One Journal Entry That Might Change the Way You Think About Mountain Men
This unexciting journal entry from Osborne Russell may challenge the way you think about mountain men.
Mountain men. I’ll admit, when I think about them, I have a certain image come to mind. It’s basically the image Charles Russel portrayed in his painting The Free Trapper. Although Russell painted this decades after the height of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, I really like the painting. I believe that he captures the nature of the trappers and their life. And why wouldn’t he? When Russell first went west he lived with an old trapper named Jake Hoover. He understood the nature of these first intrepid frontiersmen and his art sought to capture those final glimpses of the fading American West. It’s a great painting.
However, there are some problems an image like that can cause. One thing it can do is romanticize the mountain man's life. It can foster an idea that all mountain men were amazing explorers who could boldly meet any challenge. Although trappers could be great explorers, as a group, the trappers were still just people. Some were definitely more capable than others. Some people didn’t last very long, and they either died or returned to civilization as quickly as possible.
Another problem an image like this can cause is that it could potentially reinforce a belief that mountain men were some kind of superhero. The idea goes something like, “Mountain men were so tough. They could survive anything!” It’s as if you could drop them off in any environment and they had a genetic advantage to survive. The reality is that they were people just like you and I. They had to learn and practice skills of survival. Some were probably more natural than others. Just like some people are naturally better basketball players than others. The thing is, nobody is born draining 3-pointers. Even the best shooters have to practice the skill to develop it. The mountain men were the same. Some were naturally more gifted for wilderness exploration, while others were not. Still, the skills of survival had to be developed in order to reach a high level. Take Osborne Russell for example.
Osborne Russell was a trapper who left perhaps the best-known account of mountain man life. His experiences were recorded in Journal of a Trapper. This book contains Russell’s journal entries that span nine years. It wonderfully relates the highs and lows of being a mountain man. From euphoric highs of endless vistas from the top of the Rocky Mountains, to the miserable lows of being soaking wet on a cold night; he tells us how it was. Although there are many worthwhile entries in his journal, one of the most revealing entries is one you might read over without thinking much about.
Before we get into it, there is a little necessary backstory. The introduction to the book explains it this way. It says Russell was, “…probably typical of the Maine farmboy of that day…he developed into an able young man of good morals and sound judgment. According to his great-newphew, L.A. York, Russell ran away to seas at the age of 16 but soon gave up that career by deserting his ship at New York, after which he spent three years in the service of what was called the Northwest Fur Trapping and Trading Company, operating in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Nothing else is known of him until he joined Wyeth’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains and the mouth of the Columbia River in 1834.”
So, at the age of 20 Russell joined an expedition headed to the Rocky Mountains. He grew up on a Maine farm and had been employed by a trapping company in Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1834 he joined Wyeth and on April 28th they headed west from Independence. From that point, they traveled what would later become the Oregon Trail until they reached their destination in present-day Idaho on July 16. After that, they spent a few weeks constructing Fort Hall.
Here is where things get interesting. Let’s allow Russell to explain it himself:
“…On the 12th of August myself and 9 others (the Mullattoe included) started from the Fort to hunt Buffaloe. We proceeded up the stream running into Snake River near the Fort called Ross's fork in an East direction about 25 miles, crossed a low mountain in the same direction about 5 miles and fell on to a stream called Portneuf: here we found several large bands of Buffaloe we went to a small spring and encamped. I now prepared myself for the first time in my life to kill meat for my supper with a Rifle. I had an elegant one but had little experience in useing it, I however approached the band of Buffaloe crawling on my hands and knees within about 80 yards of them then raised my body erect took aim and shot at a Bull: at the crack of the gun the Buffaloe all ran off excepting the Bull which I had wounded, I then reloaded and shot as fast as I could untill I had driven 25 bullets at, in and about him which was all that I had in my bullet pouch whilst the Bull still stood apparently riveted to the spot I watched him anxiously for half an hour in hopes of seeing him fall, but to no purpose, I was obliged to give it up as a bad job and retreat to our encampment without meat…”
In case you missed it:
“I now prepared myself for the first time in my life to kill meat for my supper with a Rifle. I had an elegant one but had little experience in useing it,”
What?
I now prepared.. for the first time in my life to kill meat for my supper with a Rifle…
Here we have a 20-year-old man who is a farmboy/trapping employee who has already traveled over 1,000 miles across the wilderness, and FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE he shot his supper.
I don’t know about you, but the first time I read that, it challenged the way I thought about mountain men. It definitely caused me to rethink the image of a daring explorer who could survive. Instead, Russell was already in the mountains and he lacked basic hunting experience. Not exactly the image Hollywood would present to us.
Now, Russell doesn’t represent every single trapper, but his story can reveal the reality of the mountain men. Many of them were just figuring it out as they went. The men who figured it out, like Russell, lived. The ones that didn’t…well, they probably didn’t make it. Russell wasn’t born a natural survivor who could handle anything. He had to practice those skills basically from square one.
Although this might mess with your mind, it is much more helpful in the long run. Instead of being superhero explorers, mountain men were regular people who applied themselves, practiced, and became exceptional. Eventually, some of them could travel at will around the American West. They were competent in all necessary skills. However, they weren’t born that way; they had to work at it.
One of the most important questions in history is, “How does this help us in our lives?” In this case, it can help us remember that people of the past were just regular people. All of the things they did are things you and I can do if we apply ourselves. This applies to things like wilderness travel, but also to other relevant skills in the 21st century. To me, that is much more useful than a romanticized stereotype. Charles Russell’s The Free Trapper definitely did capture the essence of men like Osborne Russell. However, it captures them at the end of their career, not the beginning.
