Archives

Across the Great Divide

Across the Great Divide – Robert Stuart and the Discovery of the Oregon Trail

Setting out in 1812 on the return trip from establishing John Jacob Astor’s fur trading post at Astoria on the Oregon Coast, Robert Stuart and six companions traveled from west to east for more than 3,000 grueling miles by canoe, horseback, and ultimately by foot, following the mountains south until they came upon the one gap in the 3,000-mile-long Rocky Mountain chain that was passable by wagon.
Situated in southwest Wyoming between the southern extremes of the Wind River Range and the Antelope Hills, South Pass was a direct route with access to water leading from the Missouri River to the Rockies. Stuart and his traveling party were the first white men to traverse what would become the gateway to the Far West and the Oregon Trail. In the decades to come, an estimated 300,000 emigrants followed the corridor Stuart blazed on their way to the fertile farmlands of the Willamette Valley and the goldfields of California.

ISBN – 978-1-4767-3003-5
307 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″

Free Press, 2003

Across The Wide Missouri

Across the Wide Missouri

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize. Across the Wide Missouri tells the compelling story of the climax and decline of the Rocky Mountain fur trade during the 1830s.

ISBN – 978-0-395-92497-6
455 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/4″

Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998

Adventures of a Mountain Man

Adventures of a Mountain Man: The Narrative of Zenas Leonard

“Strong mental faculties and a vigorous constitution” were among the attributes of Zenas Leonard, according to the publisher of the 1839 edition of this book, which the Bison Books edition reproduces. In the spring of 1830, Leonard, a native of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, “ventured to embark in an expedition across the Rocky Mountains, in the capacity of clerk to the company. The last letter received by his parents, left him at the extreme white settlement [Independence, Missouri], where they were busily occupied in making preparations for the expedition to the mountains—from whence he promised to write at short intervals; but one misfortune after another happening to the company, he was deprived of all sources of communication—so that no tidings were received of him until he unexpectedly returned to the scenes of his childhood, to the house of his father, in the fall of 1835—after an absence of 5 years and 6 months!”

ISBN – 978-0-8032-7903-2
274 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″

University of Nebraska Press, 1978

After Lewis & Clark

After Lewis & Clark – The Forces of Change, 1806 – 1871

After Lewis & Clark  highlights more than sixty paintings, drawings, and prints in the collection of one of America’s finest museums of American art, the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This richly illustrated book presents and places in thematic and historic context many of the priceless portraits, striking scenes, and grand landscapes inspired during the sixty-five years after the Corps of Discovery completed its epic journey.

ISBN: 978-0-8061-9959-8
96 Pages
Softback
9″ x 12″

Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa Oklahoma, 2006

After Lewis & Clark

After Lewis & Clark – Mountain Men and The Paths to the Pacific

In 1807, a year Lewis and Clark returned from the shores of the Pacific, groups of trappers and hunters began to drift West to tap the rich stocks of beaver and to trade with the Native nations. Colorful and eccentric, bold and adventurous, mountain men such as John Colter, George Drouollard, Hugh Glass, Andrew Henry, and Kit Carson found individual freedom and financial reward in pursuit of pelts. Their knowledge of the country and its inhabitants served the first mapmakers, the army, and the streams of emigrants moving West in ever-greater numbers.

ISBN: 978-0-8032-9564-3
392 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″

University of Nebraska Press, 1997

All in a Day’s Ride

Just as he did in his two earlier narrative histories, Hard and Noble Lives and The State of Equality in the Equality State, Paul Jensen again brings history and its characters to life, this time along Horse Creek, near Daniel, Wyoming. From the mountain men of the 1830’s to the homesteaders of the twentieth century, Horse Creek served as the crossroads of Western exploration and expansion. The stickers, who beat the odds by surviving and succeeding, built their ranches and the surrounding communities. Paul and his family live along Horse Creek. He is committed to its history and preservation.

ISBN – 978-1-932636-82-6

190 Pages

Prong Horn Press, 2011

All Together in One Place

All Together in One Place

For Madison “Mazy” Bacon, a young wife living in southern Wisconsin, the future appears every bit as promising as it is reassuringly predictable. A loving marriage, a well organized home, the pleasure of planting an early spring garden, these are the carefully tended dreams that sustain her heart and nourish her soul.

