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Reader's Guide to The Mountain Men of the American West
Compiled by S. K. Wier
June 15, 2010
Antoine Clement, by Alfred Jacob Miller, 1837.This is a guide to the best books about the mountain men of the American west which I know about. Anyone can find a book here to suit them: casual readers, students, enthusiasts, reenactors, and historians. I include a few less distinguished books, too, when they are the only thing about a topic. For some fifteen years -- roughly speaking, 1823 to 1838 and beyond -- the western U.S. was the domain of the mountain men, trappers who spent years traveling and living in the wilderness. Long before wagon trains, settlers, gold rushes, cavalry, Indian wars, cowboys, wild west towns, or railroads, mountain men were the first from the U.S. to see the Rocky Mountains and the lands from the plains to the Pacific. Their life was highly free and adventuresome, and often dangerous and short, lived in a shining wilderness.
Where to begin? Many books, many choices. For a readable and short introduction try Give Your Heart to the Hawks by Winfred Blevins. For detailed histories try A Life Wild and Perilous by Robert M. Utley or the classic history Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto. Or try some of the best biographies, such as Westering Man The Life of Joseph Walker by Bil Gilbert and Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West by Dale L. Morgan. For adventures or "camp fire tales" try the personal journals and narratives written by some of the mountain men themselves.
You might be interested in my web sites about the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Early Western Explorers. And check out the reconstruction of historic Fort Lupton in Colorado.
Contents
Histories of The Mountain Men Journals and Personal Narratives Biographies Hafen's "Mountain Men" Mountain Men Exploring Histories of the Fur Trade
Forts and Rendezvous Library of Western Fur Trade Historical Source Documents Mountain Men in Colorado The Santa Fe Trail Canadian Fur Trade
Tools and Skills of the Mountain Men Artists out West Periodicals "Novels" by Mountain Men Modern Paintings and Photographs Modern Novels Movies
New and Recent Books Jedediah Smith: No Ordinary Mountain Man by H. Barbour Barton. Norman: University of Oklahoma; 2009. 290 pages.
Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America by Eric Jay Dolin. New York: W. W. Norton & Company; July 12, 2010. 464 pages.
It has a couple of chapters about mountain men. Dolin is the author of the highly acclaimed history of American whaling, Leviathan."Nobody writes about the link between American history and natural history with the scholarly grace of Eric Jay Dolin. Fur, Fortune, and Empire is a landmark study filled with a cast of eccentric Western-type characters. Not since the days of Francis Parkman has a historian analyzed the fur trade industry with such brilliance. Highly recommended!"- Douglas Brinkley, professor of History at Rice University, author of "The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America."
The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion by Jay Gitlin. New Haven: Yale University Press; 2010. 288 pages.
"This is one of those rare books that makes immensely important and original arguments of its own while also synthesizing a massive and far-reaching scholarly literature. I cannot overemphasize the importance of such a study."-Peter Kastor, Washington University, St. Louis
"Jay Gitlin's comprehensive portrait of mid-America's Francophone merchants demonstrates their importance as fur traders, town builders and advance agents ... belongs on every western American history bookshelf."-William E. Foley, coauthor of The First Chouteaus: River Barons of Early St. Louis
Histories of The Mountain Men
Across the Wide Missouri. Bernard DeVoto. Houghton Mifflin, 1947. A classic. The classic. With truly deep knowledge and understanding, and writing unlikely to be equaled. Inspirational. Homeric.
A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific. Robert M. Utley. Henry Holt 1997. A really excellent recent history of the entire era, based on extensive research which only a few have equaled. The emphasis is on key mountain men, the fur trade, and geographical discoveries. This is the big view; don't expect campfire stories. Also published as After Lewis and Clark Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific.
Give Your Heart to the Hawks. Winfred Blevins. Los Angeles: Nash, 1973; and other editions. A short, enjoyable, and very readable history.
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West. Dale L. Morgan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1953; 1964. A biography of Smith, and in effect a history of the mountain men up to 1831 when Smith died. A standard of fur trade history. "the ultimate authority;" "impeccable scholarship."
The Beaver Men: Spearheads of Empire. Mari Sandoz. Norman: University of Nebraska Press, 1978. 342 pages.
A Majority of Scoundrels: An Informal of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Don Berry. New York: Harper & Co., 1961; Sausalito: Comstock Editions.
The Taos Trappers The Fur Trade In the Southwest 1540-1846. David J Weber. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.
This Reckless Breed of Men: The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest. Robert Glass Cleland. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Across the Great Divide : Robert Stuart and the Discovery of the Oregon Trail. Laton McCartney. New York: Free Press, 2003. a popular history.
Heroes to Me. Mike Moore. Macon Georgia: Historical Enterprises, 2003. Topics about the life of mountain men illustrated by selections from their writing and stories.
Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur Trade Society 1670 - 1870. Sylvia Van Kirk. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980. Marriages of trappers to Indian women; womens' roles; & resulting culture
Daughters of the Country: Women of the Fur Traders and Mountain Men. Walter O'Meara. New York: Harcourt, 1968.
Kit Carson and the Indians. Tom Dunlay. Univ. of Nebraska, 2000. much longer than the biography listed above by Thelma S. Guild and Harvey L. Carter, and less on fur trade period.
Bill Sublette Mountain Man. John E. Sunder. Norman: Univ. Oklahoma, 1959. Very throughly researched and documented.
David E Jackson Field Captain of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. Vivian Linford. Jackson: Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, 1996.
James Clyman, American Frontiersman, 1792-1881; the adventures of a trapper and covered-wagon emigrant as told in his own reminiscences and diaries. Charles L. Camp. Portland: Champoeg Press, 1960. This edition is rare. Clyman's writing was reprinted without Camp's notes by Tamarack Books, in 1998.
Halfbreed: The Remarkable True Story Of George Bent - Caught Between The Worlds Of The Indian And The White Man. David Fridtjof Halaas and Andrew E. Masich. Da Capo Press 2004. 496 pages.
Life of George Bent: Written from His Letters. George E. Hyde. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1980. 280 pages.
George Drouillard: Hunter and Interpreter for Lewis and Clark and Fur Trader. M. O. Skarsten. Arthur H. Clark Co. 1964; Bison Books, 2005. 336 pages.
Bon Appetit! Shawnee Hunter Georges Drouillard's List of Fine Dining Establishments Along the Lewis and Clark Trail, 1806 and The Life and Times of Georges P. Drouillard. Richard Gaffney. 2006.
Life and Adventures of George Nidever 1802 - 1883. Wm. Henry Ellison, editor. Nidever traveled through Texas and New Mexico in 1830. In 1832, he was at the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole and took part in the famous battle with the Blackfeet. The following year, he joined a section of Bonneville's company under command of Joseph Walker and crossed the upper Sierra Nevada into California. Several editions, all out of print now.
The Saga of Hugh Glass. John Myers Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976.
Shadow on the Tetons: David E. Jackson and the Claiming of the American West. John C. Jackson. Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Co., 1993.
The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, written from his own dictation by Thomas D. Bonner[in 1856]. Bernard De Voto, editor and introduction. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1972.
Jim Beckwourth: Black Mountain Man and War Chief of the Crows. Elinor Wilson. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972.
Manuel Lisa and the Opening of the Missouri Fur Trade. Richard E. Oglesby. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.
Scotsman in Buckskin: Sir William Drummond Stewart and the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. Mae Reed Porter and Odessa Davenport. New York: Hastings House, 1963.
Ruxton of the Rockies. Collected By Clyde and Mae Reed Porter. Leroy R. Hafen, ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.
Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man. Alpheus H. Favour. 1936. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.
Antoine
Robidoux 1794-1860. William S. Wallace. Los Angeles: 1953.
For more Robideaux books see http://www.clyderabideau.com/2robidoubooks.html
Jim Bridger Mountain Man a Biography. Stanley Vestal. Univ. of Nebraska, 1970. See also Cecil Alter's biography of Bridger; neither is entirely correct but there is no other Bridger biography. Vestal's book does make good reading.
Mike Fink King of Mississippi Keelboatmen. Walter Blaire and Franklin J. Meine, New York: 1933.
Hafen's "Mountain
Men"
The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West. Leroy R. Hafen, editor. Glendale:
Arthur H. Clark, 1965-1972. 10 volumes. A
fundamental reference for the lives of 292 mountain men. Individual biographies were written by Hafen and the leading
historians of the time.
The names of all 292 persons in the ten volumes are indexed online in the
Guide to the Hafen Biographies; which also
shows men in the five books below.
Selections
from Hafen's "The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West" are published in these
books: Mountain
Men and Fur Traders of the Far West. Harvey L. Carter(introduction) and Leroy
Hafen(editor). -, 1982. 401 pages. 18 selections from Leroy Hafen's The Mountain
Men. Fur
Traders Trappers and Mountain Men of the Upper Missouri. Leroy R
Hafen; Scott Eckbert intro. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1995. Selected from Hafen's Mountain Men French
Fur Traders and Voyageurs in the American West: Twenty-five
Biographical Sketches. selections from Hafen's Mountain Men. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
Fur Trappers and Traders of the Far Southwest, USU Press, 1997.
Trappers of the Far West, Bison Books, 1983
Mountain Men Exploring
Jedediah
Smith and the Opening of the West. Dale L. Morgan. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1964. A biography of Smith and in effect a history of the mountain men up to 1831
when Smith died.
Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition [1797].
