Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Mountain Men and Trappers
- Why Were They So Important?
- Fur Trappers
- They were the first white men to cross The
Great Plains and The Rock Mountains,
trapping beavers and hunting antelope and
other animals for fur
- Some worked for companies that sold fur to
fashion houses in the eastern states and in
Europe
- Many of them were completely independent, calling themselves Mountain men
- Mountain Men
- They spent their lives roaming the
rockies and sierra Nevada, selling
skins and furs to traders when they
could
- They found routes through The Rockies and
Sierra Nevada that had previously only been
known to the Indians
- Mountain Men And Indians, Friends Or Foes?
- Mountain Men, like Indians were expert trackers, hunters and knew
the uses of plants
- Some of the Mountain Men and Indians worked
together, but other fought
- Some Indian Nations, such as the Blackfoot were enemies, whilst others
such as the Shoshone were friendlier
- Some Mountain Men married Indian women, Jim Bridger had 3
Indian wives
- Jim Beckwith even became Indian chief
- Jeremiah Johnson on the other hand
killed every Indian he came across
- Although Mountain Men may have brought
comfort to some Indians, in general the
Indians gained little from them
- Along with the Mountain Men came guns, alcohol,
smallpox and STDs, and this meant the beginning of the
destruction to the Indians way of life
- Mountain Men And The Government, Friends Or Foes?
- Government explorers were in the Rockies and Sierra
Nevada to map and chart, not to hunt
- So any help they could give each other was usually
welcomed
- In 1842, John Charles Fremont and the US army began a survey
of the Rocky Mountains. And Mountain Man Joseph Walker helped
guide the expedition
- This didn't clash with the interests of Mountain
Men
- Jim Bridger
- In 1822, Jim Bridger joined General Ashley's upper Missouri Expedition and
explored the Yellowstone region. This gave him a taste for exploring and for the
life of a Mountain Man.
- In 1824 he became the first white man to see the Great Salt Lake, 6 years
later, along with several other mountain men he bought the Rocky Mountain Fur
Company.
- In the early 1840s he moved on to buld a trading post, Fort
Bridger, to provide supplies for Migrants on the Oregon Trail
- Bridger led hundreds of wagon trains safely through the Rockies
- In 1850 he was looking for a better way through, he
discovered a pass that was later named after him and
shortened the Oregon trail by 61 miles
- He also created the Bridger Trail which was an alternative route to
Wyoming that avoided the dangerous Bozemen trail.
- He worked as a guide and army scout during the first
Powder River Expedition against the Sioux and Cheyenne
who were blocking the Bozemen trail (Red Cloud's War) and
was discharged from the army in 1865
- Blind and suffering from arthritis and rheumatism, he died in
Kansas in 1881
- Buying, Selling and Gossiping
- tions where their agents could buy fur and skins from the trapper
and mountain Men
- These trading stations were called 'forts' because they
could be defended against attacks from Indians
- News of rich land west of the Rocky
Mountains was spread by Mountain
Men and was then bought by traders