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Reader's Guide to The Mountain Men of the American West
Compiled by Stuart Wier
August 9, 2008
This is a guide to the best books about the mountain men of the American west. Anyone can find a book here to suit them: casual readers, students, enthusiasts, reenactors, and historians.
For thirty-some years -- roughly speaking, from 1806 to 1840 -- the western U.S. was the domain of the mountain men, trappers who spent years traveling and living in the wilderness. Long before cowboys and wagon trains, settlers and cavalry, railroads and gold rushes, 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 an excellent detailed history try A Life Wild and Perilous by Robert M. Utley. The classic history is Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto. No one writes like Bernard De Voto; it reads as well as any novel There are fascinating personal journals and narratives written by some of the mountain men themselves, and many good biographies.
Have I read all these books? No, this is my reading list. I aspire to read most of these, some day. I have read enough to be sure that not many strays are on the loose.
Stuart Wier
Boulder County, Colorado. August 9, 2008.
Copyright © Stuart Wier 2008. Reuse or reproduction prohibited without signed written permission from the compiler.
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 few can equal. The emphasis is on key mountain men, the fur trade, and geographical discoveries. 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.
Into the Wilderness. National Geographic Society, Washington, ca. 1975. Escalante to John Charles Fremont see the west. The usual good National Geographic illustrations plus brief text.
Journals and Personal Narratives by Mountain Men, and some other Travelers in the Mountains
Journal of a Trapper. Osborne Russell. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965. "...perhaps the best account of the life of a fur trapper in the Rocky Mountains when the trade there was at it peak."
Life in the Rocky Mountains ... on the Sources of the Rivers Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado from February, 1830 to November, 1835. Warren A. Ferris. Paul C. Phillips, ed. Denver: Old West Publishing Company, 1983. Another detailed account, one of the best by a mountain man. Includes the only map of the Rockies made by a mountain man that survives in its original form.
Adventures of a Mountain Man: The Narrative of Zenas Leonard. Zenas Leonard. Milo M. Quaife, ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978; also printed as Adventures of Zenas Leonard, John Ewers, ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959).
The River of the West: Life and Adventure in the Rocky Mountains and Oregon.... Frances Fuller Victor. vol. 1: The Mountain Years, Winfred Blevins, ed.; vol. 2: Oregon. Missoula Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Co., 1983, 1987. Joe Meek's account.
Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail. Lewis H. Garrard. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.
"Dear Old Kit": The Historical Christopher Carson With a New Edition of the Carson Memoirs. Harvey Lewis Carter. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1968; 1990. Carson's own memoir or autobiography, corrected where obvious errors appear. "... Carter's [edition of the Carson autobiography is] the only one that overcomes Carson's faulty memory for dates and places in his life, in an accurate chronological framework. In addition the work is heavily annotated with data and insights from Carter's lifelong study of Carson." - Utley.
Rocky Mountain Life, Or, Startling Scenes and Perilous Adventures in the Far West During an Expedition of Three Years. Rufus B. Sage. Boston: Wentworth & Company, 1857; facsimile: Lincoln: Univ of Nebraska Press, 1982. Another very detailed personal account.
Across the Rockies to the Columbia. James Kirk Townsend. Intro. by Donald Jackson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978. This is the account by a naturalist who traveled with Wyeth's train to rendezvous and the Pacific in 1834.
The Southwest Expedition of Jedediah S. Smith: His Personal Account of the Journey to California, 1826-1827. Jedediah Smith. George Brooks, ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. "superbly edited."
The West of Alfred Jacob Miller. Alfred Jacob Miller. Marvin Ross, ed. Norman: univ. of Oklahoma, 1968. Black and white reproductions of Miller's paintings and sketches made in the west, plus Miller's own descriptions of each scene.
'The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S. A., in the Rocky Mountains and the Far West.. Washington Irving. edited by Edgeley W. Todd. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961 & 1986. (original 1837). Bonneville's account of the key years 1832-1835.
Astoria ... An Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains. Washington Irving. edited and introduced by Edgeley W. Todd. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964. "Irving's work still is indispensable."
Journal of a Mountain Man. James Clyman. Linda M. Hasselstrom, ed. Missoula: Mountain Press, 1984.
The Journal Of Jacob Fowler ... From Arkansas Through The Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, And New Mexico . . . 1821--1822. Jacob Fowler.. Elliott Coues, ed. Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1965.
The Rocky Mountain Journals of William Marshall Anderson: The West in 1834. Dale L. Morgan and Eleanor Towles Harris, eds. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987.
The Discovery of the Oregon Trail: Robert Stuart's Narrative of His Overland Trip in 1812-1813. Philip Ashton Rollins. New York, 1935; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
A Narrative of Colonel Robert Campbell's Experiences in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade from 1825 to 1835. Drew Allen Holloway, ed. Fairfield Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1991.
Travels to the Rocky Mountains Between 1833 and 1872. Charles Larpenteur, Michael M. Casler editor. Fur Press, 2007. (a notable improvement over the older edition of Larpenteur's journal titled “Forty Years a Fur Trapper on the Upper Missouri.”)
Chardon's Journal at Fort Clark, 1834-1839. Francis Chardon. Annie Heloise Abel, ed. Lincoln: Bison Books, 1997.
Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie of Kentucky. James O. Pattie. 1833. The original tale is highly suspect or clearly invented in parts: "an extraordinary mix of fact and fancy." To sort it out see the edition edited by Richard Batman, Missoula: Mountain Press, 1988.
Life, Letters and Travels of Pierre Jean de Smet, S. J. Hiram M Chittenden and Alfred T. Richardson, eds. New York: Lathrop C. Harper, 1905.
The Autobiography of John Ball. John Ball Grand Rapids Michigan, 1925.
Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans. Thomas James. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
George C. Yount and His Chronicles of the West. Charles L Camp, ed. Denver: Old West Publishing Co., 1966. i
"The D. T. P. Letters." Charles L. Camp, in Essays for Henry R. Wagner, San Francisco, 1947. The Daniel Potts letters.
A Trappers Life in the Rocky Mountains and Oregon from 1829 to 1839. George W. Ebberts. Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
“The Journals of Jules De Mun.” Thomas M. Marshall. Miss. Hist. Soc. Collections Feb - June 1928. De Mun a very early Colorado trapper.
Rocky Mountain Album A Fur Trade Sampler. Mike Moore. Macon Georgia: Historical Enterprises, 2004. A day by day account of a year in the mountain man's west, with journal entries for most days of the year from early writers on that day. (order from amm1616@comcast.net; 303 - 238 - 4656).
Life in the Early West. Mike Moore. Macon Georgia: Historical Enterprises, 2003. (order from amm1616@comcast.net; 303 - 238 - 4656).
"First Journey to North America in the Years 1822 to 1824." Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wurttemberg. Wm. G. Bek, ed. So. Dakota Hist. Colls., vol. 19, 1938.
Travels in the Interior of North America. Maximilian Prince of Wied-Neuwied. [visited the upper Missouri in 1832 to 1834, as far as Ft. Union] Reuben Thwaites, ed. Cleveland: 1905. 2 vols.
A Tour on the Prairies. Washington Irving. John McDermott, ed. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma, 1956.
Journal of An Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains... in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837. Samuel Parker. Ithaca: 1842. Parker was a missionary who traveled across the west of the mountain men.
A Journey to the Rocky Mountains in 1839 (or Memoir of a Tour to Northern New Mexico). Frederick A. Wislizenus. Glorieta New Mexico: Rio Grande Press, 1969.; Fairfield CT: Ye Galleon Press, 1989. Translated from German; Wislizenus was a physician and naturalist.