W. Raymond Wood. University of Oklahoma Press; March 2003.
Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818.
W. Raymond Wood. University of Oklahoma Press.
The
Explorations of William H. Ashley and Jedediah Smith. Harrison C.
Dale. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991 (original
printing: Cleveland, 1918).
The Travels
of Jedediah Smith. Maurice S. Sullivan. Santa Fe, 1934; Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1992.
Mapping
the Trans-Mississippi West, 1540-1861. 6 vols. Carl I. Wheat. San
Francisco: Inst. of Historical Geography, 1957 - 1963. The classic
reference for mapping the west, known as "Wheat."
Jedediah
Smith and His Maps of the American West. Carl I. Wheat. San
Francisco: California Historical Society, 1954.
Notes on General Ashley, The Overland Trail, and South Pass. Donald McKay Frost. Worcester: 1945.
The
Old Spanish Trail. Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen. Glendale: 1954.
Despite the name, the "Old Spanish Trail" was neither old nor Spanish; it was largely opened by American mountain men in the 19th century. Colter's
Hell and Jackson's Hole The Fur Trappers Exploration of the
Yellowstone and Grand Teton Park Region. Merrill J. Mattes.
Yellowstone Library and Museum Association, 1962. 1976. 87 pages. The
Discovery of Yellowstone Park. N. P. Langford. St. Paul: 1923.
Histories of the Fur Trade
Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America.
Eric Jay Dolin. New York: W. W. Norton & Company; July 2010. 464 pages.
When
Skins were Money A History of the Fur Trade. James A. Hanson. Chadron
Nebraska: Museum of the Fur Trade, 2005. Covers the entire period
from the 16th to 20th centuries; not a great deal on the Rocky
Mountain period. Many period illustrations.
The Whiskey Trade of the Northwestern Plains: A Multidisciplinary
Study. Margaret Kennedy. published by Peter Lang, 1997.
Jackson Hole, Crossroads of the Western Fur Trade, 1807-1840
M. J. Mattes. Jackson Hole Historical Society, 1994.
Montana's Fur Trade Era. F. L. Graves. American World Geographic, 1994, 63 pages.
Fur Trade on the Upper Missouri, 1840-1865.
J. E. Sunder. University of Oklahoma Press, 1993, 295 pages.
Astoria
and Empire. James P. Ronda. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1991.
"a deft and intriguing examination of Astor's formative
experience in the fur trade of the Far West."
Papers of the St. Louis Fur Trade. W. Swagerty et al. University Publications, 1991.
Keepers of the Game: Indian-Animal Relationships and the Fur Trade.
C. Martin and N. Lurie. University of California, 1985.
The
Fur Trade of the America West 1807-1840. David J. Wishart. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1979. "an excellent overview of
the Rocky Mountain trapping system."
The
Fist in the Wilderness. David Lavender. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1964. A big history of the Astor fur trade empire, known to mountain men as "American Fur."
The
West of William H. Ashley. Dale L. Morgan, ed. Denver: Old West
Publishing Company, 1964. A monumental compilation of period
documents and letters with extensive annotation.
History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West. 2 vols. Hiram Martin
Chittenden. Stanford: 1936; 1954; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1986. A standard reference, more than 900 pages.
Fur Trade and Empire. Frederick Merk. Cambridge: 1931. “one of the
most significant contributions to the literature” - Dale
Morgan.
For more, including historians' and archaelogists' reports, see
Fur Trade Reference Books
(http://www.digitalpresence.com/histarch/ref/furtrade.html; Megan Springate 1998-2009),
The Fur Trade and Historical Archaeology
(http://www.digitalpresence.com/histarch/furtrade.html; Michael Pfeiffer 1998),
and the very extensive and complete
Fur Trade Bibliography by Gerhard J. Ens. (online at http://www.members.shaw.ca/CanoeBC/heritage/biblio.htm).
Forts
and Rendezvous Most of the
"forts" of the earliest west were private commercial
trading posts, not military fortifications. The owners wanted to have good relations with the natives and
peace between the tribes, since those were the customers. These posts looked like forts: they were walled with
wooden stockades or high adobe walls, to discourage raids by Indians.
Fort Union and the Upper Misssouri Fur Trade.
Barton H. Barbour. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press; 2nd ed. 2002.
Bent's Fort. David Lavender. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1954, 1972, 2003.
Bent's Fort: Crossroads of Cultures on the Santa Fe Trail. Melvin Bacon. Filter Press 2002. Ages 9-12.
Competitive
Struggle: America's Fur Trading Posts 1764 - 1865. R. G. Robertson.
Tamarack Books, Boise, Idaho, 1999. 329 pages. Historical figures as
well as places are depicted.
