Who Wants to Be a Pioneer?
Designed by Rob Dent and Paula White Spring 2000

Who Wants To Be a Pioneer: Wagon Train #3

Introduction

In 1803, the United States doubled its territory when it bought the land between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains from France. The Louisiana Purchase, as this deal was known, opened up an enormous area of land for American settlement. However, until the 1840s, very few Americans were willing to move to this undeveloped and dangerous territory. Most people thought (incorrectly) that this land was unfit for farming, and many were content to just leave it to the Native Americans who were living there.

Others saw a great economic opportunity in this new region. They wanted to use the natural resources which these Western lands provided--in particular, beaver fur. In the early 1800s, beaver fur hats were very fashionable for men in Europe and America. Since there were lots of beaver in the Rocky Mountains, anyone willing to go there and trap them could make a huge profit when they sold the pelts back East.

The fur trade did not take off until the 1820s. Businessmen like John Jacob Astor and William Henry Ashley hired hundreds of men who were willing to venture hundreds of miles away from society to earn their living in the mountains.

These Mountain Men lived year-round in the Rockies, trapping during the Fall and Spring and meeting each summer to trade beaver pelts for food and supplies. Although they were a long way from civilization, most mountain men did not live completely alone. They usually traveled in brigades of 40 to 60 people, and from a base camp separated into groups of two or three. However, the life of the Mountain Man was still a lonely one, as he would live year after year with little contact with the outside world.

From 1820 to 1830, there were as many as 1000 Mountain Men roaming the West trapping beavers and exploring unknown territory. However, in the 1830s, the price of beaver pelts began to drop as fur hats fell out of fashion and silk hats became popular. Mountain Men who had to find another way to make a living. Some of them returned to the East, but many used their knowledge of the West to become guides for wagon trains, military scouts, or buffalo hunters.

Sources (from the "Mountain Men and the Fur Trade" Virtual Research Center):

1. Fur trade business records

2. Portraits of Mountain Men

3. Illustrations of from "The River of the West" published in 1870

4. 1887 Interview about the Fur Trade from the Conner Prarie Site

5. More Primary Sources -- look at the following:

• Rocky Mountain Winters: description of winter in the Rockies told by a mountain man in the 1840s
• Want Ads for Mountain Men: taken from newspapers from the 1820s
• Rendevouz in the Rocky Mountains: links to primary source descriptions of the Rendevouz, the annual trading party of the mountain men

6. Diaries, Narratives, and Letters -- POINT TO A FEW FOR THE STUDENTS TO READ, OR TELL THEM HOW TO SEARCH FOR A PARTICULAR TOPIC

Guiding Questions: Mountain Men

General

• Look for evidence about:
• Reasons mountain men would have gone west
• What characterized "the life of a mountain man"
• How well-off were the mountain men? How did they get so deeply into debt? Who made most of the money from the fur trade?
• What dangers did they face?
• What were their interactions with the Native Americans like?

Specific

Fur Trade Era Business Records

* Records of St. Louis Fur Company include some contracts which are written legalistically and might or might not be applicable. It also has a very detailed invoice too.

• What items were traded (and in what quantities)? Try to think of why each was needed by the trappers.
• What do the records tell you about the size of the fur companies and/or trapping parties?
• Who was buying/selling/trading the goods?
• Where were the goods being bought/sold/traded?

Portraits of Mountain Men

• How old are the Mountain Men?
• What kinds of clothes are they wearing? What do their outfits tell you (keep in mind--they are quite different) Is this how they would have dressed while trapping?
• What else can you tell from the pictures?

Illustrations from "The River West"

• What do these illustrations tell you about the experiences of a Mountain Man?
• Based on what you know about Mountain Men, how realistic are these pictures? Which ones are more realistic, which ones less?

1887 Interview about the Fur Trade

• Who were the fur traders trading with in this interview?
• Were the Native Americans good businessmen? How do you know?
• What else does this tell you about the fur trade?

Rocky Mountain Winters

• Describe life in the winter camp (food, activities, shelter, etc.)

Want Ads for Mountain Men

• Who placed the ads? How many men did they want? What did they want them to do? How much would they get paid? From where would they leave?
• Who might be attracted by these ads?

Rendezvous Sources

These links take the reader to the appropriate section of larger texts--usually there is no need to read the rest of the text, unless the students are interested.

• Where were the rendezvous held? (Looking at the photos of the sites in Utah [1826], Idaho [1829], and Wyoming [1833], why were these locations chosen?)
• 1826: William Fayel's narrative: Who/how many people were at the Rendezvous?
• How much were the trappers paid for the beaver furs? How much did they sell for back East?
• 1832: John Ball's Autobiography: (Read the sections titled "Grand Rendezvous" and "Pierre's Hole") Again--who/how many people were at the rendezvous? What did the Native Americans supply the trappers with, and what did they trade in return? What did the trappers do during the rendezvous? (Think about the number of horses there--how would that affect where the location of the rendezvous?)

Journals of the Mountain Men

These journals are long and dense. You might want to have students do a search (under "edit" menu on Internet Explorer) for certain terms in some of the journals. Possible topics: beaver, winter (and other seasons), Indians, bear, danger, trap, trade/ing