Prairie and Mountain Sketches. Matthew Field. Kate L. Gregg and John Frances McDermott, eds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957. Field was one of a party of excursionists in William Drummond Stewart's last trip to the mountains in 1843.
Persimmon Hill: A Narrative of Old St. Louis and the Far West. William Clark Kennerly. Norman: Univ. Oklahoma 1948. Kennerly was another member of Stewart's 1843 excursion.
The Oregon Trail, Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life. Parkman, Francis. 1849. (many editions). Account of Parkman's visit to Wyoming in 1845. Parkman was a top nineteenth-century historian, and thought highly of his mountain man guide Henry Chatillon.
A Rendezvous Reader. Maguire. J. H. et al. eds. Univ. Utah. Selections from histories and personal accounts
Journal of a Fur Trading Expedition on the Upper Missouri, 1812-1813. John C. Luttig. Stella M Drumm, ed. New York: 1964. Luttig's journal contains the only witness to the death of Sacagawea ('Sacajewea').
Views of Louisiana Together with a Journal of a Voyage Up the Missouri River in 1811. Henry M. Brackenbridge. Pittsburgh: - , 1814. also in Thwaites, Early Western Travels, Cleveland, 1904.
Travels in the Interior of North America in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811. John Bradbury. Liverpool: Smith and Galway, 1817; reprinted Thwaites, in Thwaites, Early Western Travels (next).
Early Western Travels. Reuben Gold Thwaites. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1904-1905. Collected original accounts in thirty volumes.
Personal Narratives Presented as Novels
Two of the best accounts by men who knew the mountain man's life were published as novels.
Edward Warren. William Drummond Stewart. Missoula: Mountain Press, 1986. Introduction By Winfred Blevins. Stewart attended six rendezvous, from 1833 to 1838. The only novel ever written by a man who lived the life and saw the times. Very well written, too.
Life in the Far West. George Frederick Ruxton. ed. Leroy Hafen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951. Appears to be a first-person narrative. It is fiction, but closely based on the way of life and persons in the mountains. "no work excels in color, charm, or authenticity."
Biographies
Westering Man: The Life of Joseph Walker. Bill Gilbert. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985. "an excellent biography, perhaps the best biography of any mountain man." - Robt. Utley
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West. Dale L. Morgan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964. An excellent biography of Smith, and in effect a history of the mountain men up to 1831 when Smith died. A standard work in fur trade history. "the ultimate authority;" "impeccable scholarship."
Broken Hand: The Life of Thomas Fitzpatrick, Mountain Man, Guide and Indian Agent. Leroy R. Hafen. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973.
Ewing Young, Master Trapper. Kenneth L. Holmes. Portland Oregon: Binfords and Mort, 1967. (about Young, see also the article in Hafen's Mountain Men, below)
Kit Carson a Pattern for Heroes. Thelma S. Guild and Harvey L. Carter. Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska, 1984. A good biography based on Carter's work published in "Dear Old Kit."
James Pattie's West: The Dream and the Reality, Richard Batman. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.
John Colter: His Years in the Rockies. Burton Harris. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1993. Introduction by David Lavender. "heavily speculative in his reconstructions. " For more details, see the chapter "John Colter" in Hafen's Mountain Men (next), vol. 8, pp73-85.
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
Bill Sublette Mountain Man. John E. Sunder. Norman: Univ. Oklahoma, 1959.
David E Jackson Field Captain of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. Vivian Linford. Jackson: Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, 1996.
James Clyman, Frontiersman, 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; but it was reprinted without Camp's notes by Tamarack Books, in 1998.
The Life and Adventures of George Nidever 1802 - 1883. Ellison, William Henry, 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.
The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West. Leroy R. Hafen. Glendale: Arthur H. Clark, 1965-1972. 10 volumes. 292 biographies. A fundamental reference for the lives of the mountain men.
selections from “Mountain Men” by Hafen are published in these other 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.
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.