Antoine
Robidoux and Fort Uncompahgre. Ken Reyher. Ouray, Colorado: Western
Reflections Inc., 1998. First American outpost in Colorado. Forts
of the West. Robert W. Frazer. Norman: Univ. of Ok., 1977. Fort
Bridger: Island in the Wilderness. Fred R. Gowans. and E. Campbell.
Provo: Brigham Young University, 1975.
Forts
of the Upper Missouri. Robert G. Athern. University of Nebraska
Press, 1972.
Fort
Laramie and the Pageant of the West. LeRoy R. Hafen. Glendale: 1938. “Forts
Robidoux and Kit Carson. Albert B. Reagan. New Mexico Hist.
Review, vol. X, April 1935. pp. 121-132. “Fort
Davy Crockett, Its Fur Men and Visitors.” LeRoy Hafen. Colorado
magazine, vol. XXIX, January 1952. pp. 17-33. “Early
Fur Trade Forts on the South Platte.” LeRoy R Hafen.
Mississippi Valley Historical review, vol. XII, December 1923. pp.
335-341. Old
Fort Saint Vrain. Diane Brotemarkl. Boulder: Johnson Books, 2001.
Historic
Forts of Colorado. Dick and Wendy Spurr. Grand Junction Colorado:
Centennial Pubs. 1994. Rivalry
at the River. Seletha Brown. Boulder: Johnson Publishing, 1972.
Trading forts on the South Platte.
Bent's
Old Fort. State Historical Society of Colorado. Colorado Springs:
Williams Printings, 1979.
“Gantt's
Fort and Bent's Picket Post.” Janet S. LeCompte. Colorado
Magazine, XLI, Spring 1964, pp 111-125. Rocky
Mountain Rendezvous: A History of the Fur Trade Rendezvous 1824-1840.
Fred R. Gowans. Layton Utah: Gibbs Smith Books, 2005. Maps and photos
of all annual rendezvous sites as seen today. For first-person
descriptions of rendezvous, see the personal accounts and narratives
listed above. For the 1836 rendezvous see also William Gray, History
of Oregon, 1870, pp. 121-129.
Library of Western Fur Trade Historical Source Documents
A remarkable online collection of original documents; accounts of the Rocky Mountain fur trade during the first half of the 19th century,
assembled and provided by the American Mountain Men.
Library of Western Fur Trade Historical Source Documents (http://www.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/mmarch.html)
"These documents have been transcribed from printed or manuscript form. The resulting text files have been manually checked and edited to conform to the original source. In most cases, any spelling or grammatical errors from the original have been retained."
If the links don't work, copy the book title with a mouse drag, and insert it into Google, to see the book.
Mountain Men in Colorado
Based on The Fur Trade in Colorado: A Selected Bibliography, compiled by Ben Fogelberg
(online at www.coloradohistory.org/publications/Fur_Trade_Bib.pdf) with additions.
The
Santa Fe Trail: Original Accounts This is a short selection from a large literature.
The
Prairie Traveler, a Hand-Book for Overland Expeditions. Randolph
Barnes Marcy. London: , 1863
Down
the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: the Diary of Susan Shelby
Magoffin, 1846-1847. Susan Shelby Magoffin; Stella M Drumm ed. Bison Books 1982.
The
Road to Santa Fe The Journal and Diaries of George Sibley.
Kate L. Gregg, editor. University of New Mexico Press, 1968.
Expedition
To The Southwest Lt. James William Abert. Univ. Of Nebraska Press, 1999.
Commerce
of the Prairies. Josiah Gregg. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
1990.
Matt
Field on the Santa Fe Trail. Matt Field. John Sunder, ed. Norman:
Univ. of Oklahoma, 1995.
Canadian Fur Trade, Voyageurs, Hudsons Bay Company, and the North West Company See also the very extensive and complete
Fur Trade Bibliography by Gerhard J. Ens. (online at http://www.members.shaw.ca/CanoeBC/heritage/biblio.htm)
The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American
Expansion. Jay Gitlin. New Haven: Yale University Press; 2010. 288 pages.
Remaking the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American
Fur Trade. Carolyn Podruchny. Norman: University of Nebraska, 2006.
Indian Women and French Men. Susan Sleeper Smith. U. Mass., 2001.
Voyageurs, Robes Noires, et Coureurs de Bois: Stories from the French
Exploration. Charles Clark. New York: Columbia University Press, 1934.
Peter
Skene Ogden and the Hudsons Bay Company. Gloria G. Cline. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1975.
Peter
Skene Ogden, Fur Trader. Archie Binns. Portland: Binfords and Mort,
1967.
Peter
Skene Ogden's Snake Country Journals. E. E. Rich.
Sources
of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America
. by Jack Nisbet. Sasquatch Books; second Edition ed., 2007. The
Fur Trade and the Northwest to 1857. E. E. Rich. Toronto: McClelland
and Stewart, 1967. The
Fur Trade. 2 vols. Paul C. Phillips. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1961.