But when her husband of two years sells the homestead and informs her that they are heading west, Mazy’s life is ripped down the middle like a poorly mended sheet forgotten in a midwestern storm. Her love is tried, her boundaries stretched, and the fabric of her faith tested. At the same time, she and eleven extraordinary women are pulled toward an un-certain destiny, one that binds them together through reluctance and longing and into acceptance and renewal.

ISBN: 978-1-5786-232-9
406 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/4″

Waterbrook Press, 2000

Along the Trail with Lewis and Clark

Along the Trail with Lewis and Clark – Third Edition
A Guide to the  Trail Today Historical Sites & Color Maps

Traces the Lewis and Clark Expedition from its very beginnings at Monticello and the White House, through Pennsylvania, down the Ohio River, up the Mississippi to Missouri River — on to the Pacific Ocean, and back.

ISBN: 978-1-56037-803-7
120 Pages
Softback
8 1/2″ x 11″

Farcountry Press, 2022

Amee-nah

Amee-nah – Zuni Boy Runs the Race of His Life

Ever since he can remember, Amee-nah has dreamed of being a firefighter like his father, who died a hero when Amee-nah was little.

But there is a big obstacle: Amee-nah was born with a clubfoot, making it hard for him to run properly. He hates his twisted foot because it means he is left out of exciting adventures with the other Zuni boys. With all his heart he wishes he could go to sheep camp in the summer, where the boys run the hillsides looking for wolves and bobcats that might trouble the sheep. But even more, Amee-nah longs to compete in the annual stickrace, a grueling 25-mile relay.

Little does Amee-nah know that he is in for the most thrilling summer of his life. After Coach K from the mission school arranges for Amee-nah to have corrective surgery on his foot, will the boy’s dreams begin to come true?

ISBN: 1-880114-15-1
155 Pages
Softback
5 1/4″ x 7 5/8″

Grandview Publishing Company, 1995

American West Cookin’

American West Cookin’

Are you ready to enjoy a delicious variety of dishes? Then you’re ready to “dig into” American West Cookin’! With over 330 western recipes that range from old-time ranch cook standby’s to modern dishes served up by today’s professional chefs, there is a little something for everyone’s taste.

You will enjoy the full color reproductions of western artist Robert E. Kerby’s newest oil paintings as well as his pen and ink illustrations. Plus…throughout American West Cookin’ you’re going to run into several catchy little sayings or quips from the West which may provide some interesting “Food For Thought”, a little insight into “Cowboy Logic”, or possibly just a pinch of “Light Hearted Humor”.

ISBN – 978-0-9660523-1-2
176 Pages
Bounded Softback
8 1/2″ x 6″

Bob Kerby’s Longhorn Studio, 2002

Andrew Henry The Myth… The Man

Andrew Henry The Myth… The Man

Andrew Henry is no less than an iconic figure in annals of the American West. Indeed, his name is rarely, if ever, omitted from the innumerable discourses touting the exploits of those early day stalwarts whose wilderness paths would soon be transformed into the crowded freeways of Manifest Destiny. Henry, however, is somewhat of an enigma. Multiple biographical sketches of the man exist, but it is rare to find any two possessing consistency as to the reporting of facts pertaining to the man. Indeed, multiple erroneous, un-sourced statements published by scholars of an earlier era have subsequently been deemed credible and have been republished without proper documentation or discussion regarding the veracity of the statements. In contrast thereto, there are facts presented in the body of this work not previously acknowledged, cited, or published regarding the man. Whether these facts serve to augment the persona of Henry – or detract therefrom – is a dilemma the reader can assess. In essence, this is the story of Andrew Henry based upon the existing factual record. His story most assuredly deserves to be told correctly. I do believe I have done so. – Mark William Kelly

Contents

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

Forward – Andrew Henry … An Epic Hero? 

Chapter One – ANDREW HENRY OF ST. GENEVIEVE

Chapter Two – WHY HENRY? WHY NOT ASHLEY?

Chapter Three – TO THE THREE FORKS … AND BEYOND!

Chapter Four – RETURN TO CIVILIZED LIFE?

Chapter Five – MAJOR ANDREW HENRY, NEAR THE LEAD MINES

Chapter Six – THE WARS!