Mountain Men Exploring
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West. Dale L. Morgan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964. A biography of Smith, with all that is known, and in effect a history of the mountain men up to 1831 when Smith died.
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.
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, this trail was largely opened by American mountain men in this period.
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
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."
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.
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."
The Fist in the Wilderness. David Lavender. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964. A big history of the Astor fur trade business.
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.
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.
Fur Trade and Empire. Frederick Merk. Cambridge: 1931. “one of the most significant contributions to the literature” - Dale Morgan.
Forts and Rendezvous
The “forts'”of the earliest west were private commercial trading posts, not military fortifications. They were walled with wooden stockades or adobe to discourage raids by Indians.
Bent's Fort. David Lavender. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1954, 1972, 2003.
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.
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.
Antoine Robidoux and Fort Uncompahgre. Ken Reyher. Ouray, Colorado: Western Reflections Inc., 1998. First American outpost in Colorado.
“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.
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.
The following books are used by reenactors to make reproductions of early western equipment. Some good details are available here.
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.
The Mountain Man Vernacular: Its Historical Roots, Its Linguistic Nature, and Its Literary Uses. Richard C. Poulsen. New York: Lang 1985, 328 pp. reviewed in: American Speech, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Winter, 1989), pp. 365-367
The Santa Fe Trail: Original Accounts
The Prairie Traveler, a Hand-Book for Overland Expeditions. Randolph Barnes Marcy. London: , 1863
The Road to Santa Fe, The Journal and Diaries of George Champlin. 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.
Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: the Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847. Susan Shelby Magoffin. Stella M Drumm ed. New Haven: 1926.
Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail. Matt Field. John Sunder, ed. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma, 1995.
Hudsons Bay and the North West Company
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.
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 Visual Record
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. Their sketches and paintings are historically valuable and personally satisfying.
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.
George Catlin Letters and Notes on the North American Indians. Michael Mooney, ed. New York: Clarkson H. Potter, 1975. Many of Catlin's sketches, and some of his paintings in black and white plus a few color reproductions. Maybe a hundred picture in all, with fascinating details.
Pursuit of the Horizon, a Life of George Catlin. Loyd Haberly. New York: 1948.
(see also the artists Sam. Seymor and Titian Peale. with Long's party, and Paul Kane)
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.
Novels
The Big Sky. A. B. Guthrie. Mariner Books.
Mountain Man. Vardis Fisher. University of Idaho Press.
Wolf Song. Harvey Fergusson. University of Nebraska Press, 1981.
Medicine Calf. Bill Hotchkiss. New York: W W Norton, 1981.
Lord Grizzly. Frederick Manfred. University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
The Untamed Breed. Gordon D. Shirreffs. Leisure Books, 1994.
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. Terry C. Johnston. Bantam Books, 1996-2001.
Movies
Jeremiah Johnson. 1972. Robert Redford. The best.
Centennial. 1976. TV miniseries, parts 1 & 2. Robert Conrad.
Across the Wide Missouri. 1951. Clark Gable.
The Big Sky. 1952. Kirk Douglas.
Mountain Men. 1980. Charlton Heston.
Finding
a copy of many these titles is not always easy. Some are out of
print. Your local book store may not have what you want on hand, but
they can order some for you. Good recent editions are listed, where
more than one edition occurs. For hard-to-find books I recommend the
online book services www. AbeBooks .com, and www.Alibris .com. You
also can try Amazon .com for new books and some second hand-books.
Send a Dispatch to the Compiler, Stuart Wier. (swier@earthlink.net)
For printed copies, a 5 by 8 inch booklet for $2.00, write to 7350 Coronado Court, Boulder, Colorado 80303; phone 303 499 - 0991
Copyright © Stuart Wier 2008. Reuse or reproduction prohibited without signed written permission from the compiler. Stuart Wier is an avocational historian who researches, speaks, and writes
about early western explorers.
Read about his programs you can hear.