Three Forks Post / John Colter

By editor

Three Forks, Gallatin County, Montana

In the spring of 1810, a hardy band of thirty-five fur trappers undertook a journey both arduous and fraught with peril to the very headwaters of the Missouri River, a region whose vastness and natural wealth had been brought to the knowledge of the American frontiersmen chiefly through the eloquent narratives of William Clark. Clark’s accounts, drawn from the monumental expedition he had co-led with Meriwether Lewis just four years prior, depicted the confluence of the Gallatin, Jefferson, and Missouri rivers as a realm abundant with beaver, whose pelts were prized currency in the burgeoning fur trade. It was in response to these tales that the Missouri Fur Company, a commercial enterprise formed by the enterprising Manuel Lisa, Andrew Henry, and Pierre Menard, dispatched this party, guided by two seasoned veterans of the Corps of Discovery: John Colter and George Drouillard.

The company’s objective was to establish a permanent post near the convergence of these three rivers, a strategic site that promised access to the plentiful beaver that Clark had so vividly described. Though the exact location of this outpost remains uncertain, it is believed to have stood between the Madison and Jefferson rivers, approximately two miles above their union with the Missouri. Here, amid the rugged grandeur of the Rocky Mountain foothills, the men erected what came to be known as the Three Forks Post and set about their enterprise of trapping and trade.

Yet the local Native peoples, particularly the Blackfeet--who regarded this territory as their own--were not inclined to tolerate the intrusion of these foreign trappers. The Blackfeet Confederacy, a formidable and proud nation, viewed the encroachment as a direct threat to their dominion over the plains and the lucrative hunting grounds therein. The first assault came swiftly--within eight days of the post’s construction, a violent attack saw two trappers slain and three others vanish without trace. This was but the opening salvo in a series of relentless hostilities that would soon render the enterprise untenable.

The Blackfeet’s opposition was not born merely of territorial instinct but of the necessity to defend their way of life against the insatiable appetite of the fur trade, which threatened to decimate the beaver populations and upset the balance of power on the plains. The Missouri Fur Company’s men found themselves beset by an enemy both skilled in the art of war and intimately acquainted with the land. The harshness of the terrain and the ferocity of the conflict combined to make the post a precarious foothold in an unforgiving wilderness.

Among the leaders of this ill-fated venture was John Colter, a man whose reputation for endurance and daring was already well established by the time the company returned to the headwaters. Colter, a figure both admired and feared, had earned distinction as a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, serving with distinction as a scout and hunter. His history in this region was marked by a singular episode that would become legendary in the annals of western exploration.

In the autumn of 1809, while trapping near the Jefferson River, Colter and his companion John Potts found themselves surrounded by a war party of Blackfeet warriors. The circumstances were dire; Potts, in a desperate act of defense, fired upon the attackers, killing one but sealing his own fate. The Blackfeet swiftly killed Potts, but for Colter, a different trial awaited. Stripped of his clothing and given a brief head start, he was set upon in a pursuit that tested the limits of human endurance. Colter ran five or six miles across jagged terrain, his bare feet torn by the sharp prickly pear cactus and rocky soil. At the Madison River, he turned to face his pursuer, wresting a spear from the Blackfeet warrior and killing him in close combat.

Concealed beneath a driftwood dam in the river, Colter remained hidden until nightfall, then embarked upon an arduous journey of over two hundred miles to Fort Manuel Lisa, arriving sunburned, famished, and with feet swollen from his grueling flight. His survival was a singular feat of courage and tenacity, emblematic of the perilous existence faced by those who dared to venture into these contested lands.

The promise of great wealth lured the Missouri Fur Company back to the Three Forks in 1810, but the peril that had once been narrowly escaped now became an inescapable reality. Under the guidance of Colter and Drouillard, the trappers endeavored once more to establish their foothold. Yet the Blackfeet’s hostility had not abated; frequent attacks inflicted severe losses upon the company’s men. The brutal killing and mutilation of George Drouillard in early May was a grievous blow to the enterprise. Drouillard, whose skills as scout and interpreter had been invaluable during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was a man of remarkable resourcefulness and courage. His death underscored the intractable resistance the trappers faced.

Despite the richness of the land and the potential profits to be gained, the Missouri Fur Company found the cost too high. After three months of relentless conflict and mounting casualties, the company made the somber decision to abandon the post. The Blackfeet, having triumphed in their defense of their territory, set fire to the fort, erasing the physical presence of the American trappers from the headwaters.

John Colter, whose name had already become synonymous with the frontier’s dangers and mysteries, remained only briefly during this second attempt. Eleven days after the post’s reestablishment, he departed--resolute in his conviction never to return to a region that had so nearly claimed his life. In his own words, Colter’s experience bore the mark of a land both majestic and merciless: “I have run the gauntlet of the Blackfeet, and I shall run it no more.”

Colter’s departure from the Three Forks Post marked the end of an era for the Missouri Fur Company in this region. He would live only three years longer, succumbing to jaundice in St. Louis, but his legacy as a man who braved the unknown and survived the fiercest trials endured on the American frontier remained undiminished. The story of the Three Forks Post and the men who sought fortune there is one of ambition clashing with the realities of a contested wilderness, where the ambitions of empires and the rights of indigenous nations collided with tragic consequences.

The headwaters of the Missouri River, though rich in natural bounty, were not to be tamed easily by the hand of the fur trader. The bold venture at Three Forks serves as a stark chronicle of the perils faced by those who sought to impose their will upon a land fiercely protected by its native inhabitants. It is a chapter both of enterprise and loss, of human endurance and the limits thereof, set against the endless horizon of the American West.

See also

• Three Forks Post / John Colter at Three Forks, Gallatin County
• Headwaters of the Missouri River at Three Forks, Gallatin County