1826 William Ashley journal
The journal is on loan to the Museum of the Mountain Man from the Campbell House Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri.
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Newly-discovered 1826 William Ashley Journal on display at the Museum of the Mountain Man
Talk about the journal on Friday, July 11th
July 10, 2014
The Museum of the Mountain Man is excited to have a very special exhibit on display this summer: A newly-discovered 1826 journal by William Ashley. The journal is on loan from the Campbell House Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri.
This unknown journal details Ashley’s journey starting at the mouth of the Kansas River on the Missouri River on March 27, 1826 and ending at Independence Rock and Devil’s Gate on the Sweetwater River in what is now Wyoming on June 2, 1826.
The trip was Ashley’s last trip to the Rocky Mountains on his way to the 1826 Cache Valley rendezvous in present day Utah where he would sell his fur trade company to Jedadiah Smith, David Jackson and William Sublette. The journal includes a narrative section of daily activities as well as various business and account records before and after the trip.
The journal was preserved by Ashley’s clerk Robert Campbell and later mistakenly thought to have been written by him. Having been lost since 1938, it was donated to the Robert Campbell House Museum in 2005 by Karl Deibel, the son of a secretary in the law firm that administered the Campbell estate in 1938.
The full journal has been reproduced in the 2014 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal with a historical context by Jay Buckley. During research for publication, it became clear the journal was written by William Ashley filling a gap in the earliest records of the mountain fur trade.
Jay Buckley is a guest speaker at the Museum of the Mountain Man and will give a talk about the journal and his article on it at 2:00PM on Friday, July 11th at the Museum. Anyone who wishes to have this year’s authors autograph their copy of the Journal, and missed the booksigning on Friday evening, can meet the authors again between 2-4PM on Friday during the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal author presentations. Journals are available for $25 in the Museum gift shop. The talks are free.
Click here for a complete schedule of the talks and programs at the Museum of the Mountain Man during Green River Rendezvous Days: Museum Schedule of Events
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