The American reconnaissance stimulated immediate interest in the upper Missouri and in the Rocky Mountains, particularly among the trappers and traders. Beaver pelts, because of their texture and quality, made excellent felt for the stylish and fashionable beaver hats; and though the risks of trade were high, so were the profits. While returning down the Missouri, the Lewis and Clark expedition passed numerous trappers and traders heading upriver. Even one of the expedition members, John Colter, decided not to return to St. Louis and left immediately to return to the lucrative beaver country. By 1809, Manuel Lisa, a shrewd businessman of Spanish descent living in St. Louis joined with Pierre Chouteau to organize the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company. The Missouri Company, as it was later called, intended to capture the fur trade in the upper Missouri region.

In his drawing entitled "An old time mountain man with his ponies," the renowned western artist Frederick Remington depicted the hardy entrepreneur of the fur trade business. (Western History Department, Denver Public Library)

This American interest, combined with depleted beaver resources in old trapping areas, reopened an interest in possession and brought on an international rivalry in the area. The British responded immediately. Canadian fur companies like the North West Company, the X Y Company, and Hudson's Bay Company sent rival expeditions to explore this undeveloped region and to exploit its fur-bearing resources, both east and west of the Rocky Mountains.

As early as 1792 and 1793, Hudson's Bay Company agents Peter Fidler and John Ward ventured near the mountains, met some Kutenai Indians who "had never seen an European before," and heard about the region across the mountains. At the same time, the North West Company's Alexander Mackenzie made the first crossing of the Canadian Rockies and explored a route to the Pacific coast. His route lay far to the north and was entirely too difficult to serve as a regular route for transporting furs or trade goods. By 1800, demand for an easier, more southerly route stimulated the famous trader and explorer, David Thompson, to engage the Kutenai Indians in trade and to explore the western slope of the Rockies. Thompson met some Kutenai near the mountains and convinced them to return with him to trade at Rocky Mountain House in south-central Alberta. Later, he dispatched two French-Canadian trappers named La Gasse and Le Blanc to return with the Kutenai and help protect them from the Blackfeet. La Gasse and Le Blanc were probably the first white men to cross the mountains and enter the Columbia River Basin, but they centered their trading activity north of Glacier's mountains in order to stay clear of the unfriendly Blackfeet.

Between 1800 and 1810, the North West Company, and particularly David Thompson, developed a substantial trade in the mountain valleys of present-day southeastern British Columbia and the American Pacific Northwest. Thompson established trading posts west of the mountains, including Kootenae House on Windermere Lake (near Invermere, B.C.); another trading post near Libby, Montana; Kullyspell House near Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho; and Saleesh House near Thompson Falls, Montana.

These posts asserted the British-Canadian presence in the region and their active trade with the Indians helped to establish their claims in this disputed region. Since American traders were still making their approaches up the Missouri River, the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company considered their position and possession to be quite secure.

But the Blackfeet continued to exercise their dominance on the plains as well as in the mountainous regions. American traders had difficulty maintaining early posts at the Three Forks of the Missouri or near the present site of Missoula, Montana, because of the Blackfoot raiders. David Thompson was stopped several times by the Piegan and prevented from carrying trade goods to their western tribal enemies. Finally, Thompson selected more northerly routes to avoid the Blackfoot menace. Trading posts like Saleesh House and Kullyspell House both suffered severe attacks from the Blackfeet and even had to be temporarily abandoned. One of Thompson's employees, a huge, six-foot-four, red-haired Scotsman named Finian MacDonald, was forced to retreat from both of those posts and later helped to establish Spokane House at a safer location to the west. It was Finian MacDonald, accompanied by two French-Canadians, Michel Bourdeaux and Bapteste Buché, who became the first recorded white men to enter the area of present-day Glacier National Park.

MacDonald's purpose in crossing Glacier's mountains was linked to his personal life as well as to his trading enterprise. Following the fashion of other trappers and traders, he had married a Pend d'Oreille girl, Peggy Ponderay, and thus his family interests as well as his commercial livelihood were linked to the welfare of the Flathead and Pend d'Oreille tribes. His personal dislike of the Blackfeet also contributed to the venture. With his French associates and nearly one hundred and fifty Indians, MacDonald left Kullyspell House in August of 1810 and journeyed eastward. They traveled along the streams and valleys of the western slope, crossed Marias Pass (or possibly Cut Bank or Red Eagle Pass), and emerged openly on the plains to hunt buffalo. Normally the western tribes would have been more elusive, but now equipped with their newly acquired firearms, they did not hide or skulk. Almost immediately they were attacked by one hundred and seventy "Peeagans" and that led to a day-long fight in which the western tribes were able to hold their position and leave seven Piegans killed and thirteen wounded.

