The beaver is North America’s largest rodent. It is one of the most important animals in the history of western expansion in North America. Beavers were hunted by Indians, European settlers and trappers. Mountain men hunted the beaver to meet the European fashion demand. By the mid-19th century the beaver had become nearly extinct. Fortunately, it was saved when the demand for silk hats replaced the desire for beaver felt hats.
Bucka Beaver Jr. measures 5 1/4 inches tall from the sitting position and 3 inches at the widest part.
Butch Cassidy – The Wyoming Years
Author Bill Betenson is the great-grandson of Butch Cassidy’s younger sister Lula. He inherited his great-grandmother’s archives and her interest in setting the record straight. Now he focuses on Butch’s exploits in Wyoming and tries to unravel the sometimes conflicting information with care and honesty. Butch Cassidy is alive for Bill Betenson, and this book brings him to life for readers.
ISBN – 978-1-937147-22-8
188 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
High Plains Press, 2020
Captain Benjamin Bonneville’s Wyoming Expedition – The Lost 1833 Report
In 1832, Benjamin Bonneville led the first wagon train across the Continental Divide on the Oregon Trail. Financed by a rival of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Bonneville and more than one hundred traders and trappers traveled from Fort Osage on the Missouri River, up to the Platte River and across present-day Wyoming. Washington Irving first gave the U.S. Army officer a brand by chronicling the three-year explorations in the 1837 book The Adventures of Captain Bonneville. Historians have long suspected that the captain, under the guise of commercial fur trading, was preparing for an eventual invasion of Mexico’s California territory. Bonneville’s 1833 report concerning his first year in the Wind River Range and beyond remained lost for almost a century before resurfacing in the 1920s. Author Jett B. Conner examines the intriguing details revealed in that historic document.
ISBN – 978-1-4671-4864-1
142 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
The History Press, 2021
The perfect magnet for your vehicle or even for your refrigerator.
Measurements:
5″ x 3 1/8″
It features the Museum of the Mountain Man logo.
Logo Meaning:
The circular Beaver Plew represents the treasure that attracted the mountain men to the wilderness. After skinning the beaver, the pelt was stretched on a willow frame to cure prior to shipping.
The trap was the mountain man’s principal tool. He generally carried 6 of them weighing 5-6 ponds each.
The emigrant grave marker and the spur represent some of the same forces that eventually spelled the end of the fur trade era — the beginning of the westward migration and the coming of the ranchers that eventually tamed the wilderness.
The arrow symbolizes the close connection between the native tribes of the Rocky Mountains and the mountain men — both as allies and enemies.
The mountain man’s rifle was used for hunting game as well as for protection. Flintlock and percussion style were used with Henry or Hawken rifles being common.
Carl Roters and the Rendezvous Murals
Following the Lewis and Clark expedition, “mountain men” fanned out across the Rocky Mountains to explore the promise of a new frontier, trapping beaver and opening up the trade routes that become the famous Oregon Trail. From 1825 – 40, trappers, traders and American Indians journeyed thousands of miles to the annual Rendezvous, a monthlong gathering for trading, swapping stories, carousing and enjoying all manner of raucous entertainment. Carl Roters’ epic Rendezvous Murals bring to life this colorful era of American history. His vibrant images, created with innovative media and techniques, are published here for the first time.
CarlRoters.com
ISBN – 0-9748030-0-6
149 Pages
Hardback
12 1/4″ x 13 1/2″
Venture Development Group, 2004
Carvings on the Aspens and Collection of Poems – A Commemorative Edition by the Sublette County Artists’ Guild
The Sublette County Artists’ Guild has kindly chosen to share its 75th anniversary celebration with the people of Wyoming — and what a celebration that has come to be.
In paying tribute to Lora Neal Jewett, Josephine Jons Jones, Marie Meyer, Mary Annette Murdock, Louise McCabe Rathbun and May McAlister Sommers, the guild is paying tribute to a group of people who have inspired hearts and touched lives with their strong personalities and vivid writing.
Their art fills this book, which brings together “Carvings on the Aspens” and “Collection of Poems,” two of the earliest publications for the Sublette County Artists’ Guild. Formed in 1928, the guild specializes in the sort of uniquely personal tales that bring alive the plains of Wyoming.
ISBN – 1-57579-280-X
217 Pages
Hardback
6 1/4″ x 9 1/4″
Sublette County Artists’ Guild, 2004
Clark the Mountain Beaver and His Big Adventure!
Clark the Mountain Beaver is a shy secretive critter that lives alone in his burrows. On the rare occasion when he does venture out into the world, he is always being confused with the more popular American Beaver. It’s a little frustrating for him because other critters never seem to know who he is or that he even exists. One day, Clark decides to go on a big adventure to meet the critters that live around him.
