John Turner (fur trapper)

John Turner
John Turner defending his camp in 1835
Born	1807 Madison County, Kentucky
Died	1847, 39 or 40 years old California
Cause of death	Ballistic trauma
Residence	Willamette Valley
Occupation	Fur trapper Guide
Years active	1823 – 1847
Known for	Umpqua massacre Willamette Cattle Company
Parent(s)	Smithton Turner and Nancy Ragsdale

John Turner (1807 – 1847) was an American fur trapper and guide who first entered Oregon Country in 1828 and became an early resident of the Willamette Valley. Later he moved to California where he was part of the second attempt to rescue the Donner Party.

Turner was born in Madison County, Kentucky in the year 1807 to parents Smithton Turner and Nancy Ragsdale. By 1823 he was working in the fur trade in the Rocky Mountains.

At the 1827 rendezvous on the southern shore of Bear Lake, Jedediah Smith assembled a party of 18 fur trappers and two Native American women to accompany him on a return trip to California. Turner joined the group, and they headed southwest, essentially retracing Smith's route the year before. While Smith's party crossed the Colorado River at the 35th parallel, a hostile group of Mohave attacked, killing ten trappers and capturing the two women. The surviving men, including Smith and Turner, eventually met up with the group that had previously traveled with Smith to California, and after many additional setbacks, a party of 18 continued north into the Oregon Country, being joined along the way by an Indian boy they called Marion.

In June 1828 the party began trading with the Lower Umpqua people, a Native American community known to early writers as the Kalawatset. On the morning of July 14, 1828, Smith, Turner, Richard Leland, and a Kalawatset were off in a canoe searching for an overland route north when their camp was attacked. The three avoided the attack and made their way north to Fort Vancouver When they arrived after 28 days, they found that another member of their party, Arthur Black, had survived the attack and had arrived two days earlier. It was later confirmed that 15 men died in the attack including Marion, the Indian boy. Turner was the only man besides Smith to have survived both massacres.