Like gold dust on the mining frontier, beaver fur was the medium of exchange in the mountains. Unique to the American industry was the rendezvous system, dreamed and schemed by William Ashley in 1825. The procedure was simple; the trader would buy his supplies in St. Louis and transport them out to the trappers in some pre-arranged location. Like modern-day shopping centers, the merchants took their goods

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows