FRONTIER PANEL – MOUNTAIN MAN
THE MOUNTAIN MEN: PRIMITIVE LIVES IN THE
WILDERNESS
of their wilderness experiences, which today are considered
half fact & half legend.
Can you imagine yourself doing the following in order to
survive & make a living? Gorging yourself with buffalo
intestines, drinking warn buffalo blood, not bathing for months
at a time, wading in freezing water to trap a fur-bearing
animal?? No thanks, you say? Who would want to? Meet the
mountain men, a bunch of individualists who are an important
part of our U.S. heritage.
A PRIMITIVE EXISTENCE
MOUNTAIN MEN
In the early 19th century, these hardy trappers lived in a
semi-savage existence in the far Western U.S. Their
adventures in the wilderness have fascinated scholars &
students ever since. These men, driven by a reckless spirit & a
desire for profit from trapping the elusive North American
beaver, invaded every valley, plain & mountain range in the
West. The mountain men played a heroic role in extending the
moving frontier to the Pacific Coast, pacifying the Indian by
breaking down his self-sufficiency, & spying out fertile valleys
& spreading the word to eager farmers in the East.
Their adventures are unique in our history. Since the
mountain men were the vanguard of western travelers, they
faced unknown dangers & situations. Adapting to the hostile
environment, they leaned to exist & even thrive in their
surroundings. In fact, contrary to the progress of their more
civilized Eastern countrymen, the mountain men slipped
backward from civilization into a more primitive existence. For
the major part of each year, these hardy trappers shunned any
evidence of civilization or civilized behavior, preferring to work
beside placid beaver streams in lonely mountain valleys. Their
primitive existence is illuminated in a study of their life-styles.
APPEARANCE
The inventive to go into the wilderness resulted from a
fashion change in Europe, which made beaver hats the rage of
high society. The American West was an untapped reservoir of
this fur-bearing animal. Practically every stream in the
mountainous Far West was the beaver’s home. In searching
for this “brown gold,” the trappers explored & mapped an
extraordinary part of our country. Their campfires became
towns; their paths became highways.
Everything about the mountain men was an adaptation to
the wilderness. The trappers discarded most of their customs,
attitudes, manners, institutions, & ways of living. They took
their new character traits from their wilderness friend &
adversary, the American Indian. Thus, whenever a
“companyero” mistook a trapper for an “Injun” because of his
clothes & appearance, the trapper was elated. His outfit
showed the frontier influence. Made of buckskin with long
fringes & covered with porcupine quills & pounds of beads, this
frontier suit would usually last about 3 or 4 years, even though
it was never washed or cleaned. For protection, trappers kept
a Green River Knife & a tomahawk tucked into a leather bait.
In addition to the buckskin suit, moccasins, felt hat &
weaponry, the trappers added to their already primitive
appearance by letting their hair & beards grow long.
TWENTY YEARS & AFTER
ATTITUDES
The mountain men’s days of glory covered only about 20
years, in 1820-1840. But when they vanished to take up other
occupations & settle down in their twilight years, they had
indelibly etched into their minds every nook & cranny of the Far
West. Unknowingly, many mountain men who outlived their
particular fur trade days continued to play significant roles in
the westward movement. Certain individuals such as Moses
“Black” Harris & Thomas Fitzpatrick became scouts for pioneer
wagon trains traversing lands, which they themselves had
discovered. Many more served as interpreters & guides for the
U.S. Army. Still others (Jim Bridger, Louis Vasquez & the
Bents) established trading posts at strategic points so that
travelers to CA & Oregon could replenish their supplies &
receive expert advice. Trappers’ diaries, journals & memoirs
are another service the mountain men rendered to history.
Their literature provided later pioneers with exciting glimpses
If their appearance resembled the Indian, the mountain
men’s attitudes also showed the corrosive influence of the
wilderness. Since death lurked from behind every tree or
beyond every bend in a river, survival became all-important.
While struggling to survive, they came to disregard all human
life – their own, their friends & their enemies. Sadistic duels at
20 paces between drunken trappers at the annual rendezvous
illustrate their callous outlook on life. A few trappers even
practiced cannibalism. One trapper in particular, Charles “Big
Phil” Gardner, bragged he had eaten several people. Such
extreme cases of barbarism however, were exceptions rather
than the rule.
