What has always interested me about this time period is how the successful players like Louis Vasquez, the Bent brothers, Sublette, Astor, Bridger, St. Vrain, Lupton and a few others would go down in one venture and then popped up on top in the next one. Was this a learning experience on their part of what worked and what didn't? John Jacob Astor was a very smart man he owned and ran Fort Union in the Dakotas before moving on to Ft. Astor on the west coast (big time fur trader).
We were invited to a rendezvous after we had made a canoe run for the United States Postal Service for their 100th year (filmed us delivering the mail in period clothing and canoes to Pony Express riders). Didn't really fit the different time periods, but that's what they wanted, money is money ....
After that we went to Fort Union, to enjoy their event (we were honored guests). While there we got to go into their archives to see all the items discovered when the original fort site was cleared to build a new old fort.
After seeing a thousand different items from trade goods to pieces of guns we had dinner on the U.S. Parks Service and got to listen to a gentleman tell us how this fort got to be in modern times.
The original fort site had been homesteaded in the 1860's by a family, in the 1970's the family wanted to sell this historic piece of ground with most of their holdings on one side of a road and this section on the other side. The U.S. Parks Service was contacted about the sale, like most government purchases they had to go through a million steps to scratch their butt. In the meantime a smart employee contacted the Astor Family in NY City (the wealthy ones that own much of 5th Avenue). Whoever they talked to wasn't even aware of where their family fortune came from (thinking real estate not fur trade). They were not interested in such a lowly operation. Next was call a family member in London, he's like the fourth great grandson. His "man" passed the word on to this young man who was very interested and made arrangements to meet at the site.
The U.S. Parks Service folks were in shock that Mr. Astor would come to look at the ground. It ended up that our government damn near lost this site by dragging their feet and a young man from another country visits the ground, buys the ground and pays to have the fort rebuilt. Our government folks are shocked and then this gentleman signs over the ownership to the U.S. Parks Service, free and clear.
Mr. Astor has visited this location several times since this making his g.g.g. grandfather smile I would think. :Red tup: :ttups: