Dr. Barton H. Barbour is a leading reserach scholar of the North American Fur Trade. Barbour specializes in early American history at Boise State University, where he teaches courses on the American West, North American Exploration, Native American History and US Indian Policy, and Colonial America. He came to Boise State in 2001 with a Ph.D. in United States History from the University of New Mexico (1993), following a number of years of work with local, state, and federal museums, and four years as a research historian at the National Park Service's regional offices at Santa Fe, New Mexico. His dissertation, entitled "Fort Union and the Fur Trade of the Upper Missouri, 1830-1867" was published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2001, and he continues to explore the culture of fur traders and mountain men, and the varied affects of the fur trade on various “frontiers” of society, ethnicity, business, law, and politics. His biography of early 19th century explorer and trapper Jedediah Smith (University of Oklahoma Press, 2010) was the culmination of ten years of research and travel.
In 2010, Dr. Barbour was named a recipient of Boise State’s first Arts & Humanities Fellowship for the academic year 2010-2011, allowing him time and space to work on a book about the fur trade era at Fort Laramie, a major stop on the Oregon Trail. As a teacher, writer, and presenter, Dr. Barbour enjoys sharing his love of the American West and early North American history.