George Ruxton Describes a Mountain Man Camp
Read this primary source to learn what a mountain man camp looked like.
Primary sources are a great way to learn about history. Sure, they may have some imperfections, but they do offer a great window into the past. The more of them you read, the more accurately you can paint a picture of the reality of life in place and time. While there are many types of primary sources, written records are some of the most revealing. In a very real way, reading the accounts of past people allows you to sit around the campfire with them and hear the tales from the “man in the arena.” Each chronicler has their own style and voice, saw things from their own perspective, and has their own story to tell. One man who took the time to record his story was George Ruxton.
George Ruxton was born in Britain and lived an adventurous life. He served in the British Army, traveled to Africa and Mexico, and traveled to the American West. For those interested in the history of the frontier, he recorded his experiences in a book titled Life in the Far West. This book was first published in 1848 and recounts Ruxton’s adventures in the American Southwest and plains region. Although his travels were after the end of the rendezvous period, there were still trappers wandering the rivers and streams looking for fur. Ruxton traveled in and amongst these men and recorded his experience. One scene he witnessed was a mountain man camp.
Before moving further, it may be worth mentioning that Ruxton’s description of a mountain man camp is not a universal description. In other words, it doesn’t describe every single mountain man camp ever constructed. The mountain men were not a group of people who had strict rules about camp life. Instead, they were a bunch of men living in the mountains. They made camps that were best suited for their situation. What Ruxton does is describe the general lay of a camp. Still, it can be interesting information for those people interested in learning more about the history of the West.
Below is how George Ruxton described a mountain man camp in the late 1840s. You can also watch the video if you like an audio version.
“Nothing can be more social and cheering than the welcome blaze of the camp fire on a cold winter's night, and nothing more amusing or entertaining, if not instructive, than the rough conversation of the single-minded mountaineers, whose simple daily talk is all of exciting adventure, since their whole existence is spent in scenes of peril and privation; and consequently the narration of their every-day life is a tale of thrilling accidents and hair-breadth 'scapes, which, though simple matter-of-fact to them, appear a startling romance to those who are not acquainted with the nature of the lives led by these men, who, with the sky for a roof and their rifles to supply them with food and clothing, call no man lord or master, and are free as the game they follow.
“A hunter's camp in the Rocky Mountains is quite a picture. He does not always take the trouble to build any shelter unless it is in the snow season, when a couple of deerskins stretched over a willow frame shelter him from the storm. At other seasons he is content with a mere breakwind. Near at hand are two upright poles, with another supported on the top of these, on which is displayed, out of reach of hungry wolf or coyote, meat of every variety the mountains afford. Buffalo depouilles, hams of deer and mountain-sheep, beaver-tails, &c., stock the larder. Under the shelter of the skins hang his powder-horn and bullet-pouch; while his rifle, carefully defended from the damp, is always within reach of his arm. Round the blazing fire the hunters congregate at night, and whilst cleaning their rifles, making or mending mocassins, or running bullets, spin long yams of their hunting exploits, &c.
“Some hunters, who have married Indian squaws, carry about with them the Indian lodge of buffalo-skins, which are stretched in a conical form round a frame of poles. Near the camp is always seen the "graining-block," a log of wood with the bark stripped and perfectly smooth, which is planted obliquely in the ground, and on which the hair is removed from the skins to prepare them for being dressed. There are also "stretching-frames," on which the skins are placed to undergo the process of dubbing, which is the removal of the flesh and fatty particles adhering to the skin, by means of the "dubber," an instrument made of the stock of an elk's horn. The last process is the "smoking," which is effected by digging a round hole in the ground and lighting in it an armful of rotten wood or punk. Three sticks are then planted round the hole, and their tops brought together and tied. The skin is then placed on this frame, and all the holes by which the smoke might escape carefully stopped: in ten or twelve hours the skin is thoroughly smoked and ready for immediate use.
“The camp is invariably made in a picturesque locality, for like the Indian, the white hunter has ever an eye to the beautiful. The broken ground of the mountains, with their numerous tumbling and babbling rivulets, and groves and thickets of shrubs and timber, always afford shelter from the boisterous winds of winter, and abundance of fuel and water. Facing the rising sun the hunter invariably erects his shanty, with a wall of precipitous rock in rear to defend it from the gusts which often sweep down the gorges of the mountains. Round the camp his animals, well hobbled at night, feed within sight, for nothing does a hunter dread more than a visit from the horse-stealing Indians; and to be "afoot" is the acme of his misery.”
As you can see, Ruxton describes the mountain man camp with some detail, yet still mentions that things can change depending on location or the weather. He describes several features that should not surprise the modern reader. Shelter may have been as simple as simply lying down on the ground. If the weather was bad, they may have constructed a simple shelter. Those who married an Indian woman could have had the luxury of a genuine tipi to live in.
In addition to the shelter, Ruxton mentions how the rifle and possibles were always kept near at hand. Firearms were one of the most important tools a trapper had, and this is plain in the description of the camp. There are also other items unique to the trapping life. Modern trappers would recognize the fleshing beam and the stretching frame for drying skins. He tells us that due to the “eye to the beautiful,” the mountain man camp was often located in a picturesque location.
For those people interested in understanding what a mountain man camp was like, this George Ruxton description is a good source to learn from. It may not have been like this at every camp, but it can give you a good idea of what life was like. Primary sources like this are an excellent way to learn about the past from the men who experienced it.