The
North West Company. Marjorie Wilkins Campbell. Macmillan Company
of Canada, 1973. The
North West Company. Gordon C. Davidson. Berkeley: 1918. The
History of Hudsons Bay Company 1670 - 1870. E. E. Rich. 2 vol .
London: Hudsons Bay Record Society, 1947.
Tools and Skills of the Mountain Men
Firearms,
Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Man. Carl P. Russell. Univ. New
Mexico Press, 1977.
The
Great Lakes Fur Trade. Carolyn Gilman. Minnesota Historical Society
Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1982. photos of original artifacts, and
detailed text by a top scholar. 136 pages.
The
Mountain Man. William H. Goetzmann. Cody Wyoming: Buffalo Bill
Historical Center, 1978. 64 pages. Includes photographs of period
artifacts, and paintings from the period.
Accouterments.
3 volumes. James R. Johnson. Golden Age Arms, no date. [ca. 2000].
Excellent photos of all kinds of equipment of the fur trade era but
oddly lacking any provenance: any indication of date or place of
origin of the artifacts, which greatly reduces the usefulness of
these books for answering any particular question.
Guns
on the Early Frontiers. Carl P. Russell. University of Nebraska
Press, Lincoln, 1980.
The
Hawken Rifle the Mountain Man's Choice. John D. Baird 136 illus., 95
pages.
Fifteen
Years in the the Hawken Lode. John D. Baird. Gun Room Press, Highland
Park, NJ, 1976. 76 illus., 120 pages.
The
Hawken Rifle: Its Place in History. Charles E. Hanson, Jr. The Fur
Press. Chadron, NE. 1979.
The
Plains Rifle. Charles E. Hanson, Jr. Harrisburg: Stackpole, 1960.
Indian
Trade Guns. T. M. Hamilton, ed. 80 illus., 258 pages.
The
Northwest Gun. Charles E. Hanson, Jr. Chadron, Nebraska: Museum
Assoc. of the Am. Frontier, 1992.
Success
in the North American Fur Trade. Barry Conner. "picks up where
Hanson left off and is what I consider to be the best in-depth book
ever written on the trade gun." - Mike Moore The
Kentucky Rifle Hunting Pouch: Its Contents and Accouterments as used
by the Frontiersman, Hunter, and Indian. Madison Grant. 207 pages.
published by the author, 1977
Diary
of an Early American Boy. Eric. Sloane, 1975. circa 1805 life. Shows
the life and tools on a pioneer farm around 1805, such as many
mountain men would have known in their youth. Excellent detailed
drawings.
Frontier Living: An Illustrated Guide to Pioneer Life in America . Edwin Tunis. Lyons Press. Another book about life on the frontier then.
The
Keelboat Age on Western Waters. Leland D Baldwin. 1941.
Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History. Beatrice Jones Hunter and Louis C. Hunter. 2008.
The first steamboat up the Missouri was in 1820.
The Western River Steamboat. Adam I. Kane and Alan L. Bates. 2004.
The
Mountain Man Vernacular: Its Historical Roots, Its Linguistic Nature,
and Its Literary Uses. Richard C. Poulsen. New York: Lang 1985, 328
pp.
The
following books are used by reenactors to make reproductions of early
western equipment. Some good details are available from these sources --
The
1837 Sketchbook of the Western Fur Trade. Rex A Norman. Scurlock
Publishing Co., Texarkana TX, 1996. An examination of the paintings
and sketches by Alfred Jacob Miller of actual scenes and mountain men
in 1837. Modern drawings of costume & equipment based on the work
of Miller. 29 pages.
The
Book of Buckskinning. vols. III (hunting pouches, moccasins,
shelters); IV (blankets, lighting devices, backwoods knives,
smoothbores, blacksmithing, rawhide); VI (horse gear, powder horns);
VII (clothing of the Rocky Mountain Trapper 1820-1840, writing
implements, trunks, wardrobe for the frontier woman 1780-1840, bark
Tanning); and VIII (gear of the Rocky Mountain trapper; beaver
hunting; beadwork). William H. Scurlock, ed. Recent articles on
clothes and tools, etc. Scurlock Pub. Co., Texarkana, Texas, to 1995.
Sketch
Book on the Tents of the Fur Trade. Samuel Darby. 1700s to early
1800s. 48 pages.
Shining
Time The Fur Trade A Sketchbook of the American Mountain Man. Ted
Spring. 130 pages.
Fur trade cutlery Sketchbook. James Austin Hanson. 1994, Fur Press (Crawford, Neb). 48 pages.
The
Visual Record - Artists in the Early West
No
photographs were made in the west of the mountain men. The first
camera, for the Daguerreotype process, was taken west in 1842 by
John Charles Fremont, and no photographs survive from that occasion.
