Fort Hall Replica, Pocatello, ID.
The Fort Hall Accounts
The accompanying files are transcribed from the surviving records of the Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company's operations at Fort Hall. These accounting books cover
the period from the establishment of the fort on July 31, 1834 to its sale to the Hudson's Bay
company in August 1837. Two ledgers and one journal have survived. Ledger 1 has 471 pages,
Ledger 2 has 160 pages, and the Journal has 478 pages. The preface to the first ledger contains
Nathaniel Wyeth's instructions to Robert
Evans, the man he left in charge of the fort. There is also
an inventory of the initial stock of goods left in the fort, the bundles cached nearby, and the
goods taken by Wyeth to the Columbia.
Following this preface, are the accounts for the men to whom the Columbia River Fishing and
Trading Company saw fit to grant credit. In accordance with usual accounting procedures, the
journal was used to record all transactions in a sequential manner. These transactions were later
posted to one of the two ledgers, where they are sorted by accounts, rather than by date.
The original manuscript is now in the collection of the Oregon Historical
Society, Portland, OR..
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