14 FUR FACTS 



to find there no accommodation for his men or sufficient shelter for 

 his merchandise. At the invitation of the officer in charge of Fort 

 de Chartres, Laclede ascended the river to that post and there left 

 his goods and the most of his men, while he, in December, accom- 

 panied by Auguste Chouteau and a few other attendants, examined 

 the country on the western shore as far as the Missouri River, at 

 that time known as "Muddy Water." 



Returning down the stream from the mouth of the Missouri 

 River, he selected a spot where the shore rose in an abrupt wall of 

 limestone, at places more than 40 feet high, broken here and there 

 by ravines through which flowed streams of fresh water fed by many 

 gushing springs. 



This spot, which Laclede conceded to be ideal for his purpose, 

 they marked by blazing the trees. Then, said Laclede to young 

 Chouteau, his most intimate friend and associate, "You will come 

 here as soon as the river is free from ice, and will cause a place to be 

 cleared and form a settlement according to the plan which I shall 

 give you." Upon his return to Fort Chartres, Laclede told Governor 

 Neyon De Villiers that he had found a site where he was going to 

 form a settlement which, so the story goes, might become hereafter 

 one of the finest cities of America. 



Thus was established the city that has become known as the 

 world's greatest fur center. It was some time, however, before the 

 fur trade in this section attained any considerable volume. 



Gradually the hunting and trapping extended into the interior, 

 and the Osage Indians, who were the nearest neighbors to the settlers, 

 were easily induced, by the gift of beads and trinkets, to contribute 

 to the success of the enterprise by hunting animals for their skins, 

 which, when brought in to the post, always commanded what the 

 Indians considered to be a good price in beads, colored cloth, red 

 paint, powder and lead. 



This trade eventually grew to be very profitable, and in 1810 the 

 trade with the Osages was estimated to amount to $30,000 a year. 



The trading post began to have a name, not only in New Orleans 

 and surrounding territory, but also in far away Montreal, to which 

 place its fur packs were sometimes sent for sale, and the French 

 Canadians who had been in the service of the Great Northwest Fur 

 Company, began to straggle in to take their chances in the new 

 settlement. 



Occasionally a buckskin Kentucky hunter, with his rifle on his 

 shoulder, would arrive on his way to the wonderful new hunting 



