A unique breed of tough, self-reliant loners, the trappers and pioneers who called themselves “mountain men” became in the 1820s and 1830s the trail blazers of the Far West. Chafing at the restraints of settled society and attracted by the West’s profusion of wildlife, they went in search of beaver pelts and other furs, some as members of the fur companies but many independently. They learned Indian languages and customs, often married Indian women, and generally came to resemble Native Americans in dress, eating habits and fighting methods. Spending most of their time in the wild, mountain men gathered each summer at a prearranged spot for the annual rendezvous. There, joined by traders, fur company representatives, and Indians, they traded, drank, gambled and caroused in a raucous celebration.

Several mountain men won fame as explorers. Thus James Bridger (1804-1881) became the first white to visit the Great Salt Lake (1824); Jedediah S. Smith (1798-1831) rediscovered the South Pass (1823-1824), and later led a party through the Great Basin and Mojave Desert into California (1826); Kit Carson (1809-1868) blazed trails in the province of New Mexico (1826-1831); and Joseph Reddeford Walker journeyed from the Rockies to the Pacific, camping near Yosemite Valley in 1833.

Tags: American West flash cards, explorers, Mountain Men, trappers