The Journal of Jacob Fowler

Jacob Fowler (1765-1849) was an American surveyor whose work for the US government took him to the great plains and mountains of the far West at a time when they were inhabited only by the Native Americans and wild animals. In September 1821 he set off on an expedition from the Verdigris River in present-day Oklahoma to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in company with Hugh Glenn and a party of 21 men to see whether trade with the Spansh in the region would be feasible. They arrived in Santa Fe in January 1822 and found that Spanish authority had been ended by the Mexican War of Independence but the new Mexican government was happy to promote trade between Mexico and the US, allowing the party to trap and hunt on the former Spanish lands. The profitable trip helped lead to the establishment of the Santa Fe Trail. Fowler and Glenn had first become acquainted when they both served in the US Army during the War of 1812. The manuscript of the journal kept by Fowler during the expedition was passed down through the generations of his family and in the late 1890s was shown to the American historian Elliott Coues (1842-99) who had a great interest in the pioneers of the Old West and had previously edited the journals of Lewis and Clark, Zebulon M Pike, and others. Coues was able to decipher Fowler's almost illegible manuscript and arranged for its publication in Francis P Harper's 'American Explorers Series' in 1897. He took the decision to leave Fowler's original spelling and syntax intact, and provided copious notes himself to allow the reader to follow the route of the expedition and make sense of Fowler's orginal commentary. This edition includes a reproduction of a page from Fowler's original manuscript.