Hugh Glass, Mountain Man (Part 2)
He stayed at Ashley's new fort on the Little Big Horn. In February, Ashley asked for a volunteer to go to Council Bluffs. Hugh volunteered when he found out Fitzgerald was there. After nearly getting killed by Indians again, Hugh arrived at Council Bluffs with his dispatch. While there, he learned that Fitzgerald had enlisted in the army and was stationed at Fort Atkinson. Once again, he traveled overland several hundred miles, on foot. Unfortunately, it was for naught, as he could not kill a U.S. soldier. However, the captain of the day arranged for the return of his favorite rifle.
After this, Hugh temporarily abandoned the Rocky Mountain fur business. He hooked up with an expedition going to Santa Fe on the famous Santa Fe trail. He trapped there for some months before the rivers stopped bearing. In the early part of 1825, he was hired by Etienne Provost to trap in Ute territory in Utah. The rivers were rich with beaver and he did well. On a trip on the Snake River, his group was once again attacked by Indians. At least one of his companions was killed. Hugh was shot in the back with an arrow. His friends could not remove it. It was lodged there until he returned to Taos with his pelts. A doctor removed it using whiskey as an anesthetic.
After his minor surgery, Hugh returned to the headwaters of the Missouri in what is now Montana. Like many others he showed up at the mountain man rendezvous that was held each summer to trade furs for goods. At one point Kenneth McKenzie came in and set up Fort Floyd on the mouth of the Yellowstone. He was hoping the capture all the fur trade revenue for his boss, John Jacob Astor, by offering higher prices for pelts. The mountain men were open to breaking the monopoly of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, but they didn't want to give up their rendezvous. So they sent Hugh as their representative to invite McKenzie to send some goods to the rendezvous. McKenzie declined as he had neither experienced men to take the goods or any goods immediately on hand to send.
Hugh Glass continued to trap on his own until 1832, when he went to Tulloch's Fort near the mouth of the Big Horn. Early in 1833, Hugh sent out with Ed Rose and a man named Menard, to trap beaver on the Yellowstone. Hugh's luck finally
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