ISBN: 978-1-9431641-7-2
64 Pages
Hardback
11 1/4″ x 8 3/4″
AVIVA Publishing, 2015
The Encyclopedia of Trade Goods – Volume 4, Clothing & Textiles of the Fur Trade
Clothing & Textiles of the Fur Trade is the result of more than sixty years of research. It contains nearly 900 images, most in color, illustrating over 2,000 samples of textiles that were traded to the native people of North America. The book covers wools, worsteds, linens, cottons, silks, and notions, as well as clothing worn by fur traders and Indians. – Museum of the Fur Trade
ISBN – 978-0-912611-21-1
636 Pages
Hardback
11 1/4″ x 11 1/4″
Museum of the Fur Trade, 2014
Competitive Struggle: America’s Western Fur Trading Posts, 1764 – 1865
Competitive Struggle recounts the 101-year history of America’s western fur trade. From the founding of St. Louis in 1764 through 1865, the demand for beaver pelts and buffalo robes spawned a competitive fervor that enveloped mountain men, traders, national governments, and Native Americans.
ISBN: 978-0-87004-510-3
330 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
Caxton Press, 1999
Cooking Backyard to Backcountry – 12 Techniques and 150 Recipes for Fabulous Outdoor Cooking
Cooking Backyard to Backcountry is a unique approach to memorable outdoor cooking. Whether you use a gas grill, a new charcoal grill, or a wood fire, you’ll find special techniques-some new, some ancient-that will enhance your cooking experience.
Learn How to:
- Create crowd-pleasing barbecue the traditional way.
- Fire up flavor by cooking directly on a wood plank.
- Grill great anytime, anywhere, even on simple “grills for the hills.”
- Bake anything and everything in a classic Dutch oven.
- Prepare spectacular meals in a deep-pit barbecue
- Go primitive — and delicious — by cooking on a hot stone slab.
- Boil up an unforgettable stew — or a fabulous cup of coffee — using the Native American technique of stone boiling.
- Cook with foil, spits, reflector ovens, and steam pits.
ISBN: 978-1-60639-000-9
196 Pages
Softback
6 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
Riverbend Publishing, 2009
Copper Cuff with the Museum of the Mountain Man Logo – Medium Size
Logo is Sterling Silver and cuff is copper.
Measures – 2 3/4″ across the widest part, 2″ from front to back and 1 1/4″ deep.
Handcrafted in Laramie, Wyoming by Dave Gilpin with Silver Stream Traders.
Copper Cuff with the Museum of the Mountain Man Logo – Small Size
Logo is Sterling Silver and cuff is copper.
Measures – 2 1/8″ across the widest part, 1 1/2″ from front to back and 1 1/4″ deep.
Handcrafted in Laramie, Wyoming by Dave Gilpin with Silver Stream Traders.
Cora, Wyoming – A Brief History of a Western Rural Community
“Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley was settled by homesteading cattle and sheep ranchers. Distances between the homesteads were significant, and travel was challenging on the unimproved wagon roads. Small communities offering a post office, store, and school were vital to the land-locked ranchers. In the Valley’s 140-year history, approximately thirty-seven small communities existed throughout this vast area. Cora was one of these communities.
ISBN: 978-0-9973143-7-3
44 Pages
Softback
8 1/2″ x 11″
Sublette County Historical Society/Museum of the Mountain Man, 2022
This book is a photographic journal of my wanderings during the year 2020. Even though most of the United States has been locked down, we have enjoyed exploring remote areas. I photographed throughout the year and produced nearly 100,000 images from this year of exploring. This book contains about 200 of those images including wildlife, the four seasons, spectacular sunrises and sunsets and astrophotography.
ISBN – 978-1-6629-1030-2
221 Pages
Hardback
11 1/4″ x 8 3/4″
Gatekeeper Press, 2020
Crow Killer – The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson
Much of the world now knows mountain man John Johnson as Robert Redford in the movie Jeremiah Johnson. The real Johnson was a far cry from the Redford version. Standing 6’2″ in his stocking feet and weighing nearly 250 pounds, he was a mountain man among mountain men, one of the toughest customers on the western frontier. One morning in 1847 he returned to his Rocky Mountain trapper’s cabin to find the remains of his murdered Indian wife and her unborn child. He vowed vengeance against an entire Indian tribe.
ISBN: 978-0-253-02083-3
174 pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
Indiana University Press, 1983
Dear Deer – A Book of Homophones
Clever Aunt Ant has just moved to the zoo. In a letter to her DEAR friend, DEER, she describes the quirky animal behavior she sees. There’s the MOOSE who loves MOUSSE and ATE EIGHT bowls, and the WHALE who is ALLOWED to WAIL ALOUD. And that’s just for starters!
ISBN – 978-0-312-62899-4
40 Pages
Softback
9″ x 9″
Square Fish – Henry Holt and Company, 2007
