Please describe how the hide/bury them for long lengths of time. I have seen the catch word a lot but do not know what all that entails.......jk

I've got several descriptions from original sources. I'll post some tomorrow morning.

Basically, you dig a bell shaped hole in dry ground and put your stuff in it. Then cover it up. And hope no one finds it or the weather destroys it.

Caches could be either fur or supplies. Typically a cache would be the remedy for when they had more packs of beaver than they wanted to be carrying around and the intent would be to pick it up on the way to rendezvous or wherever else when the years hunt was over. Some caches were dug into the sides of arroyos or small cliff overhangs or sometimes dug right into the ground with campfires made over the top of it as to remove any sign of it.

They always tried to make sure they left no evidence of it.

K can probably find some exact references to descriptions of caches.

Seems I recall someone was killed digging one when a cave in buried him. Must have been quite a hole.

Yes, thats one of the instances I will quote. Many caches had 2 to 3 foot diameter entry holes. And the widened out to 6 feet across inside.

I have never heard of this before but in Transcription of Goods sold to O’Fallon and Vandeburgh by Robert Campbell at the 1832 ( Pierre’s Hole) there is mentioned something called a cacheing hoe that was sold for $2. (I assume it was used for making caches?)it is also interesting to see that he was able to sell flour that cost $0.03 (I assume this is an ounce) for $1 for 8 ounces. This was a 7307% mark up pretty good profit if you could get it out there safely. All this information came from research by a Gentleman named Clay Landry from Robert Campbell’s Journal and was published in the 2020 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal published by the Sublette County Historical Society (Museum of the Mountain Man) If you have an interest in mountain man history joining them will give you access to some great information

As will being a member of the museum of the fur trade in Chardon Nebraska.

Yes you are correct that is a great museum also and covers way more than just the mountain man era.Concerning the man who was killed when the cache caved in according to Philip Covington and again in the 2020 Fur Trade Journal at least in one incident it was someone named Ponto who was in the hole along with Joe Meek who was badly injured.