Settin' a line of beaver traps in waters so cold it knots the flesh. Fresh-kilt buffler roasting over an open campfire. Rot-gut liquor. Watchin' for hostile injuns. An autumn rendezvous on the Seeds-kee-dee. Tradin' beaver pelts and tall tales.
Some 160 years later, the all-too-brief era of the mountain man still conjures up romantic images of buckskin-clad trappers forging their way through the wild Rocky Mountains.A passel of those trappers died in obscurity. Lost their hair to the Blackfeet. Or froze to death. Or gave up trappin' to live with the Crow.
Yet there were some who not only kept their scalps but found fortune: Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, Peter Skeen Ogden, Antoine Robidoux.
Robidoux? Chances are most Utahns have never heard of Antoine Robidoux, even though he may have been one of the most influential mountain men in Utah history. He not only helped open north-south trading routes from Colorado into the Uintah Basin, but established Fort Uintah in the Uintah Basin, and possibly a second fort at the mouth of the Green and White rivers.
"By then the glory days of beaver trapping were waning," said Bruce Louthan, a Bureau of Land Management archaeologist. Not only did eastern demand for beaver hats slacken, but beaver supplies were running low.
What beaver were left were difficult to get at, and veteran trappers soon realized it was more profitable to pay Indians to do the dangerous work for them. Trappers, like Robidoux, gave up their trap lines and went into the business of building trading posts. And some made fortunes at it.
Antoine Robidoux, born in 1794 in St. Louis, and four brothers were instrumental in opening sections of the Rocky Mountains to trapping, trading and settlement. Antoine based his operation at Taos and Santa Fe, even becoming a naturalized Mexican citizen to facilitate his trading operations in what was then Spanish territory.
He later moved north, establishing a trading post at Gunnison, Colo. In the 1830s, he pushed further north, exploring the Uintah Basin of Utah.
Just exactly when Robidoux pushed into eastern Utah is still a matter of dispute among historians. And fueling the dispute is an inscription on a cliff wall just north of I-70:
"Antoine Robidoux, passe ici le 13 Novembre, 1837, pour etablire maison, traitte a la, Rv. vert ou wi(y)te." Translated it could read, Antoine Robidoux, passed here November 13, 1837, to establish a house of trade at the Green River or Winte.
The Robidoux inscription may seem straightforward enough, but it has created a 50-year controversy among historians. Most of the controversy is centered on whether the date is 1831 or 1837, and whether the last word is "Wiyte" as in the White River or "Winte" as in Uintah River.
Option 1
If the inscription reads 1831 and Winte, then it clearly refers to Fort Uintah (Winty) near White-rocks in the Uintah Basin. Historians traditionally put the construction of Fort Uintah at 1831, based on two recorded incidents: Kit Carson met Robidoux in 1833, presumably near the mouth of the Duchesne River; and the inscription "Denis Julien 1831" on a rock a few miles below Whiterocks.
Option 2
Other historians say the presumption that Fort Uintah was built in 1831 is "folklore," insisting that the inscription north of I-70 actually refers to the establishment of Fort Uintah in 1837 - not 1831. They note there are no published references for Fort Uintah prior to 1837.
Experts note that Robidoux - who was fluent in three languages - used the French word "vert" in referring to the Green River. Logically, if he had wanted to refer to White River, he would have used the French word "blanc."
Even more persuasive is the accent over the final "e" in "Wiyte." If Robidoux was using the English word "white," misspelled as "wiyte," it would be unlikely that he would have pronounced it "why-tay." That pronunciation is actually closer to "win-tay," or Uintah.
Option 3
There are some who believe the Robidoux inscription reads 1837 and White. If so, the inscription may refer to a second Robidoux fort near the confluence of the Green and White rivers.
At least two historians believe they now have evidence of a fort at that location. The ruins of an old adobe fort there also support such a reading.
Option 4
Historian George Stewart believes those ruins at the confluence are the ones referred to in the Robidoux inscription, which he attributes to 1837. The fort at the confluence was abandoned after one season because of flooding, and the fort near Whiterocks was built soon thereafter, also in 1837.
Stewart also argues that the adobe fort fits the inscription whether it reads "White" or "Winty." Although the main river joining the Green from the west is now called the Duchesne, to the mountain men it was merely a tributary stream to the Uintah River. Thus, for Robidoux and others, it was the "Winty River," not the Duchesne, that emptied into the Green.