Andrew Henry’s name is all over Southeastern Idaho, all because he spent a hard winter near present-day St. Anthony. Henry and his men were on a trapping expedition, hoping to find a good supply of rodent fur they could liberate from beavers on account of the beavers being dead and all. Felt hats were all the rage.
The Henry party had been in present-day Montana on the upper Missouri on a quest for the slap-tails, but Blackfeet Indians had driven the trappers across the divide at Targhee Pass. They found a location near what would later be called the Henrys Fork of the Snake River, not far from what would later be called Henrys Flat at the foot of the Henrys Lake Mountains, near Henrys Lake, on the shores of which Henrys Lake State Park would one day be, and went about constructing a few cabins for the coming winter.
That winter of 1810 was a rough one for the trappers. The cold had driven buffalo south, so they found little game. The Henry party was reduced to eating some of their horses.
The next spring, they headed back to St. Louis with only 40 packs of pelts which, as everyone knows, was meager for a whole season of trapping.
The buildings they left behind would be much appreciated by the Wilson Price Hunt party the very next winter. They stayed there on their ill-fated trip to Fort Astoria in 1811.
Today, there’s an Idaho State Historical Marker a few miles from the site, and the City of St, Anthony has a monument downtown commemorating what the members of the Henry Party probably thought of as something like, “the winter we ate Sea Biscuit.”
#henryslake #henrysfork #andrewhenry #forthenry
The Henry party had been in present-day Montana on the upper Missouri on a quest for the slap-tails, but Blackfeet Indians had driven the trappers across the divide at Targhee Pass. They found a location near what would later be called the Henrys Fork of the Snake River, not far from what would later be called Henrys Flat at the foot of the Henrys Lake Mountains, near Henrys Lake, on the shores of which Henrys Lake State Park would one day be, and went about constructing a few cabins for the coming winter.
That winter of 1810 was a rough one for the trappers. The cold had driven buffalo south, so they found little game. The Henry party was reduced to eating some of their horses.
The next spring, they headed back to St. Louis with only 40 packs of pelts which, as everyone knows, was meager for a whole season of trapping.
The buildings they left behind would be much appreciated by the Wilson Price Hunt party the very next winter. They stayed there on their ill-fated trip to Fort Astoria in 1811.
Today, there’s an Idaho State Historical Marker a few miles from the site, and the City of St, Anthony has a monument downtown commemorating what the members of the Henry Party probably thought of as something like, “the winter we ate Sea Biscuit.”
#henryslake #henrysfork #andrewhenry #forthenry
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