Supply & Demand: The Ledgers & Gear of the Western Fur Trade
By Oliver McCloskey and Scott "Doc Ivory" Olsen
194 pages, 8-1/2" X 11", softcover: $30.00
Reviewed by Bill Scurlock
Document your gear. That’s the goal of serious fur trade reenactors. But for many, finding the primary documents to do so can be difficult. That’s where Supply & Demand really shines. McCloskey and Olsen have assembled a cache of Western fur trade ledgers that show just what items were being sent to trading posts and fur companies during the heyday of the mountain men. Some of the ledgers and accounts also show what the individual trappers were buying. The original ledgers in this book include goods bound for Fort Astoria in 1810, William Ashley’s accounts from the rendezvous in 1825, goods transferred by Ashley to Smith, Jackson and Sublette in 1826, Robert Campbell’s accounts from 1832, accounts of items shipped to and traded at Fort Union from 1828 to 1840, Fort Hall ledgers in 1834, annuities for several Indian tribes in 1836, Fort Uncompahgre and Bent’s Fort ledgers, and accounts from various other trappers and companies in the fur trade.
You can learn a lot about the gear and supplies available to the trappers and Indians of the Rocky Mountain West by studying these journal ledgers, but Supply & Demand provides an added bonus of interesting research articles written by Allen Chronister. Chronister is a noted fur trade researcher and author whose work has appeared in The Book of Buckskinning Series, as well as other publications. The articles printed here were written for the newsletter published by the Upper Missouri Outfit of the American Mountain Men. In them Chronister notes many seemingly unusual items in the trade and helps explain the background and significance of some of the items listed in the ledgers.
Supply & Demand contains a wealth of information that is informative, and sometimes surprising, in regard to what was bought and sold in the Rocky Mountain fur trade during the mountain man era. It’s definitely a must-have book for the modern-day mountain man’s library. Copies may be ordered from the authors: Scott Olsen, 115 South Pacific Street, Dillon MT 59725, phone 406-683-2671 or Oliver McCloskey, 302 North 300 West, Cedar City UT 84721, phone 435-867-6230. You can also order online at <store.scurlockpublishing.com>.
@ 2009 ScurlockPublishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.