- W. Price Hunt
William or Wilson Price Hunt (
March 20 ,1783 –April 13 ,1842 ) was an earlypioneer of theOregon Country in thePacific Northwest ofNorth America . An American and an employee ofJohn Jacob Astor , Hunt used information supplied by theLewis and Clark Expedition to lead the portion of theAstor Expedition that traveled to Oregon by land. The party reached the mouth of theColumbia River in February 1812, joining the portion of the expedition that had traveled by sea atFort Astoria , which the latter party had just completed. [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Mtmen/explore.html Mountain Men: Explorers and Guides] ]Hunt had difficulty finding quality men at
Mackinaw and St. Louis, finding most to be "drinking in the morning, drunk at noon and dead drunk at night."cite book
title=The Fur Traders and Fur Bearing Animals
first=Marcus
last=Petersen
publisher=Hammond Press
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=LytDAAAAIAAJ
date=1914] Having finally assembled a party, Hunt arrived atNodaway, Missouri onNovember 16 ,1810 , and settled into winter quarters. They departedApril 22 1811 .When the party encountered the
Snake River , they abandoned their horses and attempted to travel downstream. After nine days of successful travel they lost a man and two canoes in the rapids, and reconsidered their plan. They divided into four parties, and took different routes to approach the mouth of the Columbia.The trip from
Missouri to the future site ofAstoria, Oregon took 340 days. According to his own account, Hunt traveled 2,073 miles from a village of theAricara s, in present-daySouth Dakota , to the end of the journey. [http://www.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/html/wphunt/index.html Introduction to Hunt's Journal ] ]A return expedition was led by Robert Stuart, who discovered the
South Pass , a key feature of the soon-to-be-establishedOregon Trail .Hunt's expedition is one of many scenes depicted on the
Astoria Column , [ [http://www.astoriacolumn.org/pages/history2.htm Astoria Column, Column Scenes, Mural Views ] ] and his name is inscribed in afrieze in theOregon State Senate chamber of theOregon State Capitol .Historical records refer to Hunt both as "William" [http://www.mountainmancountry.com/more/history.html Heritage & History of Sublette County, Wyoming ] ] and as "Wilson." [ [http://www.3rd1000.com/history3/biography/wphunt.htm Wilson Price Hunt ] ] [http://www.nps.gov/archive/jeff/LewisClark2/Circa1804/WestwardExpansion/EarlyExplorers/FurTradeExplorers.htm Fur Trade Explorers ] ]
See also
*
Ramsey Crooks , a notable member of the expedition
*David Thompson (explorer) , a Canadian explorer who arrived at Astoria shortly before the Hunt party.References
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