Fort Robidoux

John D. Barton Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Fort Robidoux, a fur trading post also known as Fort Uintah and Fort Winty, was located at the junction of the Uintah and Whiterocks rivers in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah. It was founded in 1832 after Antoine Robidoux bought out the Reed Trading Post that had been in operation at that …

Overland Migrations

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place In the tradition of Dominguez and Escalante, American clergymen led the migrants to the West. Following the visit of a group of northwestern Indians to St. Louis in 1831, Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries left for Oregon beginning in 1834. Catholic missionaries, including the intrepid Jesuit Pierre Jean De Smet, started moving west in …

Antoine Robidoux

OLD ANTOINE ROBIDOUX LEFT HIS MARK IN UTAH Becky Bartholomew History Blazer, August 1996 Five miles west of the Utah-Colorado border, not far from I-70, Westwater Creek enters the Colorado River. A dirt road follows the creek up into the north hills. But 160 years ago some travelers chose this minor canyon as the route of least topographical resistance into …

Utah’s Early Forts

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place As the beaver supply declined in the West, traders rather than trappers began to dominate, and by the late 1830s, buffalo robes from the High Plains rather than beaver pelts from the Rockies became the most important prize of the fur trade. Few High Plains Indians trapped for beaver, but they readily hunted …