But by good fortune several excellent artists traveled to the west
before 1840. The three greats are George Catlin, Karl Bodmer and Alfred Jacod Miller.
Their sketches and paintings are historically valuable and personally satisfying.
George Catlin and His Indian Gallery by George Catlin, Brian W. Dippie,
George Gurney. W. W. Norton & Company (October 2002). 288 pages.
275 illustrations, 150 in color. Impressive and informative.
The
West of Alfred Jacob Miller. Alfred Jacob Miller. Marvin Ross, ed.
Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma, 1968. Black and white reproductions of
many of Miller's sketches made in the west, plus six color
reproductions, plus Miller's own descriptions of each scene. Alfred
Jacob Miller: Artist on the Oregon Trail. Ron Tyler. Fort Worth,
1982. Braves
and Buffalo: Plains Indian Life in 1837. Hugh A Taylor. Toronto:
1973. A J Miller's Indian paintings in moderately good color
reproductions. Karl
Bodmer's America. Karl Bodmer, Marsha V. Gallagher. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1984. All or most of Bodmer's paintings
and sketches made in the United States; well reproduced in a fairly
large size. Very impressive.
People of the First Man: Life Among the Plains Indians in Their Final Days of Glory: The Firsthand Account of Prince Maximilian's Expedition Up the Missouri River, 1833-34. Prince Maximilian zu Wied (Author), Davis Thomas (Editor), Karl Bodmer (Illustrator)
E. P. Dutton, 1976. 256 p.
Five artists of the Old West: George Catlin, Karl Bodmer, Alfred Jacob
Miller, Charles M. Russell and Frederic
Remington. Clide Hollmann, 1965,
Native Americans: A Portrait : The Art and Travels of Charles Bird King,
George Catlin, and Karl Bodmer by Robert J.
Moore. Stewart Tabori & Chang; illustrated edition (September 1997); 279
p.
Periodicals
Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly. Chadron, Nebraska.
For information and contents of all issues see
http://www.furtrade.org/6quart.html.
"Begun in 1965, the quarterly has provided over 450 scholarly articles on virtually every aspect of fur trade history."
Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal. Pinedale, Wyoming. see
http://www.museumofthemountainman.com/journal/home.htm.
One volume in 2007, 2008, and 2009 so far.
"Novels" based on personal experience with the Mountain Men Two
accounts, written by men who knew the mountain man's life, were
published as what would today be regarded as novels. Edward
Warren. William Drummond Stewart. Missoula: Mountain Press, 1986.
Introduction By Winfred Blevins. Stewart, the famous British captain, attended six rendezvous,
from 1833 to 1838, and returned for another visit in 1843. Written by a man who lived
the life and saw the times. Life
in the Far West. George Frederick Ruxton. ed. Leroy Hafen. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1951. Reads like a first-person
narrative, but it is fiction(several events did not occur as described). Based on life
in the mountains. Not history, but many authentic details of life. "no work excels in color, charm, or
authenticity."
Modern
Paintings and Photographs The
Western Paintings of John Clymer. John Clymer. New York: Peacock
Press/Bantam, 1988. Clymer is one of the first of the modern painters
of mountain men. 40-some paintings
Rendezvous
Country. Photos by David Muench; text by Donald G Pike. Palo Alto:
American West Publishing Co., 1975. Excellent modern photos of the
scenes in the mountains; also 32 high-quality prints of Alfred Jacob
Miller paintings but only in sepia tones, not color worse luck.
Modern Novels Wolf
Song. Harvey Fergusson. University of Nebraska Press, 1981. Mountain
Man. Vardis Fisher. University of Idaho Press. The
Big Sky. A. B. Guthrie. Mariner Books. Medicine
Calf. Bill Hotchkiss. New York: W W Norton, 1981. Dance
on the Wind; Buffalo Palace; Crack in the
Sky; Carry the Wind; BorderLords; One-Eyed Dream;
Ride the Moon Down; Death Rattle; Wind Walker.
Lord
Grizzly. Frederick Manfred. University of Nebraska Press, 1983. The
Untamed Breed. Gordon D. Shirreffs. Leisure Books, 1994. The
Long Rifle. Stewart Edward White, circa 1934. Movies Across
the Wide Missouri. 1951. Clark Gable. Which is not based on the book of that name. The
Big Sky. 1952. Kirk Douglas. Man in the
Wilderness. 1971. Richard Harris. Jeremiah
Johnson. 1972. Robert Redford. Centennial.
1976. TV miniseries, parts 1 & 2. Robert Conrad. Mountain
Men. 1980. Charlton Heston.
Fremds Land. Switzerland, 2003. An independent film about a Swiss conscript soldier in Napoleon's army who ends up as a mountain man. A DVD may be only available in Europe, if there, and only in German. I can't even find out if any of it was filmed in the US; probably not.
