In 1829, at the age of 19, Meek signed up to be a Rocky Mountain trapper and worked this trade for 11 years. By 1840 the declining fur trade caused Meek to look for other employment. He was involved with guiding the early wagon trains to Oregon. He settled in Washington County, and became a farmer and political activist, trying to make Oregon part of the United States. He served as sheriff in 1843, under the newly formed Provisional Government. Joseph Meek also served in the legislature in 1846 and 1847. Meek travelled to Washington DC to petition President James Polk for territorial status, and in 1848 Polk appointed Meek the position of Federal Marshal. As such, Meek oversaw the 1850 execution of the Indians found guilty in the Whitmas Massacre. Joseph Meek also served inthe 1855 Yakima War, and earned the rank of Major. Meek stayed involved in politics and helped form the Republican Party of Oregon.∼Meek was born in Virginia and left for Missouri at an early age to escape a problemmatic stepmother.

In 1829 he joined William Sublette and for the next eleven years lived the life of a mountain man. Meek fought off a grizzly, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a Bannock warrior, participated in the famed battle of Pierre's Hole, and joined the Joseph Walker expedition to California.

In the 1840s, fur trading began to wane so Meek headed on to Oregon escorting one of the first wagon trains. He settled in Oregon and became a farmer. Meek served as sheriff in 1843 and legislature in 1846 and 1847.

Meek visited Washington, DC where he met with President Polk to discuss matters of the Whitman Massacre and the outbreak of the Cayuse War in the Oregon Territory. Meek presented his case for making Oregon Territory a federal territory, which came to fruition with the appointment of Joe Lane as Territorial Governor and Meek as Territorial Federal Marshall.

As Federal Marshal, Joe Meek supervised the hanging of five Cayuse Indians found guilty of the Whitman Massacre. Organizing the Oregon Volunteers, Joe Meek led this group in the Yakima Indian War eventually becoming a major for his service. Meek's first wife had been tragically killed by a raiding party some years prior.

Meek was described as "the Davy Crockett of our Great Northwest, bold, adventurous, humorous, a first-class trapper, pioneer, peace officer, and frontier politician. More, he was the wittiest, saltiest, most shameless wag and jester that ever wore moccasins in the Rockies - a tall happy-go-lucky Virginian lover of practical jokes, tall tales, Jacksonian Democracy and Indian women."