Milton Sublette

Who was Milton Sublette?

Milton Green Sublette was an American fur trader, explorer and mountain man. He was the second of four Sublette brothers prominent in the western fur trade; William, Andrew, and Solomon. Milton was one of five men who formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to buy out the investment of his brother William L. Sublette, Jedediah S. Smith and Dave E. Jackson.

Sublette injured his leg in an 1826 Indian battle in the American Southwest; it was slow to heal and repeatedly became seriously infected. After it was removed by a surgeon in 1835, he walked on a cork leg procured by Robert Campbell through his brother Hugh Campbell. Later, he rode in a Dearborn wagon, drawn by one mule, as he left the St. Louis area heading for the west. Later infections, in the leg, led to his early death at Fort John,on the Laramie River, now in Wyoming. In 1843, Solomon Sublette, while traveling with William D. Stewart and William L. Sublette's caravan, took a grave marker to Fort John and placed it on Milton's grave. Today, Milton's actual grave site is lost to us, due to the US Military placing a building over the site of Fort William's grave yard.