Antoine Robidoux
Antoine Robidoux (September 24, 1794 – August 29, 1860) was a
Early life
Robidoux was born in 1794 in
In his early years he helped his father extend his business westward,
In 1829, Antoine and his younger brother
Around the same time, and possibly in partnership with Louis, Antoine established Fort Uncompahgre near the confluence of the Gunnison River (then known as the Río San Xavier) and the Uncompahgre River in west-central Colorado.[2] Though the exact date of its completion is unknown, Robidoux's post was arguably the first permanent trading operation west of the continental divide.[2] In 1832, Robidoux purchased the Reed Trading Post, a single cabin built by William Reed and Denis Julien four years earlier at the confluence of the Uinta and Whiterocks rivers in northeastern Utah, and rebuilt it much larger as Fort Robidoux, also called Fort Uintah and Fort Winty. The fort was visited by many well-known pioneers and mountain men during its years of operation, including Marcus Whitman, Miles Goodyear, and Kit Carson.[6]
Westwater Canyon inscription
Robidoux spent more than a decade managing both trading posts and exploring the Western interior. He is especially well known for having carved a famous rock inscription [6] on a wall of Utah's Westwater Canyon during this time. Likely ascending a trapper's trail from the canyon's mouth on the Colorado River, Robidoux left the following record of his presence engraved on a sandstone bluff:
PASSE ICI LE 13 NOVEMBRE
1837
POUR ETABLIRE MAISON
TRAITTE A LA
RV. VERT OUWIYTÉThe inscription was not again brought to public attention until 1933, when Charles Kelly first photographed it.[6] It has since yielded many interpretations in attempts to more accurately pinpoint the precise dates of Robidoux's operations in the area. The most direct translation from the French reads "Antoine Robidoux passed here 13 November 1837 to establish a trading post at the Green OUWIYTÉ River", but the accuracy of this translation has been a matter of controversy among historians.[2]
Specifically, it has been suggested that the word "Wiyté" was actually intended to read "Winté", and that deterioration has made the appearance of the third letter ambiguous; though the
A simple solution is that the year engraved in the inscription has also been misinterpreted, and that the original message reads "1831" instead of "1837"; this would be a logical fit with the notion that Robidoux may have been searching for a place to establish a new trading post in late 1831, shortly before he eventually did so when he bought the Reed Trading Post. Yet there is evidence that Antoine Robidoux was actually in Missouri selling furs and procuring supplies in November 1831, making it impossible for him to have carved the inscription at that time.[2]
A third solution is that 1837 is actually correct and that Robidoux was, in fact, planning to build a third, unidentified trading post in a new location at the time, which either never materialized or was built and subsequently lost to history.[2]
There's no space between the"OU" and the "WIYTÉ" words on the inscription they form only one word "OUWIYTÉ" reading in French pronunciation "Uweetah" or "Uintah" closest spelling in English writing. It also make sense as the Uintah River is the closest affluent on the green River ("RV. VERT" on the inscription).
1837 seems also the best date interpretation since the French Canadians and pioneers never wrote the number Ones like in France to avoid misinterpretation between Ones and Sevens. If Robidoux wanted to write 1831, he would have carved the first "1" exactly like the last "1" which is clearly not the case.
Later life
Both Fort Uncompahgre and Fort Robidoux were evidently attacked and destroyed by Utes in 1844, just as the fur trade was declining with changes in the European market.[5] These circumstances prompted Robidoux to quickly abandon his fur enterprise and return east to St. Joseph. Over the next decade, he worked in various capacities as an emigrant guide and a U.S. Army interpreter. In June 1846, Robidoux enlisted as an interpreter with General Stephen W. Kearny's expedition to California during the Mexican–American War. He was severely wounded at the Battle of San Pasqual in December,[7] and later applied for a government pension.[6]
Robidoux died in 1860 in St. Joseph, Missouri, at the age of 65.[6]
References
- ^ a b Bartholomew, Becky. "OLD ANTOINE ROBIDOUX LEFT HIS MARK IN UTAH". Utah History to Go. State of Utah. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Willoughby, Robert J. (2012). The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.
- ISBN 9781412222990. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
- ^ Stevens, E. W. (1850). Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Count of the State of Missouri, Volume 13. State of Missouri.
- ^ a b O'Rourke, Paul (Winter 2009 – Spring 2010). "Antoine Robidoux, Notorious Trapping and Trading Entrepreneur". Telluride Magazine. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Hugh M. (2006). "Antoine Robidoux: Last of the Mountain Men". Retrieved 28 February 2017.
- ^ Gibson, George Rutledge.(1935) "Journal of a Soldier Under Kearny and Doniphan 1846-1847" p. 131, 132. The Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale, CA