Today, fur traders and far-off borders. The University of Houston’s Music School presents this program about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

Hudson’s Bay Company is the oldest corporation in North America. But this fur empire didn’t get that way by being warm and fuzzy with the employees or their four-legged quarry. In 1819 the company was exploring the vast volcanic tablelands of what is now SW Idaho. They sent three of their trappers into the headwaters of a large river. The three were Sandwich Islanders—native Hawaiians. They vanished and were never seen again. The Bay later named the river “Owyhee” in their memory. By the way, that’s with an “O”, not “H.”

Full story here.