*Includes pictures
*Includes contemporary accounts
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
By the golden age of the mountain man in the mid-19th-century, there were perhaps only 3,000 living in the West. Their origins were disparate, although they included many Anglo-Americans. A good number hailed from wilderness regions of Kentucky and Virginia and throughout the newly purchased Louisiana Territory, which occupied the entire central section of the continent. French Canadians traveled from the north to work in the fur trade, while Creole-Europeans represented approximately 15% of the men known to be living the isolated mountain life. Others were of Métis, Spanish, American, Black, Indian, and mixed-blood origin, most often Iroquois or Delaware. Most came to the West in their late adolescent years, the oldest learning the trade in their 30s. Many roamed the west for as long as their constitutions would hold up under constant attacks on their health and personal safety. Some stayed too long and failed to survive the experience. Among the most famous, Jim Bridger arrived at the age of 16, while Edward Robinson was eventually killed in his 60s by what were known as "bad snakes," a reference to the Snake tribe in Idaho country. Jim Beckwourth left the mountains at 68 and Old Bill Williams died at the age of 62 when a band of Utes "made him to come."
Regardless of their motivations for entering the western forests, fur trapping was a central component of the lifestyle in order to satisfy the east coast and European fashion industries. The quest for fur of several varieties, particularly beaver, peaked in the 1840s, but many of the trappers continued for decades longer. Those laboring in the lower positions of the trade lasted an average of only 2.7 years in duration, while mid-level positions, such as traders and clerks, averaged 6.3. Directors and factory owners generally continued for approximately 15 years. Eventually, fashion moved on to other resources, but for the better part of a century, the frontiersman was the only worker able to survive the rigors of wilderness life while maintaining prosperity.
Most of the most notable frontiersmen traveled immense distances during their careers, and for many, only distant memories could recreate the routes taken. Few of the significant wilderness figures were experienced as cartographers to create accurate maps for industry, settlement, and the military. These American frontiersmen made first contact with numerous indigenous tribes in virtually every area of the west, but viable maps were few. Between such disparate cultures, relations could prove profitable or deadly at a moment's notice. The accuracy of expedition diaries might put other explorers in harm's way, or offer tremendous advantages. No one of European descent came to understand the traditions and psychology of the western tribes as did the western mountain man, and in some instances, he was the only figure with whom the Indian community would enact business.
This was the backdrop for bold, innovative men who both explored the frontier and survived along it, and in time, their legacies even began to upstage their colorful careers. Men like Kit Carson, who was literally a trailblazer for John C. Fremont's historic expeditions through the West in the 1840s, became proficient in both talking with and fighting Native Americans, and they served as heroes for the country's dime novels during the mid-19th century. Of course, the stories embellished so much that when one man found out how diminutive Kit Carson truly was, he responded, "You ain't the kind of Kit Carson I'm looking for."
America's Most Influential Mountain Men: The History and Legacy of the 19th Century Explorers Who Helped Chart Paths to the West chronicles the Western icons' lives and examines the myths and legends in an attempt to separate fact from fiction.