Shinin’ Trails: A Possibles Bag of Fur Trade Trivia
This fantastic book offers an interesting and enjoyable way to discover facts about the fur trade and to learn the history of this important era in our country’s formation and growth.
It may be used as a guide to information about important dates and people of the fur trade, as a source book for campfire and family home games on historical knowledge, as an easy way to check the information espoused by the local “rendezvous expert,” or simply as an easy way to learn the answers to questions that every “mountain man” should know.
ISBN – 0-943604-20-6
105 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
Eagle’s View Publishing Company, 1988
Soap Suds Row – The Bold Lives of Army Laundresses, 1802 – 1876
Women have always followed the troops, but military laundresses were the first to be carried on the rolls of the U.S. Army. They traveled and lived alongside the soldiers during two of the most important conflicts in United States history: the Civil War and the war on the western frontier.
A few laundresses made names for themselves. Laundresses who got written up in records, diaries, and newspapers were often involved in colorful or unfortunate circumstances. No, they were not all loose women. Some were; however, most were simply brave, adventurous, and unorthodox women.
They marched with the army for hundreds of miles, carrying their babies and tugging small children behind them. Among the first non-native women on lonely frontier outposts, they waited in frightened huddles in camps and forts for their soldier-husbands to return from dangerous campaigns.
Susie King Taylor, born a slave, taught both black children and soldiers to read and write between washing piles of laundry. A Mexican-American War laundress was eulogized as able to “whip any man, fair fight or foul; shoot a pistol better than anyone; and outplay or out-cheat any gambler.” A well-known laundress from the Indian Wars period, Mrs. Nash, kept a secret that remained undiscovered until her death. Little note was made of laundresses who worked hard day after day, like Maggie Flood, who faced special family challenges on the frontier.
ISBN – 978-1-93714710-5
157 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
High Plains Press, 2016
Soun Tetoken – Nez Perce Boy Tames a Stallion
Thomasma’s account focuses on Soun Tetoken (Silent One), an orphan adopted by the son of Chief Joseph. Against a backdrop of growing racial tensions, the story is told of a speechless boy befriending a stallion and coyote pup and undergoing his ritual initiation into manhood.
The eventual surrender of Chief Joseph and his words, “From where the sun now stands I shall fight no more forever,” are recorded here with unforgettable drama.
ISBN: 188011407-0
262 Pages
Softback
5 1/4″ x 7 5/8″
Grandview Publishing Company, 1984
South Pass – Gateway to a Continent
Fur Traders first saw South Pass in 1812. From the early 1840s until the completion of the first transcontinental railroad almost forty years later, emigrants on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails used South Pass, transforming the American West in a single generation.
ISBN: 978-0-8061-4442-9
325 Pages
Soft Back
6″ x 9″
University of Oklahoma Press, 2014
Steamboat – Legendary Bucking Horse
The Bronc on Wyoming’s License Plate
Candy and Flossie Moulton present the story behind this horse whose likeness is the symbol of Wyoming seen on the state s license plates and as the University of Wyoming logo. The book traces the history of the bucking horse from his youth on the Two Bar outfit of the Swan Land and Cattle Company through his rise to the undisputed World Champion Bucking Horse.
Was Steamboat the horse who “wouldn’t be rode?” Which men climbed aboard the horse? Who is the cowboy atop the horse on the famous logo on the Wyoming license tag? How is Steamboat connected to Cheyenne Frontier Days, the notorious range detective Tom Horn, and the Irwin Brothers Wild West Show?
ISBN – 978-0-931271-19-9
192 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
High Plains Press, 1992
Summer and Sagebrush
Kate Webster becomes Mrs. Jake McClary. Along with faithful ranch hand, Charlie, and good ranching neighbors, they embark on a rewarding but oftentimes challenging life together. Spanning four decades, this volume follows Kate and Jake as they experience the joys and perils of raising children and cattle on their remote ranch in Sublette County, Wyoming. Progress, in the form of electricity, phone service, and motorized equipment, makes life easier and fulfills the family’s growing needs. Seasons come and go as do the births of grandchildren and the inevitable funerals of loved ones.
ISBN: 978-0-9817649-1-7
285 Pages
Hardback
5 3/4″ x 9″
Seven Cross Lazy L Productions, 2011
Sundown – An Early History of the Circle S Ranch in Sublette County, Wyoming.
by Jeannette Showers Moore
Hardback, 6×9 inches, Dustcover, 284 pages
ISBN: 0-9768113-3-2
Copyright 2007 – Sublette County Historical Society
The Story of the Circle S, for decades one of the busiest dude ranches in Sublette County, introduces the reader to the early days of outfitting in the backcountry paradise of Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley.
Join Jeannette Moore as she recalls, from a women’s point of view, her family’s joys and struggles in building a successful business and raising children in a spectacular but isolated and rugged landscape.
With vivid detail, gentle humor and a keen understanding of human and animal behavior, Jeannette Moore will take you back to a time when doing the laundry took three days, kids carried pocket knives so they could skin out lunch on the trail, and a hunter might bag a bear, an elk, a moose and a mule deer all on the same hunting trip.
Supply & Demand – The Ledgers & Gear of the Western Fur Trade
This compilation of ledgers of the fur trade years attempts to give an insight into what kind of goods were available to the trapper and gives an overview of three of the various forts of resupply that were available in different areas of the western United States. Occasionally, comments will be inserted to draw attention to some of the more interesting aspects of the ledgers. Webster’s 1828 dictionary was used for the definitions to aid in understanding some of the terminology of the time period. Where opinions are expressed, they are the conjectures of the authors and are subject to change in the future as new research is uncovered. Certainly the following ledgers do not represent all that are currently available, but they do give a good cross section of the goods available during this time period.
