Three Forks & the Osage
February 21, 2001
 Listen  Historian's Notes Resources Transcript
Historian's Notes
This week's Almanac was a stretch. Lewis and Clark didn't go through Oklahoma
and not much of the Almanac actually dealt with Oklahoma. Still, Jefferson
did read a plea to Congress asking for the development of what is now basically Muskogee. The area around
modern-day Muskogee was highly prized by the local inhabitants for its trade and shipping value and it
continues to be valued so today. We've gotten so used to thinking that the Euro-American history began
with the land runs that we forget such things as Jefferson considering developing the area in 1806!
Resources
The Angie Debo Papers are held at OSU's Special Collections & University Archives.
Almanac Transcript
Hello, I'm Steven Kite welcoming you to the Oklahoma Audio Almanac where
we turn the pages of history to bring you the stories of our state's past.
In 1804, eager to take advantage of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson sent out
the now famous expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Journeying westward the explorers
met with, studied and took copious notes on the Native Americans living along their route.
In one message sent back to President Jefferson, the expedition leaders comment on the current affairs
of the Osage Tribe. Once located primarily in Missouri, a large band of Osage had apparently migrated
into what is now Oklahoma and set up an extremely successful hunting and trading camp near the convergence
of the Grand, Verdigris and Arkansas rivers, near present day Muskogee. Because three rivers came together
there the site was known as Three Forks, and although they never visited the
area Lewis and Clark noted in their message to Jefferson that the area seemed particularly ripe with possibilities.
Eager to see a return on his investment, Jefferson noted the location of the Three Forks site and prepared
a message to Congress.
It was in this week of February in 1806, February 19th to be exact, that the message from Jefferson
recommending the building of a government trading post at Three Forks was read
before Congress. The politicians took little note of Jefferson’s recommendation, but the ears of entrepreneurial
citizens were wide open. In 1806, just scant weeks after Jefferson’s suggestion and rejection, Joseph
Bogy, a merchant by trade, loaded up several tons of goods on barges and headed up the Arkansas to the
mouth of the Verdigris. Once at the Three Forks area Bogy and his men set up simple log cabins and began
trade with the Osage. Although brisk at first, Bogy’s operation was abruptly halted when a raiding party
of Choctaws attacked the post taking any and everything that could be carried. It took Bogy over thirty
years to receive a $6,000.00 compensation check from the government for the losses accrued during the
Choctaw raid, but he used to time to rebuild his trading post.
Other traders and entrepreneurs seeing the success, or possible success, of Bogy’s idea soon followed
in his footsteps. Hugh Glenn of Cincinnati, Nathaniel Pryor from the Louis and Clark expedition and Colonel
A. P. Chouteau from St. Louis all followed Bogy to the Three Forks area and established successful ventures,
and in some cases actual towns, such as Pryor, that remain to this day a testament to early day trade
in the Indian Territory.
I'm Steven Kite.
The Oklahoma Audio Almanac is a production of the OSU Library and Oklahoma's
Public Radio.
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