The Life of a Mountain Man - Primary Sources
If you’ve ever wondered what the life of a mountain man was like you will surely appreciate these primary sources on the subject.
Why is it the best stories tend to be the true ones? Sure, we like action, suspense, drama, and all that in our books and movies, but a story based on real events takes the cake. Perhaps it’s why true stories of the mountain men have turned into legends. The story of Hugh Glass being abandoned after a grizzly attack, nursing himself back to health, crawling across the prairie, and then searching out the men who left him to die is better than any fiction writer could come up with. Another classic story is Colter’s Run. Jed Smith’s ride to near-death across the salt desert is another great tale. Peg-leg Smith amputating his own leg. These are simply great stories you don’t have to mess with.
While good books and movies can really help tell these epic tales, the best way to learn about the true life of a mountain man is to actually go to the journals they left. These journals will actually tell you about all of their mishaps, adventures, fears, and successes if you take the time to read them. No two mountain men had the same life and each had their own unique set of adventures. However, there were some reoccurring themes found in many of the primary sources. If you are interested in learning about the life of a mountain man, these journal examples should give you a good idea of what they endured.
Teachers may find this PDF useful when analyzing the primary sources with their students.
Food
Rufus Sage - 1841
“This was the first occasion subjecting me to the pains of hunger for so long a time. The second day I experienced the greatest annoyance, and then it was I felt some of the realities of starvation. The third day, however, I awoke in the morning scarcely thinking of breakfast. In fact, my appetite seemed quite passive, and the only sensation I felt was a kind of weakness and lassitude, evincing the lack of proper nourishment.”
Osborne Russell - 1834
“Septr 4th we were on our way at day break and travelled all day thro. the high Sage and sand down Snake river We stopped at dark nearly worn out with fatigue hunger and want of sleep as we had now travelled 65 Mls in two days without eating.”
Zenas Leonard - 1834
“In this way we continued to travel until the first day of February, in the afternoon, when we came to where the crust on the snow was sufficiently strong to carry us. Here we could travel somewhat faster, but at the best not much faster than a man could crawl on his hands and feet, as some of the men from hunger and cold were almost insensible of their situation, and so weak that they could scarcely stand on their feet, much less walk at speed.”
Each of these three journal entries points to one common element of mountain man life; hunger. Browse through any mountain man journal and you’ll have no trouble at all finding phrases describing periods when the men had little to nothing to eat. In those times of extreme hunger, it wasn’t uncommon for them to resort to eating wolves, ravens, snake, mules, rawhide, or whatever else they could to stay alive. The flip side of the coin is as follows:
Charles Larpenteur - 1833
“They were gone eight days, which time we enjoyed in hunting and feasting on the best of buffalo meat.”
Zenas Leonard - 1834
“I never wish to feel more pleasure than I did as he rushed into the tent exclaiming, "I have killed two big Buck Elk!" Early the next morning — refreshed with what meat we had obtained and animated and encouraged with the hope of obtaining plenty more, we set out with unusual fine spirits.”
James Pattie - 1831
“I packed on my horse as much meat as he could carry, and set out for the camp, which I reached a little after dark.”
Osborne Russell - 1834
“This Valley as a Mountaineer would say was full of Buffaloe when we entered it and large numbers of which were killed by our hunters we repeatedly saw signs of Blackfeet about us to waylay the Trappers. 27th We stopped at this place to feast on fat Buffaloe”
As hungry as mountain men were at times, others seemed to have afforded more meat than they could possibly eat.
Weather
Warren Ferris - 1830
“Mr. Dripps with the remainder, including myself, marched a short distance up Lewis River, and halted, the weather being yet so cold and wet, as to render travelling extremely uncomfortable.”
Osborne Russell - 1834
“I then went in search of rock in order to heat it and melt snow in my hat but I could not find so much as a pebble so we kindled a little fire of sage and sat down with a piece of Mutton in one hand and a piece of snow in the other eating meat and snow in this manner mad out our suppers and laid down to shake tremble and suffer with the cold till day light when we started and travelled as fast as our wearied limbs would permit…”
Zenas Leonard - 1834
“We had not suffered much from cold for several months previous to this; but this night, surrounded as we were with the everlasting snows on the summit of this mountain, the cold was felt with three fold severity.”
James Clyman - 1820’s
“Shortly after the sun left us the North wind arose and grew stronger and stronger and a cold frosty snow commenced falling before finished our suppers there being no wood and sage being small and scarce and scattering what little fire we had in all directions we spread down our scanty bed and covered ourselves as close as possbele from the wind and snow which found its way through ever crevice.”
