Mountain man

Hunter and trapper Seth Kinman in 1864

Mountain men were trappers and explorers who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 to the early 1840s. Mountain men were ethnically, socially, and religiously diverse. Most were born in Canada, the United States, or in Spanish governed Mexico territories, although some European immigrants moved west in search of financial opportunity. Mountain men were primarily motivated by profit, trapping beaver and selling the skins, although some were more interested in exploring the West.

Historical reenactment of the dress and lifestyle of a mountain man, sometimes known as buckskinning, allows people to recreate aspects of this historical period. Rendezvous and other reenacted events are both history-oriented and social occasions. Some modern men choose a lifestyle similar to that of historic mountain men. They may live and roam in the mountains of the west or the swamps in the southern United States.

History

Mountain man reenactor dressed in buckskins

An approximate 3,000 men ranged the mountains between 1820 and 1840, the peak beaver-harvesting period. While there were many free trappers, most mountain men were employed by major fur companies. The life of a company man was almost militarized. The men had mess groups, hunted and trapped in brigades and always reported to the head of the trapping party. This man was called a "boosway", a bastardization of the French term bourgeoisie. He was the leader of the brigade, the head trader and overall CEO.

Donald Mackenzie, representing the North West Company, held a rendezvous in the Boise Valley in 1819.^[1] The system was later implemented by William Henry Ashley of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, whose company representatives would haul supplies to specific mountain locations in the spring, engage in trading with trappers, and bring pelts back to communities on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in the fall. Ashley sold his business to the outfit of Smith, Jackson and Sublette. He continued to earn revenue by selling that firm their supplies. This system of rendezvous with trappers continued when other firms, particularly the American Fur Company owned by John Jacob Astor, entered the field.

The annual rendezvous was often held at Horse Creek on the Green River, now called the Upper Green River Rendezvous Site, near present-day Pinedale, Wyoming. By the mid-1830s it attracted 450-500 men, essentially all the American trappers and traders working in the Rockies, as well as numerous Native Americans. In the late 1830s the Canadian-based Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) instituted a policy intended to destroy the American fur trade. The HBC's annual Snake River Expedition was transformed to a trading enterprise. Beginning in 1834, it visited the American Rendezvous to buy furs at low prices. The HBC was able to offer manufactured trade goods at prices far below that with which American fur companies could compete. Combined with a decline in beaver, by 1840 the HBC had effectively destroyed the American system, and the last rendezvous was held in 1840. During the same years, fashion in Europe shifted away from the formerly popular beaver hats, and the animal had become overhunted. After achieving an American monopoly by 1830, Astor got out of the fur business before its decline.

By 1841 the American Fur Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company were in ruins. By 1846 there were only some 50 American trappers working in the Snake River country, compared to 500-600 in 1826. Soon after the strategic victory by the HBC, the Snake River route began the Oregon Trail, which brought a new form of competition.^[2]

A second trading and supply center grew up in Taos, in what is today New Mexico. This trade attracted numerous French Americans from Louisiana and some French Canadian trappers, in addition to Anglo-Americans. Some New Mexican residents also pursued the beaver trade, as Mexican citizens initially had some legal advantages. Trappers and traders in the Southwest covered territory, including New Mexico, Nevada, California and central and southern Utah, that was generally inaccessible to the large fur companies.

Beaver pelts had been needed to make the beaver hats, initially popular in England. Fashions changed in the early 1840s, making beaver less valuable at the same time they became harder to find due to over-trapping. The opening of the Oregon Trail and the use of the Mormon Trail provided trappers who wished to stay in the West opportunities for employment as guides and hunters.

After the short-lived American Pacific Fur Company was sold, the British controlled the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, under first the North West Company and then the Hudson's Bay Company. To prevent American fur traders from competing, the British companies adopted a policy of destroying fur resources west of the Rocky Mountains, especially in the upper Snake River country. After the Hudson's Bay Company took over operations in the Pacific Northwest in 1821, the Snake River country was rapidly trapped out.^[3]

This halted American expansion into the region. After 1825 few American trappers worked west of the Rocky Mountains, and those who did generally found it unprofitable. According to historian Richard Mackie, this policy of the Hudson's Bay Company forced American trappers to remain in the Rocky Mountains, which gave rise to the term "mountain men".^[4]

Mode of living

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The stereotypical mountain man has been depicted as dressed in buckskin and a coonskin cap, sporting bushy facial hair and carrying a Hawken rifle and Bowie knife, commonly referred to as a "scalpin' knife." They have also been romanticized as honorable men with their own chivalrous code, loners who would help those in need but who had found their home in the wild.

Most trappers traveled and worked in companies, and their dress combined woolen hats and cloaks with serviceable Indian style leather breeches and shirts. Mountain men often wore moccasins, but generally carried a pair of heavy boots. Each mountain man also carried basic gear, which could include arms, powder horns and a shot pouch, knives and hatchets, canteens, cooking utensils, and supplies of tobacco, coffee, salt and pemmican. Items (other than shooting supplies) that needed to be "at hand" were carried in a "possibles" bag. Horses or mules were essential, a riding horse for each man and at least one for carrying supplies and furs.

In summer, mountain men searched for fur and waited until autumn to set their traplines. They sometimes worked in groups. Several men would trap, others would hunt for game, and one would remain in camp to guard the camp and be a cook. Since there were always Native Americans in the areas where they trapped, trappers had to deal with each tribe or band on an individual basis. Some groups were friendly, while others were hostile. Mountain men traded with friendly tribes and exchanged information. Hostile tribes were avoided when possible.

