Fort Hall

EuroAmerican hunters and traders arrived in this region in the early 1800s, attracted by the plentiful game and fur-bearing animals. In 1834, Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth contracted with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to bring $3,000 worth of goods to that year's rendezvous. But when he arrived, the company, in financial difficulties, refused to accept the goods. Wyeth took his goods and men west until he reached the Bottoms of the Snake River on July 15, 1834.

There, Wyeth constructed a trading post which he named Fort Hall in honor of the oldest member of the New England Company financing his enterprise. Captain Wyeth continued his journey to Oregon Territory, leaving Robert Evans in charge of his new trading post. Several hundred Bannock and Shoshone Indians camped with their families near the new post, seemingly a good omen for the future of the venture.

But the Hudson's Bay Company soon began construction of their own post, Fort Boise, at the junction of the Boise and Snake Rivers. Their plan was to drive Wyeth out of business and they succeeded by overbidding Wyeth for the purchase of furs and underbidding him in the sale of goods to the Indians. In 1837, Wyeth had no choice but to sell Fort Hall to the HBC.

By the time the "Great Migration" to Oregon began in 1843, Captain Richard Grant was in charge of Fort Hall. Thousands of emigrants soon passed by Fort Hall, although the opening of the Hudspeth Cutoff in 1849 reduced traffic considerably. In the 1850s, the local Indians became increasingly hostile to the whites passing through their lands and, as a result, the HBC abandoned Fort Hall in late 1855.

Although Fort Hall continued to be used by independent fur traders, such as Jonnie Grant, Jr., the post fell into disrepair and, in 1864, Holladay Stage Lines constructed a stage station a short distance southeast of Fort Hall, using much of the material of the old fort. This post was also known as Fort Hall and served freighters as well as other travelers.

On June 14, 1867, the federal government established the Fort Hall reservation for displaced Boise Shoshone Indians. The reservation headquarters was located about ten miles east of old Fort Hall near the Fort Hall Stage Station. The site of old Fort Hall vanished, to be disputed for the next 125 years.

In 1906, Oregon emigrant Ezra Meeker arrived in the area of Fort Hall with his covered wagon and oxen. He had undertaken the journey to map the trail, point out remaining landmarks, and create an interest in re-establishing the sites which had been destroyed. Show the "Adobes," as the Fort Hall Stage Station had come to be known, Meeker dismissed this as the original site of Fort Hall. In 1916, Meeker returned to the area and, guided by Joe Rainey, the son of a French-Canadian trapper and Indian mother, a small group of local citizens located what they believed to be the original site of old Fort Hall. A small dig in the area produced pieces of china and metal objects.

However, the actual site of old Fort Hall remained in dispute until December 3, 1993, when an archaeological excavation and analysis confirmed the location of the site. At that time, excavation of the southeast corner of the old Fort revealed adobe bricks, similar to those described in the historical record, and the remains of cottonwood timbers. The site, located on the Fort Hall Reservation, is not open to the public.

Because the original site of old Fort Hall belongs to the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, the city of Pocatello has constructed an authentic replica of the old fort which is located on top of Lava Cliffs in Ross Park in downtown Pocatello.

>Nathaniel Wyeth, Aug. 6, 1834:

Having done as much as was requisite for safety to the Fort and drank a bale of liquor and named it Fort Hall in honor of the oldest partner of our concern we left it and with it Mr. Evans in charge of 11 men and 14 horses and mules and three cows we went down the river S.W. 4 miles and found a ford crossed and made N.W. 7 miles to the head of a spring and camped in all 29 strong. Fort Hall is in Latt. 43 14 Long 113 35'.