Mountain man
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Mountain Men is also the name of a 1980 movie starring Charlton Heston.[1]
Mountain men were trappers and explorers who roamed the Rocky Mountains from about 1810 to the early 1840s. These were primarily beaver trappers, but included some who mainly just wanted to explore the West.
The stereotypical mountain man was depicted as a loner dressed in animal pelts, sporting bushy facial hair and carrying a Hawken rifle and Bowie knife, commonly referred to as a "scalpin' knife." He is depicted wearing pelts and furs, although this is incorrect. While there were many free trappers, most mountain men were employed by 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 Bourgeois. He was the leader of the brigade, the head trader and overall CEO. Some mountain men were gruff, while others were well-mannered; however, they were romanticized as honorable men with their own chivalrous code who would help their brethren, but were more at home in the wild.
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[edit] History
The existence of trappers in the West in any numbers started with Manuel Lisa in 1807 when he founded the Missouri Fur Company. A major influx of trappers was started by the expedition of Ashley's Hundred in 1822. This gave rise to yearly trapping expeditions with the trappers leaving St. Louis with supplies, returning with pelts which were used to pay off debts and traded for supplies, whiskey and other necessities.
In 1824, the rendezvous began which hauled supplies to the mountains in the spring and brought back pelts in the fall. Major William Henry Ashley started this system through the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He sold this business to the outfit of Smith, Jackson and Sublette, while still taking the profits by selling that firm their supplies. This system continued with other firms, particularly the American Fur Company, entering the field.
The beaver pelts had been needed to make the beaver hats, then popular in England. Fashions changed in the early 1840s, making beaver less valuable, and they became harder to find from over trapping. The opening of the Oregon Trail and the use of the Mormon Trail gave employment as guides and hunters to trappers who did not want to return to civil society.
[edit] Further reading
- Orville C. Loomer, "Fort Henry," Fort Union Fur Trade Symposium Proceedings September 13-15, 1990 (Williston, Friends of Fort Union Trading Post, 1994), 79.
- Fred R. Gowans, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (Layton, Utah: Gibbs M. Smith, 1985), 13.