The life of a mountain man was truly rugged. They explored unmapped areas. Bears and hostile tribes presented constant dangers. Mountain men had to use their senses of hearing, sight, and smell to keep themselves alive. When they were sick, they would use whatever herbs they had to try to get well. If game was scarce, they would go hungry. In summer they could catch fish, build a log cabin and roam in search of fur. Cabins were built near friendly native Americans. But in other areas, most camps were just temporary. Most winters were brutal. Heavy snow storms or extremely low temperatures keep men in their cabins. But no matter what season it was, the danger was always there. Many did not last more than several years in the wilderness.

With the exception of coffee, their food supplies generally duplicated the diet of native tribes in the areas where they trapped. Fresh red meat, fowl, and fish were generally available. Some plant foods, such as fruit and berries, were easy for the men to harvest. Foods requiring preparation, such as roots, dried meat and pemmican, were generally obtained from tribes through trading. In times of crisis and bad weather, mountain men were known to slaughter and eat their horses and mules.

Free trappers

A free trapper was a mountain man who, in today's terms, would be called a free agent. He was independent and traded his pelts to whoever would provide him with the best price. This contrasts with a "company man", typically in debt to one fur company for the cost of his gear, who traded only with them (and was often under the direct command of company representatives). Some company men who paid off the debt could become free traders using the gear they had earned. They might sell to the same company when the price was agreeable.

Notable figures

Jim Bridger

Rocky Mountains Trapper (supposedly) William "Old Bill" Williams

• James Beckwourth (1800-1866) born into slavery, came to Missouri with his parents and was freed by his father. He started working with the Ashley expedition, signed on with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and became a well-known mountain man, who lived with the Crow for years and became a war chief. He was the only African American in the West to have his life story published (1856). He was credited with the discovery of Beckwourth Pass in the Sierra Nevada in 1850, and improved a Native American path to create what became known as the Beckwourth Trail through the mountains to Marysville, California.
• Jim Bridger (1804 - 1881) came west in 1822 at the age of 17, as a member of Ashley's Hundred exploring the Upper Missouri drainage. He was among the first non-natives to see the geysers and other natural wonders of the Yellowstone region. He is also considered one of the first men of European descent, along with Étienne Provost, to see the Great Salt Lake. Due to its salinity, he first believed it to be an arm of the Pacific Ocean. In 1830, Bridger purchased shares in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, competing with the Hudson's Bay Company and John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. He established Fort Bridger in southwestern Wyoming. He was also well known as a teller of tall tales.
• John Colter (1774-1812), one of the first mountain men, was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He later became the first white man to enter Yellowstone National Park, and to see what is now Jackson Hole and the Teton Mountain Range. His description of the geothermal activity there seemed so outrageous to some that the area was mockingly referred to as Colter's Hell. Colter's narrow escape following capture by Blackfeet Indians, which left him literally naked and alone in the wilderness, became a legend known as "Colter's Run."
• Kit Carson (1809-1868) though perhaps known more for his exploits after his life as a mountain man, Carson got his start and gained his notoriety as a trapper. Carson explored the west all the way to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. His life took a turn when he was hired by John C. Fremont as a guide, and led 'the Pathfinder' through much of California, Oregon and the Great Basin area. He gained national fame through Fremont and stories of his wild life as a mountain man turned him into a frontier hero-figure - the prototypical mountain man of his time.^[5]
• John "Liver-Eating" Johnson (1824 - 1900) was one of the more notable latter-day mountain men. In a biography by Dennis McLelland, Johnston is seen roaming Wyoming and Montana, gathering in beaver, buffalo and wolf hides. Johnston was a free trapper, unaffiliated with a company and charging what he wanted for the hides he worked to secure. Elements of his story were portrayed in the film Jeremiah Johnson.
• Jedediah Smith (1799 - circa 1831) was a hunter, trapper, and fur trader whose explorations were significant in opening the American West to expansion by white settlers. Smith is considered the first man of European descent to cross the future state of Nevada, the first to traverse Utah from north to south and from west to east; and the first American to enter California by an overland route. He was also first to scale the High Sierras and explore the area from San Diego to the banks of the Columbia River. He was a successful businessman, being a full partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, after the departure of Ashley. Smith was known for significant facial scarring due to a grizzly bear attack along the Cheyenne River.

See also

• Coureur des bois
• List of Mountain Men
• Noble savage
• North American fur trade

References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)

Further reading

• Gowans, Fred. “Rocky Mountain Rendezvous: A History of The Fur Trade 1825 – 1840.” Gibbs M. Smith, Layton, Utah 2005. 13. ISBN 1586857568.
• Hafen, LeRoy R., editor. Fur Trappers and Traders of the Far Southwest. 1965, Utah State University Press, Logan, Utah, (1997 reprint). ISBN 0-87421-235-9.
• Orville C. Loomer, "Fort Henry," Fort Union Fur Trade Symposium Proceedings September 13-15, 1990 (Williston, Friends of Fort Union Trading Post, 1994), 79.
• McLelland, Dennis. The Avenging Fury of the Plains, John "Liver-Eating" Johnston, Exploding the Myths - Discovering the Man,
• Morgan, Dale L. Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the American West. Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, 1964. ISBN 0803251386
• Hampton Sides. "Blood and Thunder - The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West." Anchor Books, 2006. ISBN 1400031109

External links

• Mountain Men and the Fur Trade: Sources of the History of the Fur Trade of the Rocky Mountain West
• Mountain Men: Pathfinders of the West 1810-1860
• Mountain Men: The Overland Trail Links
• Mountain men of the Gila
• Mountain Men of Oregon