Monday, August 25, 2014

THE OREGON TRAIL TRADING POST




Hi everyone. Jennifer Uhlarik here. I’ve been busy working on my debut novella, Sioux Summer, which will be included in Barbour’s Oregon Trail Romance Collection coming out on April 1, 2015. Since my story is set in and around a trading post along the Oregon Trail, I thought you all might like to learn a little about how these frontier trading posts came into existence.

Beavers
As early as the 1500’s, French and English fishermen were sailing to the coast of Newfoundland to fish for cod. It was here that they encountered some local Indian tribes who were anxious to trade for metal goods. In order to obtain the iron pots, pans, knives and tools they coveted, the Indians offered beaver pelts, which they could provide in great quantities. It took the fishermen little time to sell the pelts once they returned home, and people quickly realized that the soft underfur of a beaver pelt made a wonderful felt for hat-making. With a growing demand for beaver pelts, both France and England began to explore North America with the intent to colonize it. Not long after, France began setting up trading posts in Quebec.
Of course, England’s Hudson Bay Company moved into the area as well, sending traders and trappers across parts of Canada and the American frontier. Wherever they went, Hudson Bay Company set up trading posts to barter with the native population.

Coffee
As life on the frontier changed from a focus on the fur trade to a focus on Westward Expansion, many of the old trading posts lived on. The owners of the posts continued to trade with the Indian tribes, but they also became outposts where white travels and settlers could get supplies. These small outposts provided staples like coffee, tea, rice, tins of hardtack biscuits, dried fruit, or canned goods. They also offered tools and utensils, such as cast iron pots, kettles, knives, and axes, saddles, sunglasses, and flint and steel for starting fires. Customers could trade for textiles, such as beaver-felt hats, blankets, bandanas, ribbon, thread, needles, and fabric. Ornamental or decorative supplies were commonly found, anything from silver to beads and beyond. And of course, guns, ammunition, and other shooting supplies were a common item found in these trading posts.

Old Sewing needle and threads
I’m sure you can imagine, life on the frontier could be lonely and supplies might be hard to come by. You had to learn to live with what you had…and make do until you could restock. Often, these trading posts were lifesavers, keeping people from starving or doing without until they reached the next major stop on their journey west. Or they might have prevented settlers from having to make a long trek to the nearest town or city, which might be days or weeks away. They certainly weren’t as convenient as today’s convenience stores, but I’m betting they were lifesavers to more than a few of our ancestors.
Wool trade blanket

It’s your turn: If you had lived in times past, would you have liked to live on the frontier where a trading post might be your nearest source of supplies, or would you have preferred to live in a town or city?





Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won five writing competitions and finaled in two other competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and five fur children.

7 comments:

  1. I love this blog. As to feedburner subscribers having to resubscribe at your new site, I'm not sure that will need to happen. When I switched from blogger to my own domain, I simply went into blogger and pointed the blog to my domain name, catherineensley.com/blog, and my feedburner (and all other feed readers) were redirected automatically.

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    1. Hi Cathy, thanks for stopping by. I hope you're right about the feedburner subscribers not having to resubscribe. However, I'm not involved in any of the behind-the-scenes stuff with our blog, so I can't say for sure. This is what we were told by those far more knowledgeable than me. :)

      Glad to know you are enjoying our blog!

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    2. Hey Cathy, That is interesting. I've been messing with another blog and changing the name. And when I change it the feedburner doesn't follow. Did you go into the 3rd party URL when you changed yours? I sure hope you're right. That sure would solve a lot of problems for us. Thanks for letting us know.

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  2. Did you say sunglasses? I didn't know they had them then!

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    1. They actually did, Susan. I found that fact at the Museum of the Fur Trade website. You can see pictures of a few pairs of sunglasses by going here: http://www.furtrade.org/museum-collections/tools-utensils/

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  3. "Sunglasses" caught my eye as well. How interesting! I certainly would have preferred living in a town or city.

    texaggs2000 at gmail dot com

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    1. Yes, that was one of the more interesting and unusual pieces the trading posts sold, Britney! Thanks for stopping by

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