Good recent editions are listed, where
more than one edition occurs, not the original or other old editions.
Finding a copy of many these titles is not always easy. Your local book store may not have what you want on hand, but
they can order some books in print for you.
Some titles are out of print. For hard-to-find books I recommend the
online book services ABE Books
and
Alibris.
You also can try Amazon.com for new books and some second hand-books.
Have I read all these books? Nope, this is my reading list. I
aspire to read many of these, some day. I have read enough to be sure
not too many strays are on the loose.
Boulder County, Colorado. June 15, 2010
Copyright © S. K Wier 2008, 2009, 2010.
Reuse, retransmission, or reproduction prohibited without prior written permission from the compiler.
Ashley, William H. 1825 Rocky Mountain Papers.
Ball, John. Across the Plains to Oregon, 1832.
Beall, Thomas J. Recollections of Wm. Craig.
Becknell, William. Selected letters.
Beckwourth, James P. The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, written from his own dictation by T. D. Bonner
Brackenridge, Henry Marie, Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri River, in 1811.
Bradbury, John. Travels in the Interior of America.
Campbell, Robert. Rocky Mountain Letters.
Catlin, George. Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of North American Indians.
Clyman, James. A Short Detail of Life and Incidents of my trip in & through the Rockey Mountains.
Dudgeon, Anthony. Ramsey Crooks' letter regarding Who Discovered South Pass?
Fayel, William. A Narrative of Colonel Robert Campbell's Experiences in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade from 1825 to 1835.
Ferris, Warren Angus. Life in the Rocky Mountains.
Franchère, Gabriel. Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America.
Hunt, Wilson Price. Account of the Journey of the Overland Party.
Irving, Washington. Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains.
Irving, Washington. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville.
James, Thomas. Three Years Among the Indians and the Mexicans.
Larpenteur, Charles. Forty Years a Fur Trader.
Leonard, Zenas. Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard, fur trader and trapper, 1831-1835.
Luttig, John C. Journal of a fur-trading expedition on the Upper Missouri, 1812-1813.
Meek, Stephen Hall. The Autobiography of Stephen Hall Meek.
Menard, Pierre. Reports of Missouri Fur Co. activities at Three Forks of the Missouri, 1810.
Newell, Robert. Travels in the Teritory of Missourie.
Ogden, Peter Skene. Snake Country Journals.
Pattie, James O. The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky.
Potts, Daniel T. Rocky Mountain Letters.
Rogers, Harrison G. Journals of Harrison G. Rogers, member of the company of J. S. Smith.
Ross, Alexander. Journal of Snake Country Expedition, 1824.
Ross, Alexander. Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River.
Russell, Osborne. Journal of a Trapper.
Ruxton, George Frederick. Wild Life in the Rocky Mountains.
Sage, Rufus. Rocky Mountain Life.
Spalding, Eliza. Diary, June 15 - July 6, 1836
Spalding, Henry H. Letter From The Rocky Mountains, 1836.
Smith, Jedediah S.Journals of California Expeditions
Stuart, Robert. Voyage from the mouth of the Columbia to Saint Louis, on the Mississipi
Thomas, William H. Journal of a Voyage from St. Louis, LA. to the Mandan Village
Townsend, John Kirk. Across the Rockies to the Columbia.
Victor, Frances Fuller. The River of the West: Joe Meek's Years in the Rocky Mountains.
Whitman, Narcissa Prentiss. 1836 Letters and Journal.
Wislizenus, F. A., A Journey to the Rocky Mountains in 1839
Work, John. Journals while in the service of Hudson's Bay Co.
Workman, W. Letter dated Feb. 13, 1826
Wyeth, John B. Oregon, or a Short History of a Long Journey.
Wyeth, Nathaniel. The Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth's Expeditions to the Oregon Country and Selected Letters.
with additional links to:
Gregg, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies.
Lewis and Clark Journals
Marcy, Randoph Barnes. The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions
Parkman, Francis Jr. The Oregon Trail
Books
Beckwourth, James P. The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth as Told to Thomas D.
Bonner. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.
Carson, Christopher. Kit Carson's Autobiography. Edited by Milo Milton Quaife. Chicago: R. R. Donnelley and Sons, 1935.
Carter, Harvey L. Dear Old Kit: The Historical Christopher Carson. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.
Chittenden, Hiram M. The American Fur Trade of the Far West. Vol 1. 1902. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press Bison Books, 1986.
Clyman, James. Journal of a Mountain Man. Mountain Press, 1984.
De Voto, Bernard. Across the Wide Missouri. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947.
Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man. Alpheus H. Favour. 1936. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.
