Mountain Men and Merchants: How the West Was Explored and Tamed
Mountain Men and Merchants; How the West was Explored and Tamed
Chad D. Ramsey
Student #4101887
History 300
Professor Tracy Derks
December 15th 2011
During the beginning and throughout the 19th century, mountain men, trappers and merchants of the fur trade made a vital impact on the development of the previously uncharted West. These men came primarily from the East coast of the United States with a desire for adventure and the calling of a better life. Men like James Bridger, Jedediah Smith, Osborne Russell, Warren Ferris and numerous others left with expedition teams with what they could carry on their backs and on pack animals to explore the Western frontier. While these men appeared to be brave, and experienced some of the harshest conditions that the West had to offer, they were not alone, nor without help in the frontier. The mountain man had to forge relationships over the years with a key ally he would need to survive, the American Indian. Many members of these tribes, most notably, the Crow, Flathead, Cheyenne, and Shoshone helped these mountain men in their education and understanding of the complexities of the relatively unexplored area. These adventurers, frontiersmen, and trappers were also an industrious cross section of society, who played a vital part in the history of the United States. While American Indians helped Mountain Men to explore the rugged West and were a vital link to route exploration and survival techniques, it was the trappers’ writings, maps and fur trading that played a more important role in the development and exploration of the West.
One of the most important roles that these Mountain Men played initially, was that of cartographers. The rough sketching, and understanding of the layout of the land and of cardinal direction, were key ingredients for the success of the Mountain Man. Utley described these talents in Mountain Man Warren Ferris when he observed, “By Ferris’s time, most trappers could visualize
Chad D. Ramsey
Student #4101887
History 300
Professor Tracy Derks
December 15th 2011
During the beginning and throughout the 19th century, mountain men, trappers and merchants of the fur trade made a vital impact on the development of the previously uncharted West. These men came primarily from the East coast of the United States with a desire for adventure and the calling of a better life. Men like James Bridger, Jedediah Smith, Osborne Russell, Warren Ferris and numerous others left with expedition teams with what they could carry on their backs and on pack animals to explore the Western frontier. While these men appeared to be brave, and experienced some of the harshest conditions that the West had to offer, they were not alone, nor without help in the frontier. The mountain man had to forge relationships over the years with a key ally he would need to survive, the American Indian. Many members of these tribes, most notably, the Crow, Flathead, Cheyenne, and Shoshone helped these mountain men in their education and understanding of the complexities of the relatively unexplored area. These adventurers, frontiersmen, and trappers were also an industrious cross section of society, who played a vital part in the history of the United States. While American Indians helped Mountain Men to explore the rugged West and were a vital link to route exploration and survival techniques, it was the trappers’ writings, maps and fur trading that played a more important role in the development and exploration of the West.
One of the most important roles that these Mountain Men played initially, was that of cartographers. The rough sketching, and understanding of the layout of the land and of cardinal direction, were key ingredients for the success of the Mountain Man. Utley described these talents in Mountain Man Warren Ferris when he observed, “By Ferris’s time, most trappers could visualize
Bibliography: Morgan, Dale. Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1953). Russell, Osborne. Journal of a Trapper: In the Rocky Mountains Between 1834 & 1843, ed. Aubrey L. Haines (Santa Barbara: The Narrative Press, 2001). Russell, Osborne. Voices from the Wilderness: the Frontiersman’s Own Story, ed. Thomas Froncek (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974). Utley, Robert. A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1998).