Archives

Ernest, The Moose Who Doesn’t Fit

Ernest is a large moose with a big problem…..He can’t fit into this book! Luckily, Ernest is also a very determined fellow, and he has a helpful little friend.

ISBN – 978-0-374-32217-5

22 Pages

Farrar Straus Giroux

Macmillan Children’s Books, 2009

Etienne Provost, Man of the Mountains By Jack Tykal

The events of (Provost’s) life represent a looking glass into the total history of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. It would have been very difficult to find a person closely associated with the beaver trade in the American west who did not know Etienne, but considered him one of the outstanding individuals of that era. From Santa Fe and Taos to remote valleys of the Rocky Mountains and executive offices of the giant fur companies in St. Louis, his name was known and recognized as one who knew and understood every facet of the business, whether it be trading with Ute Indians in the Great Basin, escaping the treachery of an ambush planned by Shoshone on a remote River which bore his name on early maps, attending the first rendezvous with William Ashley in 1825, guiding a fur trade caravan to or from the annual rendezvous, carrying messages, or accompanying new recruits for the American Fur Company up the River to a remote trading post, his services were recognized as invaluable. Etienne Provost; Man of the Mountains, reveals the life and adventures of this giant among fur trade personalities and is welcome addition to the understanding of this remarkable are of the American West.

ISBN – 0-943604-23-0

225 Pages

Eagle’s View Publishing, 1989

Every Fixed Star

New trials confront Marie: an abrupt ending to love, separation from friends, the disappearance of one child, a puzzling, painful division from another. Through it all, she struggles to know her purpose and worth. What could this God of the stars care for the survival of a mere woman? Fed by memories of her distant friend, Sacagawea, Marie discovers that inside every challenge is a gift to be treasured.

ISBN – 978-1-57856-500-9

422 Pages

Waterbrook, 2003

Explorers of the American West

With original primary source documents, this anthology brings readers into the vast unknown 19th-century American West—through the eyes of the explorers who saw it for the first time.

This volume brings together book excerpts, maps, and illustrations from 12 explorers from the 19th century, highlighting their lives and contributions. Arranged chronologically, the 10 chapters focus on individual explorers, with biographies and background information about and document excerpts from each person. The chapters offer analyses of each document’s relevance to the historical period, geographic knowledge, and cultural perspective.

This guide shares the important contributions from explorers like Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike, Jedediah Smith, James P. Beckwourth, John C. Fremont, Susan Magoffin, and John Wesley Powell. It also nurtures readers’ historical literacy by modeling historians’ methods of analyzing primary sources. Readers will see new and familiar events from different perspectives, including that of a woman traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, one of the most famous African American mountain men, and a Civil War veteran, among many others.

ISBN – 978-1-61069-731-6

321 Pages

ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2016

Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America

Europeans in search of furs penetrated the continent from the St. Lawrence to the Columbia, aided by native North Americans who shared the secrets of its bounty. Today’s modern highways trace those ancient trade routes, taking time travelers on a journey of rediscovery.

With full-colored maps, hundreds of photographs and detailed driving directions to every site, this guide unlocks a world of adventure, when spirited men and women shaped one of the continent’s central dramas and determined its destiny.

ISBN – 978-1-896150-69-7

288 Pages

Heartland Associates, Inc., 2023

Father Peter John De Smet

Clad in the black robe of his priestly order and armed only with a crucifix, for more than a quarter of a century Father De Smet relentlessly tramped the American frontier to bring peace and religion to the tribes of the Pacific Northwest and the upper Missouri River country.

In this biography, Robert Carriker describes De Smet’s love for the great American West and the native tribes who lived there, the Potawatomis, Flatheads, Coeur d’Alenes, Kalispels, Blackfeet, Yankton Sioux, and others to whom the Jesuit father carried Christianity. Soon the man called Black Robe became known throughout the mountains and plains as a man of peace and a friend of all Indians.

ISBN – 0-8061-2790-2

266 Pages

University of Oklahoma, 1995

Feminine Fur Trade Fashions

Various patterns for dresses and coats can be found in this book. The information will allow anyone to be able to make the dress and or accessory that is wanted. Detailed instructions are given for each pattern that is covered within the book.

48 Pages

The Fur Press, 1976

Firearms of the Fur Trade

Winner of the gold medal for best reference book from the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Firearms of the Fur Trade is Volume I of the Museum’s new research and publishing project, a six-volume Encyclopedia of Trade Goods. It is 600 pages long and contains 1,500 illustrations, most in color, of long guns and pistols made for the fur companies to trade to Indian and white customers or as government gifts throughout North America. The book encompasses the results of seventy years of research, including historical studies and archeological investigations from across the continent. It draws together the all significant information currently available about Dutch, French, Belgian, British, and American fur trade arms. Illustrated examples include firearms from public and private collections in Sweden, Belgium, Britain, Canada and the US. The work provides pioneering analysis of the origins of the firearms trade, the value and use of guns by American natives, and how they changed the indigenous cultures and the nature of hunting, diplomacy and warfare. It establishes chronological typologies of government contract weapons and debunks the myths about guns being of little use when compared to native arms. – Museum of the Fur Trade

ISBN – 978-0-912611-18-1

Museum of the Fur Trade, 2011

Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men

This classic history of early-nineteenth-century fur trappers and traders showcases the devices that enabled path-breaking frontiersmen to open the unmapped American West, including:

Canoes and flatboats, axes and tomahawks, Native American spears and pikes, beaver and bear traps, rifles and muskets, knives, hand guns, and more…

Many of the illustrations included were created by the author’s own work on the artifacts available: Carl P. Russell examined, measured, sketched, and photographed them himself. In some instances, the rare specimens were loaned from private or public museum collections for inclusion in this history.