Fowler, Jacob. The Journal of Jacob Fowler: Narrating an Adventure from Arkansas through the
Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, to the Sources of Rio
Grande del Norte, 1821-22. Edited, with notes, by Elliott Coues. New York: F. P. Harper, 1898.
Gates, Zethel. Mariano Medina: Colorado Mountain Man. Boulder: Johnson Publishing Co., 1981.
Hafen, LeRoy, ed. Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West. 10 volumes. Glendale, Calif.: A. H. Clark Co., 1965-1972.
Hafen, LeRoy. Fur Trappers and Traders of the Far Southwest. Logan, Utah : Utah State University Press, 1997.
Hafen, LeRoy. Colorado Mountain Men. The Westerners, Denver Posse 1952.
Hafen, LeRoy and W. J. Ghent. Broken Hand: The Life Story of Thomas Fitzpatrick, Chief of the Mountain Men. Denver, Colo.: Old West Publishing Co., 1931.
Halass, David Fridtjof, and Andrew E. Masich. Halfbreed: The Remarkable True Story Of George Bent - Caught Between The Worlds Of The Indian And The White Man. Da Capo Press 2004.
Hyde, George. Life of George Bent: Written from His Letters. Hyde. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1980.
James, Thomas. Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Lavender, David. Bent's Fort. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1954.
Laycock, George. The Mountain Men. Danbury, Conn.; Harrisburg, Penn.: Outdoor Life Books, 1988.
Lecompte, Janet. Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn: The Upper Arkansas, 1832-1856. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.
Marshall, Thomas. Journals of Jules De Mun. Miss. Hist. Soc. Collections Feb - June 1928.
Morgan, Dale. Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964.
Morgan, Dale. The West of William H. Ashley. Denver: Old West Publishing Co., 1964.
Mumey, Nolie. The Life of Jim Baker, 1818-1898. New York: Interland Publishing Co., 1972.
Parkman, Francis. The Oregon Trail. Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1899.
Ruxton of the Rockies. Collected By Clyde and Mae Reed Porter. Leroy R. Hafen, ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.
Quaife, Milo, ed. Adventures of a Mountain Man: The Narrative of Zenas Leonard. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978.
Utley, Robert. A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1997.
Van Kirk, Sylvia. Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
Vestal, Stanley. Jim Bridger, Mountain Man: A Biography. New York: W. Morrow & Company, 1946.
Antoine Robidoux 1794-1860. William S. Wallace. Los Angeles: 1953.
Weber, David J. The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.
Articles
Fynn, A. J. "Furs and Forts of the Rocky Mountain West," The Colorado Magazine (November 1931 and March 1932): 209-222, 45-57.
Gray, John S. "Young Fur Trapper: Phillip Covington Travels to the Rockies with William Sublette," Colorado Heritage 1 (1982): 11-25.
Hafen, LeRoy R. "Bean-Sinclair Party of Rocky Mountain Trappers, 1830-32," The Colorado Magazine (July 1954): 161-171.
_____. "Colorado Mountain Men," The Colorado Magazine (January 1953): 14-28.
_____. "Fort St. Vrain," The Colorado Magazine (October 1952): 241-255.
_____. "Fort Vasquez," The Colorado Magazine (Summer 1964): 198-212.
_____. "Fraeb's Last Fight and How Battle Creek Got Its Name," The Colorado Magazine (May 1930): 97-101.
_____. "Mountain Men -- Andrew W. Sublette," The Colorado Magazine (September 1933): 179-184.
_____. "Mountain Men -- Louis Vasquez," The Colorado Magazine (January 1933): 14-21.
_____. "Old Fort Lupton and Its Founder," The Colorado Magazine (November 1929): 220-226.
Hanson, Charles E., Jr., "Thoughts on the Mountain Man and the Fur Trade," Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly 35 (Winter 1999): 2-8.
Judge, W. James. "The Archaeology of Fort Vasquez," The Colorado Magazine (Summer 1971): 181-203.
Muldoon, Daniel D. "Trappers and the Trail: The Santa Fe Trail from the Trappers' Perspective,"
Smith, E. Willard. "With Fur Traders in Colorado: The Journal of E. Willard Smith," The Colorado Magazine (July 1950): 161-188.
Wilson, William E. "Louis Vasquez in Colorado and the Uncertain Histories of Fort Convenience and a Hunter's Cabin," Colorado Heritage (Winter 2003): 3-15.
Primary Source Material in Colorado
Thomas Fitzpatrick collection, MSS #240, Colorado Historical Society, Denver, Colorado.
Lancaster P. Lupton collection, MSS #398, Colorado Historical Society, Denver, Colorado.
Elias Willard Smith collection, MSS #580, Colorado Historical Society, Denver, Colorado.
Terry
C. Johnston. Bantam Books, 1996-2001.
Individuals are welcome to print a copy for their own use.
