Mountain men were trappers and
explorers who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains through the 1880s where
they were involved in opening up the various Emigrant Trails allowing Americans
in the east to settle in the new territories of the far west by organized wagon
trains traveling over roads explored and in many cases, physically improved by
the mountain men and the big fur companies initially to serve the mule train
based inland fur trade. They developed in a natural geographic and economic
expansion driven by the profitable earnings available in the North American fur
trade. By early 1848 the days of many
Mountain men making a good living by fur trapping had become history. This was
because the fur production industry was failing due to over trapping. Unexpectedly,
America's ongoing western migration by wagon train with the goal of claiming
cheap lands in the west was building rapidly from a small amount of settlers
from 1841's opening of the Oregon Trail, to a flood of emigrants headed west.
With the silk trade and quick
collapse of the North American beaver-based fur trade, many of the mountain men
settled into jobs as army scouts, wagon train guides and settlers through the
lands which they had helped open up. Others, like William Sublette opened up
fort-trading posts along the Oregon Trail to service the remnant fur trade and
the settlers heading west.
Approximately 3,000 mountain men
ranged the mountains between 1820 and 1840. While there were many free trappers,
most mountain men were employed by major fur trading companies. In the late
1830s, the Canadian-based Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) established a policy to
destroy the American fur trade. The HBC's annual Snake River Expedition was
transformed to a trading enterprise. Beginning in 1834, it visited the American
Rendezvous to buy furs at low prices. The HBC was able to offer manufactured
trade goods at prices far less than what American fur companies could compete.
Combined with a decline in demand for and supply of beaver, by 1840 the HBC had
effectively destroyed the American system.
Although the mountain men have always been a significant
symbol of America's wild frontier, their role in the westward expansion was
also very substantial. Most mountain men were both adventurous and practical
and they came to the wilderness to earn a generous profit. This desire to make
a living and their amazing ability to survive in the wilderness made them ideal
trappers during the fur peak and kept them in the mountains long after the
beaver were gone. They became explorers, guides and even government officials.
The mountain men did not just wander around the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains
gathering bits and pieces for adventure stories and tall tales, they were
instrumental in exploring and settling the land west of the Mississippi river.