Sprinkled with little known facts and lore that will fascinate everyone with an interest in the American West, this book, the result of thirty-five years of painstaking research, is the definitive guide to the tools of the mountain men.

ISBN – 978-1-60239-969-3

458 Pages

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2011

Foraging The Mountain West

There’s food in them thar hills! There is also food in the valleys, meadows, swamps, and all around town, too… maybe even in your own backyard. Foraging the Mountain West is a guide to harvesting and celebrating nature’s abundance. Reach out and explore the world with your taste buds. Discover new delights you will never find at the store. Connect with nature on a deeper level by meeting, greeting, and eating the plants, fungi, and creatures that share the neighborhood. Become a little more self-sufficient, and a lot more aware.

Foraging the Mountain West is a hands-on manual for identifying, harvesting, and preparing real food. It is written for the backpacker who would rather bring more knowledge and fewer provisions into the wilderness. It is intended for the happy homemaker who wants to eat well and spend less. It is ideal for the creative chef who wants to explore new ingredients and impress diners with novel dishes.

ISBN – 978-1-892784-36-0

346 Pages

HOPS Press LLC., 2014

Fort Union & Fort William: Letter book & Journal, 1833-1835

From 1828 until the late 1860s, the Upper Missouri Outfit of the American Fur Company controlled the fur trade on the upper Missouri River from its headquarters at Fort Union on the western edge of present day North Dakota. In contrast, Fort William, an outpost of the rival Missouri Fur Company located a few miles east at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, struggled and sold out to its competitor less than a year after it opened in 1833.

Published in full for the first time, the 1833-1835 Fort Union Letter Book features dispatches from several prominent fur-trade figures. This rare official record of outgoing correspondence reveals intriguing details about the day-to-day workings of an industry on the cusp of change. Robert Campbell’s journal of his year at Fort William, on the other hand, is a personal account of his attempts to keep Fort Union founder Kenneth McKenzie from taking over the fledgling post he and William Sublette had started.

ISBN – 978-1-941813-27-0

131 Pages

South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2020

Forts, Fights, and Frontier Sites

Here, at last, is a book that explores some of the lesser known historical sites in Wyoming. In her hallmark engaging style, Candy Moulton documents scores of Wyoming way stations, military establishments, battlefields, Pony Express stations, Oregon and Overland Trail sites, military expeditions- even ferries and “hog ranches”. Whether you’re a serious student of Wyoming history or just a casual reader, you must have this book on your shelf. This is history that needs to be preserved and Moulton has faced the task head-on with outstanding results.

ISBN – 978-0-931271-92-2

232 Pages

High Plains Press, 2010

Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay

“Don Rickey, Jr…has turned the spotlight upon the enlisted man of the regular army during the Indian Wars in the West from 1865 to the 1890’s. In addition to examining manuscript and printed diaries, government records, and newspapers, the author was able to consult over 300 living veterans of the Indian Wars, and to obtain information from them by questionnaires and personal interviews. These unique sources have contributed to the composite view of the regular enlisted man who by securing the West duried this frenzied period of expansion made a significant contribution to the development of the nation…This view of the enlisted man adds a new and worthwhile chapter to the history of the West.” –History News

ISBN – 978-0-8061-1113-1

382 Pages

University of Oklahoma Press, 1973

 

Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri

The son of French immigrants who settled in Maryland, Charles Larpenteur was so eager to see the real American West that he talked himself into a job with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1833. When William Sublette and Robert Campbell sold out to the American Fur Company a year later they recommended the steady and sober young Larpenteur to Kenneth McKenzie, who hired him as a clerk. For forty years, as a company man and as an independent agent, the French-man would ply the fur trade on the upper Missouri River. Based on Larpenteur’s daily journals, this memoir is unparalleled in describing the business side and social milieu of the fur trade conducted from wintering houses and subposts in the Indian country. As Paul L. Hedren notes in his instruction, Larpenteur moved comfortably among Indians and all levels of the trade’s hierarchy. But he lived during a time of transition and decline in the business, and his vivid recital of this  affairs often seems to bear out his feeling that he was “born for misfortune.” His lasting legacy is this book, which is reprinted from the one-volume Lakeside Classics edition of 1933.

ISBN: 0-8032-7930-2

388 Pages

University of Nebraska Press, 1989

From Mountain Man to Millionaire

The western fur trade era – a time when trappers and traders endured constant danger from man, beast, and weather – was on e of the most colorful periods in American history. Over a decade ago, William R. Nester wrote the first biography of Robert Campbell (1804-1879); the subsequent discovery of nearly five hundred new documents, most from two major caches of letters, led to this even-more-detailed and vivid account of Campbell’s self-described “bold and dashing life.”

Exploring the letters, journals, and account books that Campbell left behind, Nester places him in the context of the times in which he lived, showing the economic, political, social, and cultural forces that provided the opportunities and challenges that shaped his life. Nester provides new insights in to Campbell’s ownership of slaves, his attitudes toward slavery, nd his behind-the-scenes political and economic activities during the Civil War. This comprehensive exploration of Robert Campbell’s life depicts a fascinating era in American history.

ISBN – 978-0-8262-1929-9

311 Pages

University of Missouri Press, 2011