It was a major psychological victory for MacDonald and his allies. Mac Donald was to have several more successful but frightening encounters with the Blackfeet: according to some sources he had another fight east of Glacier's mountains in 1812 (but two of his trappers were killed) and an encounter far south near Lemhi Pass in 1823. The Blackfoot domination remained intact, however, and MacDonald's visit to Glacier was short in time, lacking in description, and marginal in exploratory significance. Remembering the Indian fights or safe routes was far more significant to mountain men like MacDonald than commenting on the scenic views or the geological formations or leaving elaborate descriptions of flora and fauna. However, the first recorded white man had finally entered the mountains of the present-day park and challenged its Native American guardians.

The two decades following Finian MacDonald's initial foray across the mountains to fight Blackfeet and hunt buffalo, brought greater competition between American and British trappers and traders. When the North West Company merged with Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, their combined organization continued to face growing competition from the American invaders. Company agent John Work led the "Flathead Brigade" during the 1820s and trapped much of the area west of the Continental Divide in present-day Montana hoping to deplete the beaver resource and discourage Americans from entering the area.

Harper's Weekly (Western History Department, Denver Public Library)

By the later 1820s, a group of rival American trappers visited the Flathead Valley. Famous mountain men like Robert Campbell, Joshua Pilcher, David Jackson, and Thomas Fitzpatrick, along with forty other trappers, spent the winter of 1828-1829 at Flathead Lake. They undoubtedly scouted nearby streams and trapped beaver wherever they could be found. Their trading with the western Indians proved to be unsuccessful, however, because Hudson's Bay Company dominated and drained the wealth of the region. In the spring of 1829, Joshua Plicher headed north. He continued to explore the Columbia River Basin, and by early 1830, he had crossed the Canadian Rockies and visited several Hudson's Bay posts in central Alberta. Becoming enthusiastic about the area, Plicher returned home to publicize his exploration and his account became part of the Congressional Record, but he also found that his company had fallen into bankruptcy during his absence. Since there is no direct evidence that Pilcher, John Work's Flathead Brigade, or any other trappers entered the mountains of Glacier, we can only speculate that its untouched beaver streams proved to be a strong attraction to a few unnamed, solitary individuals.

A turning point in the fur trade came during the 1830s along with some new moves toward the mountains from the eastern approach. The newly dominant American Fur Company, led by John Jacob Astor, absorbed a rival company and formed the Upper Missouri Outfit with Kenneth McKenzie as its director. The Company made an immediate push to secure trade with the Blackfeet and established Fort Piegan at the mouth of the Marias River in 1831. Even though it was burned to the ground by Blackfeet within a year, trade would continue through additional outposts like Forts McKenzie, Lewis, and Brule built nearby. Kenneth McKenzie, with help from men like James Kipp, Alexander Culbertson, and Andrew Dawson, was successful where other Americans had failed. Finally, the establishment of Fort Benton in the early 1840s provided a secure trading post which would dominate trade along the front range of the Rockies for decades to come. McKenzie's persistence earned him the title "King of the Upper Missouri" and "Emperor of the West."

By the late 1830s, the interest in beaver pelts began to wane. According to one story, a Frenchman visiting China lost his beaver hat and could not get it replaced so he had a new one made out of silk. Upon his return to Paris, he became the envy of fashionable society. To the lasting gratitude of beaver everywhere, the market for beaver pelts declined very rapidly. During the 1830s, however, trade for muskrat pelts and buffalo hides already dominated half of the upper Missouri business.

While the fur trade changed, the Blackfoot attitude toward Americans also changed perceptibly. Severely weakened by a ravaging smallpox epidemic in 1837 and 1838 which claimed an estimated sixty to one hundred thousand Indians among the various tribes, the Blackfoot defenses fell, and they became much more susceptible to the white influences. They also became addicted to the trade goods available at the nearby posts—particularly whiskey. However, the Indians remained hostile to any independent white trappers invading their territory and to any commerce with their enemies. Many trade goods which had now become necessities, especially guns and ammunition, allowed the efficient slaughter of buffalo for their hides. Consequently, the Indians' growing desire for trade goods forced them to decimate the herds which they previously depended upon for subsistence alone.