Living History: Joseph Meek, trapper, law official and politician

Mountain men were among the earliest Euro-Americans to settle in the Northwest. Following in the footsteps of the Lewis & Clark expedition, these men were the toughest of the tough. Trapping beaver and trading with Indian people in a pristine wilderness, they opened the West for many more to follow. Mountain man Joe Meek first entered the Oregon Country in 1829, along with William Craig and Robert Newell. He met Marcus and Narcissa Whitman at the 1836 fur trapper’s rendezvous on their way to Walla Walla. As the fur trapping waned in the 1840s, Meek, Newell, and Craig transported wagons left behind by the Whitmans at Fort Hall (near what is now Pocatello, Idaho) to the mission at Waiilatpu, west of Walla Walla. These were the first wagons ever to cross the Blue Mountains. Meek settled in the Willamette Valley but left his daughter, Helen Mar, with the Whitmans. When he returned to the Whitman Mission after the incident of 1847, he found his daughter had died of illness while a captive among the Cayuse people. Meek then made his famous winter ride to Washington, D.C., to plead for U.S. troops and a government presence in Oregon. As a result, he was appointed U.S. Marshal for the new Oregon Territory, which included all of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as parts of Montana and Wyoming. Joe Meek is portrayed by Harris Gwinn.