Description

This camp is on the Duchesne River in Utah. The photograph is not dated but would have been taken between 1876 and 1879 when Maguire was trading in the Southwest.

Originally published in The Catholic Church in Utah, by Rev W. R. Harris, The Intermountain Catholic Press, Salt Lake City Utah, 1909. Photo is In the public domain.

Used in Days Past article published 

Don (Dominick) Maguire was born in 1852 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Don’s father, John, was a merchant trader who originally traveled and traded all over New England and New York, then into Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa, and made a considerable fortune in the 1870s. John then took his family west to Ogden, Utah. From 1876 to 1879, the itinerant peddler Don Maguire made three trading expeditions through Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Mexico. He determined that the trading opportunities were ripe in the mining districts of the Arizona Territory, which were typically undersupplied. It was not without danger and Maguire did not go alone. He hired experienced, “good, trusty and worthy men.” He required his men to be constantly well armed and alert, to keep to themselves, not talk to the locals, not explain their purposes and be loyal to him. In exchange, he offered good pay, the best food to procure, the best accommodations available, good horses, side excursions, and vacations.

Don Maguire’s trading expedition camps included his crew, his very important livestock, packs and wagons. Maguire preferred mules to horses, both for packing and hauling his wagons, although he usually had some horses for himself and his employees to ride. This camp is on the Duchesne River in Utah. The photograph is not dated but would have been taken between 1876 and 1879 when Maguire was trading in the Southwest.