It stands to reason however, that these ledgers can be classified as “Primary Sources”, which along with diaries, and journals can be the most valuable sources of information and documentation available today for the fur trade.
ISBN: 978-0-9973143-9-7
194 Pages
Softback
8 1/2″ x 11″
Museum of the Mountain Man, Reprint 2021
Takini – Lakota Boy Alerts Sitting Bull
Takini, a young Lakota boy, seems to have received special powers from Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery. Time after time he miraculously escapes great danger from a charging Great Bear, a raging river, capture by the enemy tribe, and close encounters with “bluecoats” — United States Government soldiers.
Chief Sitting Bull adopts Takini and watches as he receives messages from a hawk. Takini finds a faithful dog and tames a cranky horse. Together the three friends survive many adventures. But when Takini and Friendly discover a plan to attack the Indian villages and race to warn Sitting Bull, they almost lose their lives. Will Wakan Tanka protect them, or it is time for Takini to give his life to save the tribe?
ISBN: 978-1-880114-22-3
187 Pages
Softback
5 1/4″ x 7 5/8″
Grandview Publishing Company, 2003
Tales of the Mountain Men – Seventeen Stories of Survival, Exploration, and Frontier Spirit
The mountain men were the trappers of the Rocky Mountain fur trade in the years following Lewis and Clark’s Expedition of 1804 – 1806. With their bold journeys peaking during the period of 1830 – 1840, they were the first white men to enter the vast wilderness reaches of the Rockies in search pf beaver “plews,” as the skins were called. They feasted on abundant buffalo, elk, and other game while living the ultimate free-spirited wilderness life-and they often paid the ultimate price for their ventures under the arrows, tomahawks, and knives of those native Americans whose lands they had entered.
Meet the fur-clad titans of the American frontier.
ISBN: 978-1-59228-423-8
300 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
The Lyons Press, 2004
The 1959 Yellowstone Earthquake
At 11:37 p.m. on August 17, 1959, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake rocked Montana’s Yellowstone country. In an instant, an entire mountainside fractured and thundered down onto the sites of unsuspecting campers. The mammoth avalanche generated hurricane-force winds ahead of it that ripped clothing from backs and heaved tidal waves in both directions of the Madison River Canyon. More than two hundred vacationers trapped in the canyon feared the dam upstream would burst. As debris and flooding overwhelmed the river, injured victims frantically searched the darkness for friends and family. Acclaimed historian Larry Morris tells the gripping minute-by-minute saga of the survivors who endured the interminable night, the first responders who risked their lives and the families who waited days and weeks for word of their missing loved ones.
ISBN: 978-1-46711-96-2
191 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
The History Press, 2016
The Adventures of Lewis and Clark
In 1803, when the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France (for a scant $15 million), it doubled the size of the young country. Stretching north from New Orleans to the Canadian border and westward from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, the area contained over 800,000 square miles. That same year, President Thomas Jefferson designated two young men–Meriwether Lewis and William Clark–as leaders of an expedition to explore this vast new acquisition, as well as other lands of the West. In the spring of 1804, the two men and an intrepid band of hunters, carpenters, gunsmiths, and blacksmiths, known as the “Corps of Discovery,” embarked on a perilous journey that would truly give meaning to the term “Wild West.”
ISBN: 978-0-486-42159-9
184 Pages
Softback
5″ x 8″
Dover Publications, 2002
The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver
As this delightful story opens, something strange is going on! The waters of the Laughing Brook and Smiling Pool have become a mere trickle, causing alarm among the creatures of the Green Forest.
It seems Jerry Muskrat’s cousin, Paddy the Beaver, has come south to make himself a new home. That means he had to stop the waters that flowed in the Laughing Brook and Smiling Pool to make a fine new pond for himself and a comfortable home of sticks and mud. But what will happen to the waterways in the Green Forest?
Young readers will find out in this charming tale of woodland adventure, as the gentle, good-natured beaver wins over scolding Sammy Jay and the two work together to outsmart Old Man Coyote.
ISBN: 978-0-486-41305-1
68 Pages
Softback
5 7/8″ x 7 7/8″
Dover Publications, 2000
The American Boy’s Handy Book
There’s so much to do and discover with this truly Handy Book as a guide. Written for children in 1882, and valuable for kids or adults today, the author suggests projects, crafts, plans, games, and schemes for camping trips, hikes, or the backyard.
ISBN – 978-0-87923-449-2
441 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 7 5/8″
Nonpareil Books, 2021 (49th Printing)
The American Fur Trade of the Far West, Volume 1
Epic in sweep and reach, strongly written and superbly researched, The American Fur Trade of the Far West is a classic if there ever was one. Its publication in 1902 made clear how much of the fur trade was “indissolubly connected to the history of Northern America.”
Hiram Chittenden brought to this enduring work an appreciation of geography and a feeling for the lives and times of colorful trappers and mountain men like Manuel Lisa, William H. Ashley, the Sublette brothers, Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, and Kenneth McKenzie. He provided a comprehensive view of the fur trade that still remains sound.
ISBN: 978-0-8032-6320-8
570 Pages
Softback
5 1/4″ x 8″
University of Nebraska Press, 1986
The American Fur Trade of the Far West, Volume 2
Hiram Chittenden provides a perspective or overall outline of the fur trade that, after nearly a century, remains sound. Volume 2 of this Bison Book edition follows the traps and trails of such colorful characters as Ezekial Williams, Hugh Glass, Mike Fink, and John Colter. Described here are the explorers, missionaries, government survey parties, and Indian tribes of the fur trade West, and the geography that often determined their success or failure.
Nine appendixes containing miscellaneous primary materials precede a bibliography and index. A new feature is a foreword by William R. Swagerty.
ISBN: 978-0-8032-6321-5
994 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/21″
University of Nebraska Press, 1986
