What Gear Would a Mountain Man Carry
A few examples of gear that mountain men would have carried.
Learn about what gear a mountain man would carry from these primary sources.
One of the most interesting things about the mountain men of the 1800s is the breadth of their explorations. It’s one thing to know the mountain men trapped in the American West, but it’s another thing to realize how far they traveled. For example, here are just a few journal entries from Osborne Russell’s Journal of a Trapper describing when his brigade traveled from one trapping location to another. The entire entries have been omitted to focus on the miles traveled:
-”…we travelled down this stream about 10 Mls…
-”Travelled down about 20 mls…”
-”..in about 10 mls traveled…”
-”travelled about 25 mls across….”
-”…traveled south along the foot of the Mountain 20 mls…”
That’s 85 miles in 5 days on horseback. Anyone who has done much horseback travel realizes how much work it can be. One interesting thing is this amount of travel isn’t extraordinary. I simply opened up the journal to a random page and recorded the entries. I don’t think Osborne Russell would count this as some sort of “great adventure.” It was simply regular life for a Rocky Mountain trapper.
Why talk about the distances they traveled? Well, to begin to understand the question of what gear would a mountain man carry you first have to come to grips their lifestyle. Mountain men traveled constantly with no particular home to return to. Therefore, by definition they were nomadic. By necessity, nomadic people cannot accumulate an abundance of things. If you’ve ever done a backpacking trip you probably realize how taking too much stuff is actually a huge disadvantage when you are constantly moving. While the mountain men did have access to horses and mules they were still limited in the amount of things they could carry.
Perhaps another important thing to remember is that the mountain men were not “survivalists” in the sense that most could not be dropped off in the wilderness without any manufactured items and expect to live long. Simply put, to survive they needed gear that was beyond their knowledge and ability to create. In contrast, Native Americans of the time period had perfected the art of living off the land and were able to live by creating everything they needed from nature. This sort of purely natural living demands a high skill set and generational knowledge about the world. Most mountain men never got to the point where they could live without things like steel knives, guns, kettles, and all of the other items produced in the eastern states, although some certainly got to that point. It shouldn’t be overlooked that Native American tribes who lived in contact with the Rocky Mountain trappers quickly traded for those same goods because they made life in the wilderness easier.
Teachers may find this PDF a helpful classroom resource for analyzing the article with your students.
Gear Carried by the Mountain Men
This brings us back to the question, what gear would a mountain man carry? Well, although there is no cut and dry answer, here are a few primary sources on the subject.
Perhaps one of the clearest journal entries on the subject was penned by Osborne Russell. Osborne Russell was a trapper from 1834-1843. During that time he lived the life of a Rocky Mountain trapper to its purest form. He trapped beaver, hunted buffalo, fought hunger and thirst, befriended Native people, battled others, endured hardships, and saw the beauty of the primal west. While living the life of a trapper, Russell recorded what might be the leading source for learning about the mountain men. It describes Russell’s experiences in detail and covers a variety of topics.
At one point he records this entry about the gear trappers carried with them:
Primary Source #1
“A Trappers equipment in such cases is generally one Animal upon which is placed one or two Epishemores a riding Saddle and bridle a sack containing six Beaver traps a blanket with an extra pair of Mocasins his powder horn and bullet pouch with a belt to which is attached a butcher Knife a small wooden box containing bait for Beaver a Tobacco sack with a pipe and implements for making fire with sometimes a hatchet fastened to the Pommel of his saddle… He then mounts and places his rifle before him on his Saddle. Such was the dress equipage of the party myself included now ready to start.”
Osborne Russell - Journal of a Trapper 1834-1843
Ok, so now that we’ve read the Russell entry, let’s go ahead and list the items he has identified.
1 or 2 Epishemores. These were basically buffalo skin blankets.
A saddle for riding and the bridle for his horse.
6 beaver traps.
Powderhorn
Bullet pouch
Knife
Beaver castor (bait for beaver)
Smoking kit
Flint and steel kit (implements for making fire)
Sometimes a hatchet
Gun
So there we have a good start in understanding what gear mountain men carried. As you can see, it basically consisted of a gun and associated gear, fire-making tools, smoking kit, trapping gear, and riding equipment. That’s the bare essentials that a mountain men would have needed according to Osborne Russell.
Trade Inventories
Other primary sources you can use to answer the question, “what gear would a mountain man carry” are the trade invoices from the era. These trade invoices show us what goods certain businesses were taking west during the fur trade.
If you understand the mountain man rendezvous, you’ll understand the rendezvous was a meeting that allowed trappers to stay in the mountains and trap while a pack train brought out the supplies they needed. When the trappers came into rendezvous they would trade their furs for the gear and supplies brought by the companies. The American Mountain Men have compiled a list of business records from the time period you can access by clicking this link.
If you don’t want to spend time browsing them, here is a short list of common items found in the Upper Missouri Outfits’ 1835 invoice. Not a comprehensive list, it simply points out a few common items from one set of invoices. Keep in mind there are many odds and ends items that have been omitted and examples have been selected to focus on what gear trappers would have carried.
Primary Source #2
Wool Blankets
Axes
Horse bells
Awls
Beads
Pistols
Rifles
Shot
Iron/Brass wire
Sheet iron kettles
Gun powder
Combs
Files
Knives
As you can see, many of the items are the same as the Russell journal entry with a few more “luxuries” identified as well.
Here is a video I made about the basic gear mountain men carried with them.
So, there you have two primary sources outlining some bare-bones essentials helping answer the question of, “What gear would a mountain man carry?” Keep in mind this article offers only a brief overview and tries to help create a general understanding. Individual mountain men would have carried different gear depending on when they were in the mountains, what their job was, how successful they were at trapping, and their personal preferences. The important thing to remember is that the nomadic lives of mountain men didn’t promote having a lot of things.
Thanks for reading this brief article outlining what gear mountain men carried with them. I would encourage anyone interested in the subject to experience history by living with the same tools and technology the mountain men had access to. This practice is called living history and is an excellent way to develop a much deeper understanding of the past. Also, if you are interested in the subject, you might be interested in the History of the West book series that features a mountain man character named Jemmey Fletcher. Learn more by clicking the button below.
