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 Bears' Ploughed Field #328 Posted by:  Touchstone
N 44° 13.563 W 114° 55.759
11T E 665384 N 4899065
Long before miners and ranchers settled Stanley Basin, bears dominated this area.
Waymark Code: WM1QNY
Location: Idaho, United States
Date Posted: 06/25/2007
Views: 43
Ross, Alexander, 1783–1856
Canadian fur trader and pioneer, b. Scotland. He went to Canada in
1805, taught school in Upper Canada, and in 1810 left for Oregon as a clerk in
John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company. In the founding (1811) of Astoria, Ross
played a part. When that fur-trading post was sold (1813) to the North West
Company, he entered their employ and was a member of the expedition that
established (1818) Fort Nez Percé (also called Fort Walla Walla); he was in
charge of this post until 1823, two years after the amalgamation (1821) of the
North West Company with Hudson's Bay Company. His account of these years on the
Pacific slope is related in his Adventures of the First Settlers on the
Oregon or Columbia River (1849, new ed. 1923) and The Fur-Hunters of the
Far West (1855, new ed. 1956). He was head of an expedition (1823–24) in
the Snake River country. In 1825 Ross settled in the Red River district; in
Assiniboia he was sheriff and a member of the council. His Red River
Settlement was published in 1856.
Marker Name: Bears' Ploughed Field
Marker Type: Roadside
Marker Text:
When Alexander Ross and his Hudson's Bay Company trappers stopped here, September 20, 1824, they "observed at some distance the appearance of a ploughed field, and riding up towards it, found a large piece of ground more than four acres in extent, dug up and turned over. On getting to the spot, we observed no less than nine black and grizzly bears at work rooting away," eating camas, onions, and wild celery.
County: Custer
City: Stanley
Marker Number: 328
Date Dedicated: Not listed
Group Responsible for Placement: Not listed
Web link(s) for additional information: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
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