south on the
Portneuf River.
In the 1860s, Fort Hall was the key post for the overland stage, mail and freight lines to the towns and camps of the mining frontier in the Pacific Northwest. In 1870 a New Fort Hall was constructed to carry out that function; it was located about 25 miles to the northeast. It protected stagecoach, mail and travelers to the Northwest.
Fort Hall is considered the most important trading post in the
Snake River Valley
The Snake River cutting through the plain leaves many canyons and Canyon#List of gorges">gorges, such as this one near Twin Falls, Idaho
The Snake River Plain is a geologic feature located primarily within the U.S. state of Idaho. It stret ...
. It was included within the
Fort Hall Indian Reservation under the treaty of 1867. No building remains at either of its sites. The Old Fort Hall site was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1961,
and the New Fort Hall site is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
.
History
This area was long inhabited by varying cultures of
indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
. By the time of European encounter, the historic
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
* Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
* Goshute: western Utah, e ...
and
Bannock peoples had been occupying the area for centuries. It was called Botoode in
Shoshoni
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
* Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
* Goshute: western Utah, e ...
. They were among the Plains peoples who had adopted horses to use as part of their nomadic and seasonal movement associated with hunting game, particularly
bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North ...
. French trappers and British traders from Canada had traded with them long before American explorers arrived.
Oregon Country
In the late 1820s,
Hall J. Kelley of Boston was among men who became interested in commercial possibilities in the
Oregon Country
Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, c ...
, described by a later historian as offering a "field of exploitation for adventurous capital".
He recruited
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth (January 29, 1802 – August 31, 1856) was an American inventor and businessman in Boston, Massachusetts who contributed greatly to its ice industry. Due to his inventions, Boston could harvest and ship ice internati ...
, an inventor and businessman who had made the ice industry successful in Boston, to his plan to invest in an expedition to the Northwest where they would make their fortunes. They planned a joint expedition in 1831, with intentions to establish a company for fur trading and developing a salmon
fishery
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place (a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, ...
to rival New England's cod fishery. Organizing the expedition suffered delays and it never took place.
In 1832 Wyeth decided to proceed on his own with an independent expedition. With a company of 70-100 men, he intended to establish a fishery and trading post on the
Columbia River near its confluence with the Willamette River (part of present-day Portland, Oregon). Related plans were to supply trade goods to trappers in the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
and possibly slaughter and dry bison for export to Cuba. A major investor in the fishery/trading post enterprise was Henry Hall, a partner of the Boston firm Tucker & Williams & Henry Hall.
In addition to fur trading, they planned to export
salmon
Salmon () is the common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of ...
to
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...
and
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...
.
In 1832,
Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville and his party had first taken wagons over the
South Pass of the Rocky Mountains. This route had been rediscovered by trappers in 1824. It led back to the
North Platte River
The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately long, counting its many curves.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 21, 2011 In a ...
valley, which was being developed as a key route in connecting the East by a wagon road to the
Oregon Country
Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, c ...
. The Platte Rivers were chief transportation corridors, and the river valleys provided level land for wagons. This was the route for from the Missouri River fur ports at
Independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the s ...
and
St. Joseph,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
. Other emigrants went overland starting from
St. Louis, Missouri, where the fur companies and emigrant suppliers were based.
The
Native Americans had used South Pass, as well as a more northerly trail which they had guided the
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...
to follow during their 1804–1806 journey into Oregon and to the Pacific Coast. It had frequent obstacles, turns and switchbacks, making it difficult for wagon trains, mules and oxen, the common beasts of burden for the emigrants.
The 1834 trappers'
rendezvous was held at a meadow around Hams Fork, (near present-day
Granger, Wyoming); the annual events were occasions for sales between
mountain men, who were independent trappers and traders, and agents of the fur companies, who bought the furs and supplied the traders with goods. The rendezvous were organized by the fur companies and were several-day affairs that were business, but festive in nature and oiled by alcohol.
