Hiram Martin Chittenden (1858–1917) was a leading historian of the American West, especially the fur trade. A graduate of West Point, he was the Seattle district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Capt. Hiram Martin Chittenden‘s account of “The American Fur Trade of the Far West," in three volumes, is virtually a connected history of the great West down to the middle of the nineteenth century. The author is an army engineer officer, whose professional career has been largely passed in the trans-Mississippi country, and he has visited nearly every section which was frequented by American traders. In the Missouri valley the traders long preceded the expedition of Lewis and Clark, and it was the traders, in fact, who opened and established the first transcontinental highway, the Oregon trail, as well as the Santa Fe trail. Captain Chittenden has exploited original materials, many of which have never been printed. Among these are the records of fur companies, the early correspondence of fur traders, journals of expeditions, and the records of steamboat voyages up the Missouri from 1840 to 1850s Included in Captain Chittenden's account is the full story of the founding of the settlement at St. Louis; and the publication of these early records of the exploration.

Originally published 1902; reformatted for the Kindle; original spellings kept in place; may contain occasional imperfection.