The first company to set up a trading post on the Pacific Northwest coast was the Pacific Fur Company. John Jacob Astor, a wealthy New York fur merchant, decided to organize the Pacific Fur Company to open up the unexplored territory west of the Rocky Mountains. Astor's fur enterprises were well established east of the Rockies. He hoped to gain control over the entire American fur trade.
In September, 1810, two parties, representing Astor's Pacific Fur Company, set out to establish the first trading post on the Columbia River. One party sailed from New York aboard the Tonquin, under the command of Captain Jonathan Thorn. The other party set out from St. Louis on an overland expedition to the mouth of the Columbia. That party was under the leadership of Wilson Price Hunt, one of the partners of the Pacific Fur Company. Both the overland and the overseas parties expected to arrive at the Pacific Coast about the same time.
In addition to the two parties, Astor dispatched one of his......

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Title: Fur Trade
Approximate Word Count: 1419
Approximate Pages: 6 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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