Old Fort Hall (1834–1856)

In July 1834, Wyeth found that, despite his contract with
Milton Sublette of the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company, its agents at the rendezvous refused to accept his goods. They paid only to cover the advance and the forfeit, claiming that they were dissolving the business. Wyeth notified Tucker & Williams of the problems. As he was left with stocks of goods, he advised them of his intention to go west about to the
Snake River
The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snak ...
country (present-day southeastern Idaho) and try to do business there. He was sending word in advance to Indian tribes to bring in buffalo robes for trading.
"Messr Tucker & Williams, from Hams Fork of the Colorado of the West, July 1st 1834"
''Selected Letters of Nathaniel J. Wyeth'', accessed 30 April 2012
Wyeth and his party traveled west some to the Snake near the mouth of the Portneuf. They constructed the wooden storehouses at Fort Hall. Wyeth named the fort after a major expedition investor, Henry Hall. They finished a palisade around the fort on July 31, 1834; it was the only outpost of European Americans in that area of the Oregon Country.
Because of the Oregon boundary dispute between the United States and Great Britain, the region was open to settlement and economic activity, but not any formal claims. In practice, the Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...
maintained an effective monopoly on trade in the region. The British company controlled the Columbia River's watershed. It shut out the independent trapper-trader mountain men and cut severely into the profit margins of the larger American overland fur trading companiesmostly organized in St. Louis. Between the Hudson's Bay Company and John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor who made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by smuggling opium into China, and ...
's near-monopoly of US fur traders with the American Fur Company, new companies regularly failed in their first half decade. Most mountain men had started to work under contract to the big companies.
When Fort Hall was completed, Wyeth continued toward the Columbia River with members of his expedition. They encountered the Methodist missionary Jason Lee on his way to start the Methodist Mission in the Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east ...
. Once Wyeth reached the lower Columbia, he built Fort William to serve as the 'envisioned' "regular rendezvous point" on the Columbia.
The HBC had been trapping in the Snake country for years. Using its trading post at Fort Boise
Fort Boise is either of two different locations in the western United States, both in southwestern Idaho. The first was a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading post near the Snake River on what is now the Oregon border (in present-day Canyon Co ...
, it drove Wyeth's company out of business, and he sold Fort Hall to the HBC. The peak of the fur market had already passed, as furs were becoming scarce due to over trapping and European demand had declined due to changes in taste.
Having struggled to keep workers and failed to make enough money, in August 1837, Wyeth sold both his forts to the Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...
(HBC). It controlled most of the fur trade in the Oregon Country (which they called the Columbia District
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company betwee ...
or the Columbia Department) from their headquarters at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River. As the British did not want American pioneers in Oregon, the HBC managers newly installed at Fort Hall discouraged pioneers. They showed new emigrants the abandoned wagons of earlier emigrants who lost their oxen. They were forced to proceed on foot with any remaining domestic animals.
Oregon migration
In 1843, Marcus Whitman, a missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
who had established a mission near present-day Walla Walla, Washington, led a wagon train westward from Fort Hall, despite discouragement from the British. His reports, when received back east amidst the country-wide expansionist mindset of true believers in Manifest Destiny
Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America.
There were three basic tenets to the concept:
* The special virtues of the American people and th ...
, started a growing flood of settlers increasing in numbers year by year.
The settlers were reinforced by the Presidential politics with Democrats demanding a settlement of the " Oregon Question" and proposing a border far to the north of today's boundary between the United States and Canada. The election year's slogans and bad press, Democratic hawks' control of the U.S. legislatures, the steep decrease in fur market demand, and finally the declaration of war by Mexico
Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
over the annexation of their rebel state of Texas all had an accelerating effect greasing the diplomatic wrangling and finally putting an Administration-sponsored treaty before the Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...
which set the current boundary, where it was quickly adopted under the wartime congressional session. No one saw any reason to embarrass their own parties or President, and fighting two wars in widely different geographic theaters was nonsensical. The treaty triggered an explosion of settlers heading west in 1846, and the Mormon Exodus had already begun in Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...
and Missouri. U.S. Army forces were assigned to send patrols and safeguard the road.
