Pierre's Hole is a shallow valley in the western United States in eastern Idaho, just west of the Teton Range in Wyoming. At an elevation over above sea level, it collects the headwaters of the Teton River, and was a strategic center of the fur trade of the northern Rocky Mountains. The nearby Jackson's Hole area in Wyoming is on the opposite side of the Tetons.
Today, the Idaho valley in Teton County is known as Teton Basin or Teton Valley. In 1984, it was designated a historic place as the site of the infamous events in the Battle of Pierre's Hole (below), following the well-attended Rendezvous in July 1832.
Historical overview
Explorer and mountain man John Colter, a member of the earlier Lewis and Clark Expedition, asserted that he passed through the valley in 1808. The Teton River flows northward through the mountain meadows of Pierre's Hole and then conjoins Bitch Creek (once known as the North Fork of the Teton) just before it turns west and into Teton Canyon. To mountain men, a large low-lying valley, such as this, with abundant beaver and game was called a "hole". Mountain men preferred these areas of numerous beaver rich streams as they provided ample food and comfortable camping in addition to beaver pelts. Pierre's Hole was named in honor of "le grand Pierre" Tivanitagon, a Hudson's Bay Company trader said to be of Iroquois descent, who was killed in a battle with Blackfoot Indians in 1827.
Pierre's Hole was the site of the huge Rendezvous of 1832. Hundreds of mountain men, trappers, Indians and fur company traders met to sell furs or trade for supplies. At the end of the 1832 rendezvous, an intense battle ensued between a group of Gros Ventre and the party of American trappers aided by their Nez Perce and Flathead allies.
After the fur trade subsided in the 1840s, Teton Basin returned to a quiet summer hunting valley for Native Americans. An Englishman named Richard "Beaver Dick" Leigh came to the Teton region sometime around 1860, and frequently trapped and hunted in Teton Basin and wintered on the lower Teton River near its confluence with the Henry's Fork of the Snake some miles below the basin. Beaver Dick guided F. V. Hayden and his geological survey through the Teton and Yellowstone region in 1872. He guided the Stevenson party in exploration of Teton Basin and the first ascent of the Grand Teton and guided the entire Hayden Expedition in Yellowstone and in Jackson Hole. In honor of his service, Leigh Lake in Grand Teton National Park is named after Richard Leigh and Jenny Lake is named after his Indian wife. Teton Basin, was later settled by Mormon farmers, who used the fertile but elevated valley to graze cattle and raise hay and other feed.
Rendezvous at Pierre's Hole
The 1832 'rendezvous at Pierre's Hole', or 'Rendezvous of 1832' was one of the largest rendezvous held in the Rocky Mountains. The meeting was held at the west foot of the Three Tetons in Teton County, Idaho. The basin was accessed from a trail that reached the Snake River from Green River. The trail then branched off towards Pierre's Hole through a gap between the Big Hole Mountains and the Palisades range.
Indian and mountain man camps extended from Teton Creek on the south end of present-day Driggs, north along the west side of the Teton Mountains to Tetonia. The camps covered an area of seven square miles, or more. It is estimated there were four hundred mountain men, one hundred and eight lodges of Nez Perce, eighty lodges of Flatheads, and over three thousand horses.
Purpose of a rendezvous
A mountain man rendezvous was a yearly event held in the summer for American fur trappers to gather together, sell their furs, and resupply themselves for another season of trapping. Representatives of eastern fur-trading companies would arrive with pack mules loaded with trade goods to meet the needs of the trappers for the upcoming year. If trappers were employed by a particular company, they turned their furs, mainly beaver, over to the company representative and received their pay, less the amount used to cover what they would need for another trapping season. Profits could purchase additional goods, including whiskey, tobacco, and other luxury items. Free trappers, i.e. men not contracted with a company, could negotiate a purchase price for their accumulated furs.