Chapter Seven – THE LAST DAYS OF ANDREW HENRY

Afterward

Appendix I – Three Forks Letter

Appendix II – Dougherty

Appendix III – Dougherty Map

Andrew Henry Biography

Index

ISBN – 9798985536126
349 Pages
Hard Back
8 1/2″ x 11″

Museum of the Mountain Man/Sublette County Historical Society, 2024

Annie’s Story – The Extraordinary Life

Annie’s Story – The Extraordinary Life

Annie Elizabeth Dougherty Ruff lived an extraordinary life – by any measure. Indeed, Annie Ruff was one of very few individuals, male or female, to undertake a traverse of the expansive American frontier on both the Oregon and the Santa Fe Roads. As the wife of captain Charles Frederick Ruff, she trekked to Fort Vancouver in 1849, in company with the U.S. Army Mounted Riflemen. In the latter 1850’s, she traveled the length of the Santa Fe Road on multiple occasions, accompanying her husband to his distant posts during the campaigns of the U.S. Army against Indians of the Southwest.

ISBN – 978-1-4951-5709-7
695 Pages
Hardback
7 1/4″ x 10 1/4″

Sam Clark Publishing Co., 2015

Arrowheads, Spears and Buffalo Jumps

Arrowheads, Spears and Buffalo Jumps – Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the Great Plains

Ancestors of today’s Native Americans populated the Great Plains about 14,000 years ago, about the time glaciers of the last ice age began melting back to the north. Prehistoric people living on the dry plains east of the Rocky Mountains were hunter-gatherers–they moved from place to place in search of animals to hunt and seeds, roots, and berries to gather. Archaeologists have reconstructed the history of these hunter-gatherers by studying old campsites and tools made of stone and antler. This book introduces readers to the science of archaeology , shedding light on how field scientists find evidence of people who did not build permanent houses and how researchers determine the age of an arrowhead and what it was to kill.

Illustrations bring to life the day-to-day activities of these early people, such as how they used drivelines to funnel animals over buffalo jumps, how sinew was used to attach points to spears, and how grinding stones were used to mash seeds into flour.

ISBN: 978-0-84742-692-8
80 Pages
Softback
8 1/2″ x 10″

Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2019

Astoria – Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire

Astoria – Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire. A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier.

In 1810, John Jacob Astor sent out two advance parties to settle the wild, unclaimed western coast of North America. More than half of his men died violent deaths. The others survived starvation, madness, and greed to shape the destiny of a continent. Unfolding from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship drawing extensively on firsthand accounts of the men who made the journey.

ISBN: 978-0-06-221830-8
370 Pages
Softback
5 1/4″ x 8″

Harper Collins Publishers, 2015

Beadwork Techniques of the Native Americans

Beadwork Techniques of the Native Americans

Though there are other how-to books on basic beadwork, this work by Scott Sutton in in a class by itself. Scott covers not only the rudiments but reveals tricks he’s learned from his extensive experience as a bead worker. He shares techniques not found anywhere else and complements it all with large, highly detailed step-by-step color photos and illustrations. Even if you’ve done beadwork before, you’ll doubt learn ways to improve your craft.

This volume covers beadwork styles found among Native Americans on the Western Plains, both past and present: loom work, applique, lazy/lane stitch, gourd (peyote) stitch (conventional, brickwork, and lool-variation) plus Scott’s efficient method for making and beading a fine fitting pair of moccasins. To help those just getting started, Scott begins with a full discussion of appropriate beading supplies, and a simple chart takes the mystery out of matching needle and thread sizes.

One shortcoming of other books is that most present few authentic beadwork designs. However, this work also features dozens of full-color photos of first-rate Indian and non-Indian made beadwork from museums, collections, and today’s marketplace. Subjects include 19th century and modern pieces as inspirations for you to create historic reproductions or today’s pow-wow pieces.

ISBN – 1-929572-11-5
96 Pages
Softback
8 1/2″ x 10 3/4″

Crazy Crow Trading Post, 2008

Beaver Stress Toy With Museum Logo

Beaver Stress Toy with Museum Logo

This cute stress relieving toy is brown with a black tail and tan face.

It features the Museum of the Mountain Man Logo on its belly.

Measurements –
3″ x 2 1/2″ x 4″