Mountain Men and Trappers

"To Enterprising Young Men: The Subscriber wishes to engage One Hundred men to ascend the River Missouri to its source to be employed for one, two, or three years..."

- William Ashley, Trader

This advertisement offered a life of excitement, danger, and a means to earn a living. The purpose of the journey would be to serve as trappers for an organized fur trading company. The prize: beaver.

In the 1820s and 1830s, beaver felt hats were hugely popular in Europe and the United States. The hats were created using the waterproof and soft under fur of beaver. Hatters purchased 100,000 pelts a year and the trappers or mountain men received $6.00 to $9.00 per pelt. The beaver was also used for castoreum, a musk used for a perfume base.

The mountain men led a lonely life and met extreme conditions. The freezing temperatures, dangerous geographical navigation, attacks by Native Americans, a chance meeting with a grizzly bear, or possible starvation produced men who were not led by convention. They survived by various means. Some sported shoulder length hair, scraggly beards, and sun-beaten faces. They wore buckskin clothes and were armed with pistols, knives and beaver traps.

St. Louis merchants would meet with the trappers at an annual rendezvous, exchanging goods for pelts. The prices were often marked up anywhere between 200 to 1000 percent. The trappers needed salt, sugar, tobacco, traps, and liquor. Indigenous folks were also invited to trade. Usually, they wanted knives, guns and blankets. The rendezvous was also a party that included drinking, gambling, fighting, and mayhem. The rendezvous could last for two weeks or until all trading was accomplished.

Famous mountain men included James Beckwourth, Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith. Smith was perhaps one of the most legendary mountain men. He was a daring and religious man who had a terrifying encounter with a grizzly bear on his first expedition -- his men sewed his ear and part of his scalp back on after the attack. Smith explored passages to the Southwest and was on the first overland expedition to reach California. He reached the Great Salt Lake by crossing the Sierra and the Great Basin; a feat no white man had accomplished previously. Smith passed through the Yellowstone National Park area on the way to the Big Horn Basin. His geographical knowledge was recorded and his knowledge of area tribes was part of a published book.

By 1840, the fashion winds changed direction and silk was the preferred material for hats. In turn, the mountainman's roles changed. Since beaver were no longer in demand and they were also harder to find (the had been trapped nearly to extinction), mountain men looked elsewhere to earn a living. Often they were guides for wagon trains, military scouts, or buffalo hunters. These mountain men, unique to America's culture, opened the West and gave people knowledge of its value.