Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/13

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THE QUARTERLY of the Oregon Historical Society Volume XXIV MARCH, 1923 Number 1 Copyright, 1923, by the Oregon Historical Society The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages. EWING YOUNG IN THE FUR TRADE OF THE FAR SOUTHWEST, 1822-1834 By Joseph J. Hill Bancroft Library, University of California The present article aims to supplement the account of Ewing Young's activities in Oregon so ably presented by F. G. Young in the Quarterly for September, 1920, by giving a more detailed account of the part played by Ewing Young in the fur trade of the Far Southwest. 1 For the twelve years preceding the date of his arrival in Oregon in the summer of 1834, Young had been an active participant in the fur trade of the Far Southwest. He might even be regarded as its central figure for that period (1822-1834). But, so far as the writer's infor- mation goes, no adequate account of this part of his life has ever been compiled. In order to present Young in his proper perspective in the fur trade of the Far Southwest, a very brief con- sideration of some of the more salient features of the fur trade in that region might be helpful. Misconceptions concerning the fur trade in the Far iThe present article is but a portion of the larger work, The Ameri- can Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, which in turn is one of a series of articles on the opening of the Southern Trails to California which the writer is preparing for publication. "The Old Spanish Trail" (Hispanic American Historical Review, IV., 444-473, August, 1921) is a part of this series.