In the following years, the number of emigrant wagon trains increased dramatically as the migration of people increased to the West. Fort Hall became a welcome stop along the trail for hundreds of thousands of emigrants. It continued as an important trading post for mountain men and the Native Americans of the region, in particular the Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
* Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
* Goshute: western Utah, e ...
.
In 1846, the Oregon Treaty settled boundaries in the Northwest between Great Britain (Canada) and the United States; Fort Hall was included within the U.S. and its territories. From 1849 to 1850, Cantonment Loring
A cantonment (, , or ) is a military quarters. In Bangladesh, India and other parts of South Asia, a ''cantonment'' refers to a permanent military station (a term from the colonial-era). In United States military parlance, a cantonment is, essent ...
, a U.S. military camp, was located downriver from Fort Hall. Its garrison was assigned to protect the Oregon Trail, but the camp was abandoned due to long-distance supply difficulties. Instead the Army dispatched expeditions from Oregon to guard the trail to Fort Hall during each summer after 1855, as the migrations continued.
Civil War and after
With the outbreak of the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...
in 1861, emigrant traffic declined and the Army abandoned Fort Hall. It was briefly occupied by the Volunteer soldiers of the Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...
. Flood waters of the Snake River washed away the Old Fort Hall in 1863. Fort Hall was rebuilt in 1864, on Spring Creek just north of the original Fort Hall. The old fort was taken apart to construct the new fortified stage station. The following year, the site was abandoned. The Volunteer troops moved to Camp Lander until 1866. It was located southeast of the original Fort Hall, at the junction of the Salt Lake and Boise roads.
In 1867, the United States established the Fort Hall Indian Reservation for displaced Boise and Bruneau Shoshone, with local Shoshone and Bannock included under an 1868 treaty. They had suffered years of encroachment on their territory by European-American settlers. The town of Fort Hall developed about east of the old trading post and fort; both are within the reservation. In 1961, the site of the original Fort Hall, which is marked by a memorial, was declared a National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
.
A replica of the original Fort Hall was constructed in the 1960s in Pocatello, about away, and is operated as a public museum.
New Fort Hall
On May 27, 1870, the U.S. Army built another military Fort Hall on Lincoln Creek, east of the Snake River and about northeast of the old Fort Hall. Captain James Edward Putnam and a company of soldiers built the new facility. Army soldiers were garrisoned to protect stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
travelers, the U.S. mail, and workers going to mining areas in the Northwest. The Army abandoned the fort on June 11, 1883.
The federal government transferred the land and barracks to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which adapted the buildings as an Indian boarding school. This was part of a late-nineteenth century movement to establish residential schools for immersion education of Native American children to learn the English language and European-American culture. The buildings were eventually relocated to Ross Fork Creek within the reservation.[
None of the original buildings remains at either site; the 1870 site is also listed on the ]National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
.
See also
* List of National Historic Landmarks in Idaho
__NOTOC__
This is a complete List of National Historic Landmarks in Idaho. The United States National Historic Landmark program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes structures, districts, objects, and similar ...
* National Register of Historic Places in Bannock County, Idaho
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Bannock County, Idaho.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Bannock County, Idaho, United St ...
References
External links
Fort Hall Replica official site
{{Authority control
1870 establishments in Idaho Territory
Buildings and structures in Bannock County, Idaho
California Trail
Hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...
Fur trade
Pre-statehood history of Idaho
Hudson's Bay Company forts in the United States
National Historic Landmarks in Idaho
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho
Oregon Trail
Oregon Country
Museums in Pocatello, Idaho
History museums in Idaho
Hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...
Closed installations of the United States Army
Idaho in the American Civil War
Hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...
Military and war museums in Idaho
National Register of Historic Places in Bannock County, Idaho
Trading posts in the United States