Mountain Men

I

Introduction

Mountain Men, fur trappers in the Rocky Mountains during the first part of the 19th century. These trappers, who flourished while the fur trade was at its height, were among the most colorful figures in American history. Hundreds of them were trapping in the 1820s and 1830s.

Trappers were drawn to the Rockies by reports of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) that the streams in the Rockies had many beaver. Later, as the trade grew more competitive, some mountain men worked for large fur companies, and a few formed their own companies. However, most trappers worked alone and emerged from the wilderness only for the annual rendezvous, a business and social gathering where they haggled and argued until they sold their furs to the highest bidder.

The rest of the year these freewheeling independents roamed the Rockies in search of beaver and other animals, gradually exploring all the passes, valleys, streams, and rivers of the West. They became as adept at coping with the wilderness as the Native Americans, whom they exploited and whose hunting economy they helped to ruin. The mountain men killed the bison on which the Native Americans depended, and during the 1840s the mountain men guided white settlers across the country to California and Oregon.

II

Way of Life

A

The Trapper’s Appearance

The appearance of the mountain man was unforgettable. What could be seen of his face, behind an unkempt growth of hair and beard, was often burned to a hue darker than a Native American’s. He was usually dressed in clothing made from animal skins. He might leave the rendezvous in a factory-made wool suit, but it would soon disintegrate from hard riding and tramping through streams and trackless mountains. When his “store clothes” wore out, he outfitted himself completely in skins, including breeches, shirt, gloves, leggings, moccasins, and hat. He used every sort of animal skin, including deer, antelope, elk, rabbit, and even the valuable beaver. Often the mountain man cut up his old tipi to make moccasins and leggings, because it was toughened from the constant smoke of his fires.

---

---

The mountain man’s skin clothing was blackened and shiny, well seasoned and stained by smoke, grease, and grime. A loose, fringed buckskin tunic hung over buckskin breeches, reaching almost to his knees. Its fringe was gradually hacked away as he used it to make repairs. His leggings reached from his hips to his moccasins. The buckskin breeches and moccasins had a great tendency to shrink, so the trapper wore most of his clothing to bed to keep it in shape for the next day. Actually, a mountain man seldom removed his clothing all winter except to hang it over a fire to drive out the insects that had become too numerous to tolerate.

Because his clothing lacked pockets, the trapper carried a “possible sack” containing his meager but necessary personal belongings. His powder horn, bullet pouch, bullet mold, and knife hung from a shoulder belt. At first the knife would be an ordinary butcher knife, but later the Green River knife came into general use. This knife gave rise to a common expression of driving a knife in “up to Green River,” which meant driving it in up to the factory stamp on its hilt.

B

Trapping

During the trapping seasons, which were in the fall and spring, the mountain men would range 3,200 km (2,000 mi) across the mountains. Sometimes they traveled in small groups where every man had equal authority. Sometimes a large group, or brigade, was led by the most experienced trapper. However, many mountain men traveled alone.

The mountain men hunted mink, fox, otter, badger, raccoon, and beaver. Of these, beaver brought the highest price. Felted fur hats were popular in the early 19th century, and the beaver’s underfur was excellent for making felt. The glossy, fine-textured beaver fur was also in demand for collars and coats.

Twilight and sunrise were the best times to set traps for beaver, and the best places were deep pools in mountain meadows. The trapper carried six to ten steel traps, made of wooden poles, chains, and metal rings, and weighing about 2.3 kg (about 5 lb) each. They were set by the edge of a pool and baited with a secretion of musk from a dead beaver. This musk, also called “medicine,” was carried in a horn bottle hung from the trapper’s belt and accounted for much of the trapper’s own peculiar aroma. A twig was dipped into the medicine and placed where the beaver would have to stand up to smell it. As it did so, the beaver would often catch its paw in the ring. When the beaver dove back into the pool, the trap would hold it down and drown it. The beaver were large, weighing from 13 to 23 kg (30 to 50 lb), and sometimes strong enough to tear the trap away from the bank; but a stick attached to the trap would float at the surface and show the trapper where to find his catch. If the creature was able to reach land, however, it could chew off the trapped foot and escape.

After the catch, the animal’s skin, with its fur, was cut off and stretched on a hoop to dry in the sun. The flat tail was kept whole because it was considered a delicacy when roasted over the campfire. After drying, the skins were made up into 45-kg (100-lb) bales. All this work was done by the trapper’s wife, if he had one, or by a hired Native American woman. Only occasionally did a trapper do the cleaning and curing himself. The most valuable skins, with the thickest fur, were collected in the spring hunt, but high water made it difficult for the trapper to work in that season.

C

The Rendezvous

The first rendezvous was held July 1, 1825, on Henry’s Fork of the Green River in what is now the state of Wyoming. It was so successful that a large-scale rendezvous of trappers and traders was held every summer until the fur trade began to decline in the 1840s.

Fierce competition among the fur companies enabled the trappers to get a high price, as much as $9 a skin. However, as fur prices rose, so did the prices the companies charged for supplies. In 1832, for example, cloth cost the mountain men $20 a yard for the finer weaves, as opposed to 50 to 90 cents in the city of Saint Louis. Alcohol for drinking brought $5 a pint even though it was greatly diluted. Coffee and sugar sold for $2 a pound whereas, in Saint Louis, coffee was selling for 15 cents and sugar for 9 or 10 cents.

The traditions of the mountain men were born at the rendezvous. Yelling and shooting, the trappers arrived to sell their skins, buy supplies, and enjoy several days of celebration that writer Washington Irving called “saturnalia among the mountains.” Flushed with raw alcohol, the mountain men engaged in continuous bragging, brawling, singing, wrestling, and contests of strength and marksmanship.

Native Americans played a large part in the success of the rendezvous. They put on a show for the trappers, wearing their most brilliant regalia. They vied with the trappers in races, horsemanship, and the hand game, which consisted of guessing which hand held a small piece of carved bone. Money changed hands at a dizzying rate in this game.

Many mountain men found their wives among the Native Americans who attended the rendezvous. Scarcely any Western nation of Native Americans was without its share of trapper husbands. Trade goods such as beads, bells, tools, or cloth would seal a marriage ceremony. Trappers competed with each other to give their women the most expensive and colorful outfits in camp. More beaver skins were exchanged for women’s adornments than for watered-down alcohol.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain