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Wilson P. Hunt January 21, 1812 Campsite

Historic Campsite on Overland Astorians West on Columbia Plateau in Irrigon, OR

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Wilson P. Hunt January 22, 1812 Campsite

Wilson P. Hunt January 20, 1812 Campsite

The Astorians reached the left bank of the Columbia River probably somewhere near the general area of the “mouth of the Umatilla River” as they traded Indians for fresh salmon caught there.

A hypothetical campsite is placed near Irrigon, Oregon to represent Hunt’s unknown campsite on the Columbia River’s left bank.

Hunt’s emotions on reaching the Columbia River were: “I expressed with difficulty our joy at the sight of this river.” for they had left the Arikara village on the Missouri River in today’s State of South Dakota on July 18, 1811 (Hunt 1821; Irving 1836; Rollins 1935, 304, 326 note 262).

Hunt described the Columbia River and the Indian village in his diary as:

At last, on the 21st, we reached the banks of the Columbia, for such a long long time our cherished goal. We had come 1,751 miles and had lived through unbelievable hardship and privation. I expressed with difficulty our joy at the sight of this river. It was three quarters of a mile wide here; its banks were bare of trees, were filled with pebbles and in some places with steep rocks.

— Hunt

The area was inhabited by the Akaitchis Indians, a wretchedly poor tribe that have neither moccasins nor leggings. Their clothing consists of only a robe of buffalo, deer, rabbit, fox, or even duck skin. To this meager equipment, they sometimes add wolf-skin sleeves. Their huts are well constructed of matting with roofs like the roofs of houses. These structures are very light and warm. Holes scooped out of the ground and lined with mats are living quarters for the women, who are usually naked. Some have a fragment of robe to cover their shoulders, but all of them wear around their waists a leather belt that passes between their thighs and indicates that they aim to be modest.

— Hunt

These Indians are better stocked with food than the Snakes [Shoshone], for it seems that dried salmon is plentiful in their homes. They gave us many fresh salmon trout that they had caught at the mouth of the Umatilla River. This is excellent fish. Their canoes are made of pine trunks split in half, and consequently they are not raised at either bow or stern. Since they have no special tool, they use fire to hollow out their trees. (Hunt 1821)

— Hunt

Irving placed the Astorian point of contact with the Columbia River at the mouth of the Walla Walla River:

At length, on the following day [meaning Jan. 21st], the wayworn travellers lifted up their eyes and beheld before them the long-sought waters of the Columbia. The sight was hailed with as much transport as if they had already reached the end of their pilgrimage; nor can we wonder at their joy. Two hundred and forty miles had they marched, through wintry wastes and rugged mountains, since leaving Snake River; and six months of perilous wayfaring had they experienced since their departure from the Arickara village on the Missouri. Their whole route by land and water from that point had been, according to their computation, seventeen hundred and fifty-one miles, in the course of which they had endured all kinds of hardships. In fact, the necessity of avoiding the dangerous country of the Blackfeet had obliged them to make a bend to the south and traverse a great additional extent of unknown wilderness.

— Irving

The place where they struck the Columbia was some distance below the junction of its two great branches, Lewis and Clarke rivers, and not far from the influx of the Wallah-Wallah [Rollins placed contact west of Umatilla River]. It was a beautiful stream, three-quarters of a mile wide, totally free from trees; bordered in some places with steep rocks, in others with pebbled shores.

— Irving

On the banks of the Columbia they found a miserable horde of Indians, called Akai-chies, with no clothing but a scanty mantle of the skins of animals, and sometimes a pair of sleeves of wolf’s skin. Their lodges were shaped like a tent, and very light and warm, being covered with mats and rushes; besides which they had excavations in the ground, lined with mats, and occupied by the women, who were even more slightly clad than the men. These people subsisted chiefly by fishing; having canoes of a rude construction, being merely the trunks of pine trees split and hollowed out by fire. Their lodges were well stored with dried salmon, and they had great quantities of fresh salmon trout of an excellent flavor, taken at the mouth of the Umatilla; of which the travellers obtained a most acceptable supply. (1836, 2: 66-67)

— Irving

Attribution of Source Material

The preceding summary for the approximated January 21, 1812 Wilson P. Hunt Campsite location is used with thanks for the public domain sources of Hunt 1821 and Irving 1836. Additionally, appropriate parenthetical citations are used with thanks and credit in specific summary passages and quotes for sources that are not in the public domain Rollins 1935. Errors regarding unintended and improper copyright usage will be corrected immediately following notification.

Primary Sources

Hunt, Wilson P., and V.A. Malte-Brun. Nouvelles annales des voyages. v. 10. Paris: Bertrand, 1821. English translation available at Mountain Men and the Fur Trade AMM Virtual Research Center Project http://www.mtmen.org/mtman/html/wphunt/index.html.

Irving, Washington. Astoria, Or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, 1836. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Astoria_Or_Anecdotes_of_an_Enterprise_Be/t6k-AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.

Rollins, Phillip A., ed. 1935. The Discovery of the Oregon Trail: Robert Stuart’s Narrative of His Overland Trip Eastward from Astoria in 1812-1813: Appendix A: Wilson Price Hunt’s Diary. Bison Book Edition reprinted from the original 1935 edition by Edward Eberstadt and Sons. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

Further Research and Reading

Irving, Washington. Astoria, Or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, 1836. https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/oKk-AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.

Illustrations and Maps

Chittenden, Hiram Martin. “Map of the Trans-Mississippi of the United States during the Period of the American Fur Trade as Conducted from St. Louis between the Years 1807 and 1843.” Image. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, 1902. https://lccn.loc.gov/99446195 (accessed February 25, 2022).

Kmusser. “Columbia River Watershed with the Columbia River Highlighted.” April 7, 2008. self-made, based on USGS and Digital Chart of the World data. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbiarivermap.png. (accessed March 31, 2022)

Taxonomy

Classified As

Historic Campsite

Wilson P. Hunt January 21, 1812 Campsite