Mountain Men

They wore fringed buckskin clothes decorated with porcupine quills. Around their necks they carried sacks filled with salt, coffee, tobacco, gunpowder, and other necessities. They ate whatever they could catch or gather, including buffalo mean, roots, berries, and even ants. During the harsh winters, they often lived with Indians, who taught them survival skills.

These adventurers were known as the Mountain Men. They were hired in the 1820s by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company “to ascend the Missouri to its source” and to send back beaver pelts and other fur. The life of a Mountain Men was hard, but he had a chance to make a lot of money, and he lived free human law and restrictions. Each year in late summer, the Mountain Men gathered at one meeting place, a “rendezvous.” There they traded for furs for supplies and money. Then they celebrated for days with dancing, drinking, target shooting, and storytelling.

By 1840, the fur trade began to decline. The trappers had done such a thorough job that there were few beavers left to catch. Many Mountain Men abandoned trapping and served as army scouts or guildes for the settlers moving to the Far West.

When Mountain Men could find nothing else to eat, they made soup from their moccasins.