The Mountain Men

William H. Ashley's 1825 Rocky Mountain Papers William H. Ashley, with his partner Andrew Henry, owned a fur trading company based in Saint Louis, Missouri

The Diary of William H Ashley: March 25 - June 27, 1825 Ashley owned a fur trading company based in Saint Louis, Missouri. This detailed diary describes the journey from the Platte River to the Green River and the division of the trapping party there. It also details Ashley's trip down the Green River in bullboats, and ends just a few days before Ashley's parties met on the Henry's Fork for the first Rocky Mountain Rendezvous. It contains lists of supplies, compass courses, and names of animals in the Ute language.

Jim Baker One of Colorado's most famous trappers, scouts, guides and Indian fighters. While Baker is not one of the high profile mountain men, he is often mentioned in books on the subject and is known to have been a friend and contemporary of Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Uncle Dick Wooton, Henry Fraep and many others.

James Beckwourth An unsung, genuine American hero who created a lower, safer passage across the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the mid-1800s, and also links to the Beckwourth Trail

Black Fur Traders Fur Trade Historians, in their search for information, repeatedly come across references to black mountain men, traders and even black voyageurs in narratives of the American fur trade.

The Diary of Henry Marie Brackenridge: Journal Of a Voyage Up The Missouri River, In 1811 , Brackenridge ascended the Missouri River in 1811 in the company of a party of the Missouri Fur Company, led by Manuel Lisa.

Jim Bridger A short biography

Captain Bonneville: His Adventurers or Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Far West Written by Washington Irvin, the complete text

Kit Carson: a well written essay on Kit Carson: the myth vs. the man.

Kit Carson An excellent biography

Kit Carson A man whose "word was as sure as the sun comin' up," he was noted for an unassuming manner and implacable courage

Alexander Culbertson of the American Fur Company: One of the most admired traders on the Upper Missouri; also placed in charge of Fort Union (in present-day North Dakota) and Fort McKenzie in 1840

W. A. Ferris: "Life in the Rocky Mountains" The complete diary of W.A. Ferris who kept one of the most detailed accounts of fur trade in the Central Rockies from 1830 to 1835.

John Charles Fremont The "Pathfinder"

Fremont Expeditions A timeline

John Fremont The Pathmarker of the West

Fremont - Biography On his second expedition he made a massive circle of the least known parts of the West: from the Colorado Rockies north to the South Pass, northwest to the Columbia, south along the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges into California, and southward before turning east across the desert to the vicinity of Salt Lake and thence east across the Colorado Rockies. He returned to St. Louis in August 1844, after proving the existence of Salt Lake and a vast region of interior drainage (the Great Basin), dispelling the myth of the San Buenaventura River (supposed to flow from the Rockies to California), and demonstrating that the South Pass was the best route across the mountains.

Green River Rendezvous 2000 From the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, WY

Doc Grizzly: A Colorado Mountain Man--listing Rendezvous in Colorado

Major Andrew Henry Fur Trader and Early Western Adventurer--the field Captain of the St. Louis, Missouri Fur Company. Written by Juel Trask whose great-great grandfather Thomas Putnam Trask was a friend of Major Henry's at the Webster lead mines in Washington County Missouri.

Thomas James: Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans This Journal tells about the adventures of Thomas James on the Upper Missouri in 1809 with the Missouri Fur Company, and his later adventures as one of the first American traders in Santa Fe and with the Comanche Indians.

Zenas Leonard: A Narrative Written by Zenas Leonard of Clearfield County Pennsylvania, this tells of the adventures of a company of 70 men, who left St. Louis in the Spring of 1831, on an expedition to the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of trapping for Furs, and trading with the Indians. This narrative details a minute description of the incidents of the adventure, and a valuable history of this immense territory from personal observation.

John C. Luttig: The Journal of a Fur-Trading Expedition on the Upper Missouri 1812-1813 Written by John C. Luttig who ascended the Missouri River in 1812 in a party led by Manuel Lisa. Luttig was a clerk of the Missouri Fur Company.

Joe Meek's Years in the Rocky Mountains: The River of the West This story written by Oregon Historian Frances Fuller Victor in 1870, is of Joe Meek and his years as a mountain man. Meek came west in 1828 as an employee of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and spent the next twelve years engaged in the fur trade. He worked for the various fur companies and later became a free trapper. He often traveled with Bridger's brigade, and participated many of the important events of the period.

Pierre Menard Letters written to his brother-in-law detailing activities of the Missouri Fur Company at the Three Forks of the Missouri in the Summer of 1810

Mountain Men An alphabetical listing of all sorts of mountain men.

Robert Newell's Memorandum: Travels in the Territory of Missourie. Besides the memorandum, Newell's notebook includes several pages of shopping lists and accounts that provide additional insight into the life of a trapper and trader in the Rocky Mountains during height of the fur trade.

Daniel Potts: The Rocky Mountain Letters Dating from 1824 through 1828, these letters provide lots of information on day-to-day life of a trapper. "...I beg to be excused for my bad spelling and writing. I have more knews than I am able to communicate whereas I will give you the most important."

Alfred Packer Mountain Man or Mountain Madness? From the Colorado State Archives

Jedediah Smith probably the most famous of all "Mountain Men"

Jedediah Smith A short biography

Ceran St. Vrain Traveled to Taos, New Mexico, trapped near the North Platte River in Colorado, then entered into a partnership with George Bent. The Bent St. Vrain Company built an elaborate adobe fort on the eastern Colorado plains. Along the Santa Fe Trail, this was the only privately owned fortification in the west and it became the premier trading center and rendezvous point.

Elbridge Trask, a Yankee sailor, western explorer, and Oregon pioneer who also trapped with Jim Bridger's brigade. This page is written by one of his descendants, Juel Trask.