Statewide County, SD History - Books .....Astorian Expedition In SD 1925 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 13, 2007, 1:40 am Book Title: Doane Robinson's Encyclopedia Of South Dakota Astorian Expedition in South Dakota- Under direction of Wilson P. Hunt, in 1811 John Jacob Astor sent a party of sixty men with three boats up the Missouri River enroute to the mouth of the Columbia River, there to establish a Pacific depot for his continental fur trade. The expedition entered South Dakota about May 16th. It was accompanied by John Bradbury, a notable English naturalist, and Thomas Nuttall, an English botanist; much of our early knowledge of the natural history of this region is due to the observation of these men. All of the way Hunt had been doing his utmost to outrun Manuel Lisa, who he knew was following him; Manuel on the other hand was straining every nerve to overtake the Astorians, that by their combined force they might the more safely pass through the Indian country. Hunt had passed the previous winter near St. Joseph and had started from there April 21st. Manuel left St. Louis April 12th. Thus at the start he was about 10 days behind Hunt. It was indeed a great boat race; but Manuel's energy and experience were too much for the Astorians and he overtook them at about the mouth of Chapelle Creek, 25 miles below Pierre, on June 3rd: the junction was mutually advantageous. Each party, however, was suspicious of the other and they had little in common until they reached the Arickara Indians above Grand River on June 12th. There Lisa was of great service to Hunt and helped him to get horses and supplies to leave the river and go directly west to the Pacific via Grand River. The Astorians stayed at the Ree village at Ashley Island six days and on the 18th started west. They traveled up Wakpala Creek for three days and then turned southwest, striking Grand River on the 23rd near the western line of Corson County, where they came upon a camp of Cheyennes and remained with them, trading horses and making a supply of buffalo meat until August 6th, when they proceeded southwesterly on the highland south of the south branch of Grand River across Slim Buttes and thus westward out of South Dakota. They were the first to write of Northwestern South Dakota. Hist. IV, 121; X, 106. Additional Comments: Extracted from: DOANE ROBINSON'S Encyclopedia of South Dakota FIRST EDITION Published by the Author PIERRE 1925 COPYRIGHT BY DOANE ROBINSON. 1925 WILL A. BEACH PRINTING COMPANY PRINTERS AND BINDERS SIOUX FALLS File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/state/history/1925/doanerob/astorian272gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/sdfiles/ File size: 3.0 Kb