Mountain men rendezvous with historians

From mountain men throwing knives and brandishing muzzleloaders to history seminars and panel discussions, Saturday's Howse House Bicentennial Celebration and Mountain Man Rendezvous offers something for everyone.

History buff Ron Beard, executive coordinator of the event, hopes to draw a good crowd from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in Kalispell's Lawrence Park. The gathering celebrates not only the 200th birthday of the establishment of Hudson's Bay's fur-trading post in the Flathead Valley by Joseph Howse but also mountain men of the West.

"It will be a pretty full jam-packed day," he said. "What we want to emphasize is August is ‘History Awareness Month.'"

Northwest Montana Historical Society, the Museum at Central School and the Flathead Valley Muzzle Loaders serve as co-sponsors of the event as part of the society's mission to "bring life to history and history to our lives."

In support, Kalispell Mayor Tammi Fisher selected August as History Awareness Month in Kalispell. Her proclamation encourages the public to attend this event to learn about Joseph Howse as well as rendezvous activities.

For crowd pleasing, the Flathead Valley Muzzle Loaders' mountain man demonstrations get top billing with long-arm rifles and other weapons, flint knapping (arrowheads), trapping, skinning and tanning furs, canoe construction and packing, beading and quilling.

Other lively rendezvous events such as knife and tomahawk throwing revive these gatherings of independent trappers that typified the American fur trade.

The symposiums focus on Howse of the Canadian Hudson's Bay Co. in the Flathead Valley as well as the valley's early trails and explorers.

At 9 a.m., historians will gather inside a large tent to present the evolving story of Howse, one of Canada's earliest explorers and fur traders and the first Hudson's Bay man to cross the Rocky Mountains. A river, mountain peak and pass bear witness to his journeys.

Often compared to explorer David Thompson, who established Saleesh House near Thompson Falls, Howse has not achieved the same recognition for his achievements. According to Beard, early research mistakenly placed his fur trading house in other locations such as the Jocko River area.

"It's pretty well established now that it's in the Flathead," he said.

Beard credits the work of the late Mark White, a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and historian, with contributing to today's knowledge of Joseph Howse House. White spent 20 years locating trails and posts established by the first Europeans seeking trade with the Indians.

The program for the bicentennial features a memorial to White, who died of cancer at 54 in early January. One of his final projects involved pinpointing the location of Howse House, but he was unable to complete that mission.

According to Beard, he passed on his knowledge of Howse's one winter in what is now Montana to Carl Haywood, a colleague in Idaho who will carry on the work. Beard said the trading post location has been narrowed to the general area of South Kalispell near established Indian trails close to the Flathead River.

"The exact location won't be revealed," he said, until archeological studies are completed. "We have several good guesses where it was but the purpose of the bicentennial is to celebrate its establishment over 1810 and 1811."

Howse's fourth-generation great-granddaughter Linda Roden and her husband Ron have agreed to attend and make a presentation during one of the four academic sessions.

Topics include Howse, Hudson's Bay Company and fur trade in general, the valley's vast network of Indian trails, water ways, early explorers, visitors and residents. Beard said a panel discussion will wrap up the seminars.

"We don't want anyone to leave with unanswered questions," he said.

The event also features history book signings, history-oriented vendors and displays of artifacts. The Kootenai National Forest office will bring its David Thompson chest full of fur-trade artifacts.

Beard said visitors will see a stage mock-up of Howse House created with help from Montana Wildlife Studio, Meredith Construction, Restorative Youth Justice and mural artist Arvid Kristoffersen. They based the cabin on specifications provided to explorers by Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company.

"They had a prototype design that was pretty well accepted," he said.

Their specifications allowed explorers to build a sturdy cabin with various lengths of logs inserted in channels notched into a vertical post. Men with minimal skills could build the structure for shelter and pelt storage.

"They weren't carpenters - they were voyagers," Beard said. "They had a lot of logs and a lot of horses and ropes. This construction was unique to the wilderness."

Beard said this level of detail planning was typical of Canadian trading companies. While the American fur-trading industry was a loose network of independent operators, the Canadian industry represented by Howse and Thompson was well-established since the late 1600s.

Beard displayed a neatly written journal page from Hudson's Bay Company's records. It clearly lists Howse as one of its explorers outfitted to seek out new trade.

He said he recently learned that Howse's brigade included Joseph Lewis, a mulatto steersman, making him the first black man to arrive in the Flathead Valley and the third to cross the Continental Divide. Historian John Jackson brought this to his attention during a recent visit to this area.

According to Beard, Thompson became the better known Canadian explorer because he was a prolific journal writer while Howse was not.

"He was no David Thompson, but he was a very intelligent man," Beard said. "When Howse went back [to Canada] in 1811, he never came back to the West. He went back and wrote the best-known book on the Cree language. He was very educated."

For more information about this gathering, check the website www.josephhowsehouse.org.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.