Mountain Men & the Fur Trade

In mid-1806, the explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, were still on their way home to St. Louis from their recent monumental journey to the Pacific Ocean when they were met by two greenhorn trappers headed west toward the Rocky Mountains. To guide the two trappers into the vast, still unknown wilderness, Lewis and Clark dispatched one of their own men, John Colter. With Colter's return west with his two companions, the Rocky Mountain fur trade had its beginnings. For the next almost-forty years, practically every nook and cranny of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains were frequented by a hardy breed of individuals known collectively as "mountain men." Driven by hungry markets back East for beaver fur from which stylish hats were made, the mountain men and the fur companies that hired them were the advance guard of civilization in the American West. The mountain man era is full of individuals who dramatically affected the early exploration and mapping of the West. This primary source portfolio features facsimiles of historical maps, photographs, and primary source documents, most often reproduced in their original sizes. This portfolio includes a Study Guide with reproducible student activities and a timeline with a who's who list. 4 Illustrated Broadsheet Essays: * The Mountain Men * The Rendezvous * Equipment of the Mountain Man * Fur Posts & Forts 9 Primary Source Documents: * Map showing U.S. during mountain men era, 1836 * Poster with paintings and illustrations of beaver trapping and hat making * General Ashley's advertisement that helped start fur trade's "rendezvous system," 1822 * Trader's license issued to Gen. Ashley, April 1822 * Missouri River keelboat drawing from Davy Crockett's Almanac, 1838 * Drawing of Indian attack on fur trader's keelboat, 1823 * Two A. J. Miller paintings depicting the 1837 "Rendezvous on Horse Creek" and "Breakfast at Sunrise" * Drawings and descriptions of mountain men's weapons * Poster: illustrations and descriptions of forts and fur posts