James Ohio Pattie
[1] Between 1824 and 1830, Pattie took part in a series of fur trapping and trading expeditions, traveling through the American West and Southwest and into modern-day northern and central Mexico.
While their request was initially denied, James claimed the group was granted a license to trap after rescuing the governor's daughter from a nearby band of Mescalero Apache.
[12][13] Their luck turned around in the early months of 1826, and by late March the group had cached hundreds of beaver pelts along the river with hopes of returning once they could acquire pack animals to carry the load.
[18] Pattie acquired several valuable skills from his interactions with the diverse peoples passing through the Santa Rita area, and he claims he learned spoken Spanish over the course of a few months from Juan Onis, who had previously operated the mine.
[20] Despite his father's insistence that James stay at the mine through the winter,[21] Pattie set out in January 1827, intending to travel the Gila to its junction with the Colorado River.
The party spent a few days in a Yuma village at the mouth of the Colorado gathering supplies before heading several miles up the river, where they met and traded with a group of Maricopa Indians.
After traveling the Colorado into Navajo territory, the expedition allegedly crossed the Continental Divide and turned northward, trapping along the Platte, Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers.
[25] Pattie claims the party ventured as far north as the Clark Fork of the Columbia River in modern-day Montana before coming to a Zuni village in western New Mexico.
In all likelihood, Pattie was reciting the names of rivers he had learned from other trappers, and the party only briefly ventured away from the Colorado when they reached the impassable Grand Canyon.
[27][28] Although the dates Pattie provides for his travels in the spring and summer of 1827 are confusing and likely inaccurate, he did lead a brief hunting trip along the Pecos River after arriving in Santa Fe in an attempt to replace some of his lost goods.
[36][37] On the way down the Gila River to California, half the trappers deserted,[38] and every pack animal the party had either died, got lost or was stolen by the same Yuma Indians that had treated Pattie kindly the year prior.
[39] The remaining eight members of the expedition constructed makeshift canoes and floated down the Colorado River until they reached the Gulf of California, where the powerful surf forced the Patties to leave their boats a few miles upriver.
[42] After requesting to purchase horses to retrieve their cached furs, the party was escorted to San Diego in late spring 1828, where the Patties were detained and questioned by a California territorial governor, José Maria de Echeandia.
[45] Following his father's death, James served as a translator between Echeandia and John Bradshaw, captain of the American vessel Franklin, who had offered to purchase Pattie's furs should they be retrieved.
However, Echeandia required the trappers to remain in San Diego and did not allow Pattie to leave the city until February or March 1829, almost a year after his arrival.
[54] Pattie spent the remainder of 1829 exploring the coast of California, and while his claims of vaccinating people along the way is likely false, his descriptions of the missions and settlements in the region are detailed and accurate.
[56] In November 1829, a revolutionary force led by Joaquin Solis arose in Monterey before traveling south to meet Echeandia's army at Santa Barbara.
In addition to allowing Pattie to join the vessel, Jones offered to transport Solis and several other revolutionary leaders to Mexico City for trial.
Although Pattie was essentially broke by the time he arrived in Vera Cruz, the American consul there, Isaac Stone, arranged for his free passage to the US.
[72] The last documented evidence of Pattie is on a tax list for Bracken County, Kentucky, in 1833, and his total taxable property consisted of two horses valued at $75 together.