Just like hunger, you can search any mountain man journal and easily find a reference to the cold. Cold wind, cold weather, cold water, cold snow, cold, cold, cold. That being said, mountaineers prepared for the conditions as best as they could by buying blankets, trading for buffalo robes, building shelters, and learning how to make fire in any situation. Still, at some point it just came down to toughing out the elements and being able to withstand the brutal conditions. And of course, after a brutal winter the trappers celebrated a warm spring and summer.
Danger
Charles Larpenteur - 1833
“Now, what to do? The snow was drifted so deep in all the hollows that I could not possibly take any road but the old beaten one. To go any other way would be at the risk of freezing to death — or at least of losing all my animals in the snow; I preferred to take the chances of being robbed and perhaps beaten on the old road.”
James Clyman - 1820’s
“I spoke of my friend Gibson whe I was informed he was on board I immediately wen to the cabin where he lay but he did not recognize me being in the agonies of Death the shot having passed through his bowels I could not refrain from weeping over him who lost his lifee but saved mine he did not live but an hour or so and we buried him that evening”
Osborne Russell - 1834
“…(Blackfeet) commenced Setting fire to the dry grass and rubbish with which we were surrounded: the wind blowing brisk from the South in a few moments the fire was converted into one circle of flame and smoke which united over our heads. This was the most horrid position I was ever placed in death seemed almost inevitable but we did not despair but all hands began immediately to remove the rubbish around the encampment and setting fire to it to act against the flames that were hovering over our heads: this plan proved successful beyond our expectations.”
Rufus Sage - 1841
“The old (buffalo), unconscious of the danger which threatened, permitted the hunter to advance till within three or four yards of him. The sharp crack of a rifle-shot first awoke him to a sense of his situation, when, reeling, he plunged headlong from the steep bank into the river. Our marksman, in an effort to dodge the falling beast, tumbled backwards into swimming water —lost his gun, and came very near being drowned.”
Warren Ferris - 1830
“Those who have done me the honor to peruse my journal have obtained a fair idea of the character of this eventful period of my life, and of the character of the lives of trappers in the Rocky Mountains in general. Roaming over those dark regions of solitude, constantly exposed to danger from wild animals and ravages; frequently obliged to endure the most severe and protracted privation and fatigue; separated by many hundred weary miles from the abodes of civilization and refinement…”
These few journal entries don’t nearly cover all of the dangers mountain men faced. Blizzards, grizzlies, attacking Indians, river crossings, and a thousand other dangers were constantly threatening their day to day survival. Still, many embraced the danger as the toll to experience the freedom they cherished so deeply.
Freedom
James Pattie - 1831
“Liberty is dear to every one, but doubly dear to one, who had been from infancy accustomed to free range, and to be guided by his own Will. Put a man, who has ranged the prairies, and exulted in the wilderness, as I have for years, in a prison, to let him have a full taste of the blessings of freedom, and the horror of shackles and confinement!”
Osborne Russell - 1834
“The next day after eating a light breakfast of roasted venison I shouldered my rifle and ascended the highest mountain on foot. I reached the snow in about an hour when seating myself upon a huge fragment of Granite and having full view of the country around Me in a few moments was almost lost in contemplation. This said I is not a place where heroes' deeds of Chivalry have been atchieved in days of yore neither is a place of which bards have sung until the world knows the precise posture of every tree rock and [?] or the winding turn of every streamlet. But on the contrary those stupendous rocks whose surface is formed into irregular benches rising one above another from the vale to the snow dotted here and there with low pines and covered with green herbages intermingled with flowers with the scattered flocks of Sheep and Elk carelessly feeding or thoughtlessly reposing beneath the shade having Providence for their founder and preserver and Nature for Shepherd Gardner and Historian.”
Rufus Sage - 1841
“Free as the pure air he breathes, and proudly conscious of his own independence, he will neither tyrannize over others, nor submit to be trampled upon, —and is always prepared to meet the perils he may chance to encounter, with an undaunted front.”
Warren Ferris - 1830
“They rove through this savage and desolate region free as the mountain air, leading a venturous and dangerous life, governed by no laws save their own wild impulses, and bounding their desires and wishes to what their own good rifles and traps may serve them to procure. “
As you can see in the primary sources the life of a mountain man was one of pure freedom, and it was a freedom that they took seriously.
Summary
So what was the life of a mountain man really like? Well, from the primary sources you can tell it was one of extremes. You could be starving one day and then shoot a buffalo the very next day to have more meat than you could hope to eat. One season you might be so cold you feared freezing to death, and at other times you would welcome a cool breeze to keep the bugs down. It was a dangerous and free life full of adventure. Thankfully, a few of those nomads of the mountains kept their journals to give us the best view of what their life was like.
