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game was abundant (ibid.:10). When Thomas Jefferson Farnham visited the country in <br />1839, guided by a trapper named Kelly, he stopped at Fort Davy Crockett and noted: <br />Its climate is very remarkable -- while the storm rages on the mountains in sight and <br />the drifting snows mingle in the blasts of ice, the old hunters here heed it not. Their <br />horses are cropping the green grass on the banks of the Skeetskadee, while they <br />themselves are roasting the fat loins of the mountain sheep, and laughing at the <br />merry tale and song (Farnham 1841:109). <br />Farnham had also made the first documented visit to Steamboat Springs, a place his guide <br />Kelly had visited about 10 years earlier. There the Farnham party ran into a group of French <br />Canadian trappers on their way to Middle Park who had been attacked by a band of Sioux <br />on the trail from Fort Davy Crockett. <br />In 1840 Henry Fraeb went into partnership with Jim Bridger, and with a group of 23 <br />others headed to the Little Snake to kill buffalo and trap beaver. On the way, he met the <br />first emigrants bound for California (the Bartleson party). But during this trip, the group <br />was attacked and Fraeb was killed by a large party of Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Sioux <br />Indians (the battle is discussed earlier). Shortly after that incident, Fort Davy Crockett <br />folded and the fur trade diminished rapidly. By 1845, it had vanished as a major economic <br />force. <br />Many of the trappers were not only colorful, but extremely hardy. For example, <br />Thomas Smith was traveling in the area near North Park in 1827 when his party was <br />attacked by a band of Indians. During the fight he suffered a wound which required <br />amputation. This he performed himself, and Milton Sublette cauterized it for him. The <br />party subsequently took Smith by stretcher to Brown's Hole where friendly Utes aided his <br />recovery by “chewing roots and spitting juice on the wound.” Smith fashioned himself a <br />wooden leg and was subsequently known as “Pegleg” Smith (H.R.N.F. 1975:2). <br />Exploration <br />Northwestern Colorado was visited by many famous (and some not so famous) <br />explorers as they made their way through the West. They came for a variety of purposes: <br />exploration, science, pleasure, adventure, and profit. <br />In 1776, the Escalante expedition passed through northwestern Colorado, trying to <br />find an alternate route to California. They noted their disappointment in finding themselves <br />in northwestern Colorado instead. However, their discovery of “Canyon Pintado” on <br />Douglas Creek south of Rangely marks the first recorded archaeological site in northwestern <br />Colorado (Athearn 1976:65). <br />Several explorers visited northwest Colorado in the early 1800s. Captain Benjamen <br />L. E. Bonneville came into the region in 1826. Dr. Fredrick Wislizenius, traveling on a <br />botanizing expedition for the American Fur Co., visited Fort Davy Crockett in 1839. <br />39