HOBACK, Wyo. — In September 1811, John Hoback was one of three trappers who guided Wilson Price Hunt’s expedition into Jackson Hole, inspiring Hunt to name the Hoback River after him.
According to the National Park Service (NPS), the expedition was organized by John Jacob Astor, who put Hunt in command of a group of “Astorians” who successfully achieved the first transcontinental expedition after Lewis and Clark. Their trail through Jackson Hole was part of an enterprise to support Astor’s American Fur Company trading post that he envisioned establishing at the mouth of the Columbia River.
On May 26, 1811, the NPS confirms that the party met the trappers John Hoback, Jacob Reznor and Edward Robinson near the mouth of the Niobrara River and convinced them to join the outfit as guides.
John Hoback was a mountain man from Kentucky who the Jackson Hole News described as “mysterious” in a 1978 article because of the sparse details known about him or his life. There are claims based on old ship logs that Hoback’s father came over to America from Germany; Hoback himself left Kentucky and trapped beaver throughout the Northwest for a fur company. Journal entries from English naturalist and Hunt expedition member John Bradbury say Hoback was heading back to Kentucky with Reznor and Robinson when they met up with Hunt’s expedition.
According to Bradbury, Hoback and his fellow trappers led the party up into South Dakota and then west into Montana, where they dropped down into Wyoming and went around the Big Horns to the south, following the Wind River.
According to the account, Hoback recognized a wide stream they passed as a place where he had previously trapped, and so Hunt named the river for him. The men then forded the Snake River, known at the time as the Mad River, and arrived into Jackson Hole by land from where Hoback Junction is today.
Teton County Historical Society’s historical marker for Hoback in Bridger-Teton National Forest says that after passing through Jackson Hole and heading over Teton Pass to Henry’s Fort in Idaho, Hoback, Reznor and Robinson separated from the expedition to continue trapping beaver. However, the historical marker says the trappers met up again with some of the Astorians led by Robert Stuart in the summer of 1812. The trappers had been robbed by local tribe members, which according to the NPS was possibly the Niitsitapi (Blackfeet) or the Apsáalooke (Crow), so Stuart and his men provided the three men with clothing and equipment.
The trappers continued to hunt and trap around the area until the winter of 1813, when they were killed by Native Americans.
In addition to leaving his name to the Hoback River, John Hoback leaves a lasting impression in Wyoming with Hoback Basin, Hoback Bridge, Hoback Canyon, Hoback Junction and Hoback Peak. According to Thomas Turiano, an adventurer, author, explorer and guide based out of Wilson, Wyoming, Allen David Wilson named Hoback Peak in 1877 on assignment for the Hayden Survey, working out primary triangulation ahead of geological and topographic surveyors.
Turiano says Wilson came over the Green River Basin rim, saw the peak that he would name Hoback as a prominent, climbable landmark and proceeded to summit it. He likely named it Hoback Peak due to the fact that the very head of the Hoback River circles around the south side of the peak, although Turiano says there’s actually no record of him naming it or why. What Turiano does say is that Wilson’s triangulation map was the first place that the name Hoback Peak appeared.
“Hoback Peak is worthy of multiple visits,” Turiano says, for those interested in exploring this local history. “The mountain is surrounded by all these waterfalls, and that headwater basin is really spectacular, open meadows with rivulets flowing down and they all join to form the head of the Hoback River.”
The summit of Hoback Peak is also littered with chiseled names from the 1920s and 1930s, Turiano says, tying in the history of Hoback to the early climbing history iconic to Jackson Hole and the surrounding areas.