CHANGE IN FASHION
LANGUAGE & SPEECH
If their outlook on life was influenced by living in the
wilderness, so was their language & speech. The mountain
men spoke varied words from Spanish, French, English,
several Indian tongues, & of course, the profane. A modern
observer would need a translator. A man was a “coon,” “hoss,”
or “child.” Scalping was “tickling a fleece” or “liftin’ his ha’r.”
When a comrade died, he had “gone under” or was “rubbed
out;” a doomed man was a “gone beaver.” A trapper believed
he had to “lodge-pole” his squaw (beat her) in order to keep
peace in the family. “Bacca” & “Taos Lightenin’” were pleasure
guaranteed to give trappers “quite a glow.” Phrases like “Thar
goes hoss & beaver” (bad luck, “oh well”) & “Keep your
topknot” are legacies of a colorful & vivid frontier vocabulary.
DIET
The mountain men used their quaint language most often
when they squatted around blazing fires at night spinning tales
& enjoying food. Their diet also mirrored their primitive
surroundings. Meat, especially buffalo meat, was their staff of
life. Vegetables & bread were missing from their diets for years
at a time. Since buffalo was their favorite food, they greedily
devoured the entire animal. Eating the long intestines called
boudins became a game! One trapper began swallowing the
long, stretched-out, greasy intestines from one end. Another
trapper began at the other end; the first one & the other would
stop swallowing to shout “feed fair!” Blood from the buffalo was
also savored. (They said it tasted like warm milk) However
feasts of buffalo entrails & blood were often hard to come by in
the mountains. Like the Indians, the trappers alternated
between feast & feminine, gorging themselves when food was
available, & forcing leasing appealing creatures down their
throats during “starvin’ times.” In order to survive, snakes,
crickets, frogs, insects, horses, dogs & even moccasins were
eaten.
ENEMIES
Running out of food was only one of the dangers; Indians
were always present, ready to catch a trapper working his trap
lines alone. Mountain men also had to watch out for the most
feared critters of all – the ferocious grizzly bear, which took the
lives of many trappers. Mother nature added her misfortunes
too. Gangrene from carelessly attended wounds, infected
rattlesnake bites, poisoned liquor, & venereal disease killed
many of these rugged frontiersmen.
RENDEZVOUS
Even with all the dangers of the wilderness, the mountain
men must have enjoyed their free-spirited, sensual life away
from the restraints of civilization. Yet there must have been
moments at the annual rendezvous when “civilization” didn’t
look so bad or restrictive. The rendezvous, held in the first
weeks of summer between 1825-1840, was the Rocky
Mountain version of a medieval fair. It was held in a “hole” (a
flat grassy valley somewhere in the mountains), where bands
of trappers met the supply caravans from St. Louis to
exchange the year’s catch of plows (beaver furs) for the
necessities of life. Devised by one of the fur trade’s prime
mover’s, William Henry Ashley, the rendezvous was a timely
substitute for the permanent fort as a method of getting Indians
& fur trappers to meet & sell their pelts. During the first few
days the plows were traded for money at high mountain rates.
Then the trappers bought their supplies of gunpowder, flint,
coffee & other necessities.
ENTERTAINMENT
After concluding their business at the rendezvous’
beginning, the fun-starved trappers let loose for a week or two
of a “rip roaring time.” There was ample alcohol at
astronomical prices, & the mountain men swallowed the oftenlethal fluid in large quantities during the two weeks. After days
of drinking, the mountain men transformed the rendezvous into
a debauchery. They staged foot races & fought sure-death
duels at 20 paces. They gambled recklessly at all sorts of
games, losing on occasion their trapping equipment, horses,
rifles, & even their wives. When they realized their sudden
losses, they took solace in more games, more alcohol, & more
hedonistic pursuits.
BACK TO THE MOUNTAINS
After two weeks of all this carousing, drinking & gambling,
even the mountain men had their limits. So they trudged back
into the higher mountains to begin the fall hunt, continuing their
routine of wading in ice-cold ponds & streams, setting their
traps, watching for enemies, & living out the primitive, free life
style they had chosen.