From Mountain Man to Millionaire – The “Bold and Dashing Life” of Robert Campbell
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
Softback
6 1/8″ x 9 1/4″
University of Missouri Press, 2011
From Sand Hills to Forests and Mountains
Harold Showers writes a matter-of-fact memoir, but many today would find his early life in the 1920’s and 1930’s on the Upper Green River of western Wyoming exotic and primitive. As a child and young man, Harold witnessed the power of weather, vast distance, wild animals, illness and plain hard times – things that could make a man question his own survival and fear for his family.
But whether trapping for mink, leading hunters into the high peaks, packing the mail by dogsled or enjoying a Sunday picnic with fresh-caught trout and homemade ice cream, Harold and his family also managed to experience the very best a life in the mountains can offer.
Harold’s down-to-earth approach doesn’t keep him from expressing the awe and wonder he felt in the Wyoming wilderness. This book is not only a record of what it took to hang on in the Kendall Valley, but also a testimony by an early day settler who loved the land because he knew it so well.
ISBN: 0-9768113-4-0
171 Pages
Hardback
6 1/4″ x 9 1/4″
Bear Print Press, 1988
Fur Trade and Exploration – Opening the Far Northwest, 1821-1852
The volume discusses the role that the fur traders had in the exploration of the far Northwest, an area that includes the western Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and eastern Alaska. (Choice)
ISBN: 978-0-8061-2093-5
330 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
University of Oklahoma Press, 1983
Fur Trade and Rendezvous of the Green River Valley – HB
The Green River Valley has a story to tell….
In 1824, a group of fur trappers crossed South Pass, in what is now western Wyoming. They entered the beaver-rich valley of the Green River and kicked off the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. Little did they know, they would also create America’s first far western hero, the Mountain Man.
For 16 years, the Green River Valley served as the center of the mountain fur trade, supplying prime beaver pelts as well as hosting a majority of the renowned annual rendezvous. On this stage, some of the most colorful events in the early history of the American West took place.
Contents
Introduction – by Brenda D. Francis
The Rendezvous Era – by Kerry R. Oman
The “Fair of the Wilderness” – by Dale F. Topham
Attire, Arms & Accoutrements – by Stephen V. Banks
Key Men of the Rendezvous – by Dale F. Topham
A Fur Trade Timeline
Indian Participation in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade – by Jay H. Buckley
Books, Bibles, and Beaver Trappers – by Doug M. Erickson
Images of the Mountain Man – by S. Matthew Despain
Map and Historical Sites – by Kerry R. Oman
The Museum of the Mountain Man – by Laurie Hartwig
Other Contributing Authors
Jim Hardee
Kelly Sanderson
Lawrence L Francis
Jim Wirshborn
Artists
Alfed Jacob Miller
John Clymer
David Wright
Richard Luce
Carl Bodmer
Joseph Fama
Charles M. Russel
Tucker Smith
Nicholas Coleman
Jim Norton
ISBN: 0-9768113-1-6
136 Pages
Hardback
8 1/4″ x 11 1/4″
Museum of the Mountain Man, 2005
Edited by Fred R. Gowans & Brenda D. Francis
Fur Trade Cutlery Sketchbook
Illustrations and descriptions of early cartouche knives, scalping knives, skinning knives, and many more. These books are illustrated with pen and ink drawings made from actual specimens or contemporary illustrations.
ISBN: 0-912611-02-2
48 Pages
Softback
10 7/8″ x 8 1/2
The Fur Press, 2002
Fur Traders Trappers and Mountain Men of the Upper Missouri
John Jacob Astor’s dream of empire took shape as the American Fur Company. At Astor’s retirement in 1834, this corporate monopoly reached westward from a depot on Mackinac Island to subposts beyond the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.
ISBN: 0-8032-7269-3
138 Pages
Softback
5″ x 8″
University of Nebraska Press, 1995
Our genuine beaver pelts are of great quality. On average they measure about 32 inches long and 18 inches wide. Measurements can vary from time to time.
Most pelts are of a light to dark brown color. They still have their guard hairs attached to the pelt. Most include the face of the beaver. Pelts have been tanned and are ready to be sold.
Our genuine beaver pelts are of great quality. On average they measure about 20 inches long and 14 inches wide. Measurements can vary from time to time.
Most pelts are of a light to dark brown color. They still have their guard hairs attached to the pelt. Most include the face of the beaver. Pelts are tanned and ready to be sold.
Give Your Heart to the Hawks – A Tribute to the Mountain Men
In Give Your Heart to the Hawks, Win Belvins presents a poetic tribute to these dauntless “first Westerners” and their incredible adventures. Here, among many, are the stories of:
-John Colter, who, in 1808, naked and without weapons or food, escaped captivity by the Blackfeet and ran and walked two hundred fifty miles to Fort Lisa at the mouth of the Yellowstone River.
-Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a grizzly in 1823 and left for dead by his trapper companions, crawled three hundred miles to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri.
-Kit Carson, who ran away from home at age seventeen, became a legendary mountain man in his twenties, and served as a scout and guide for John C. Fremont’s westward explorations of the 1840’s
-Jedediah Smith, a tall, gaunt, Bible-reading New Yorker whose trapping expeditions ranged from the Rockies to California and who was killed by Comanches on the Cimarron in 1831.
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1435-2
336 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/4″
A Forge Book, Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.,1973
Gloomy Terrors and Hidden Fires – The Mystery of John Colter and Yellowstone
From 1810, when a newspaper published the first account of “Colter’s Run,” to 2012, when one hundred and fourscore participants in Montana’s annual John Colter Run charged up and down rugged trails—even across the waist-deep Gallatin River—interest in Colter, the alleged discoverer of Yellowstone Park, has never waned. Drawing on this endless fascination with an individual often called the first American mountain man, this book offers an innovative, comprehensive study of a unique figure in American history. Despite his prominent role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the early exploration of the West, Colter is distinctly different from Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and the other legends of the era because they all left documents behind that allow access to the men themselves. Colter, by contrast, left nothing, not a single letter, diary, or reminiscence, so that second-, third-, or fourth-hand accounts of his adventures are all we have. Guiding readers through this labyrinth of hearsay, rumor, and myth, this is the first book to tell the whole story of Colter and his legend, examining everything that is known—or supposedly known—about Colter and showing how historians and history buffs alike have tried in vain to get back to Colter the man, know what he said and feel what he felt, but have ended up never seeing him clearly, finding instead an enigma they cannot unravel.
ISBN – 978-1-4422-2600-5
243 Pages
Hardback
6 1/4″ x 9 1/4″
Rowman & Littlefield, 2014
Going Along With Lewis & Clark
Step into the boats at St. Louis and travel along with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Up the Missouri River all the way to its headwaters. Over the Rocky Mountains. Down more rivers to the Pacific Ocean. You’ll be gone most of three years, rowing and pulling the boats, walking, climbing mountains on horseback, carrying boats and supplies around big waterfalls and river rapids.
Everything you’ll need but didn’t bring along, you have to hunt, trade for with Indians, or make for yourself. You can’t speak the languages of the people you will meet, but sometimes interpreters can help.
You don’t know exactly how far you’re going, or when you’ll return. You’ll see animals and mountains and waters like nothing you ever knew before. Most of the people who already live there will welcome you, share their food, and enjoy visiting, singing, and dancing together.
ISBN: 978-1-56037-151-9
48 Pages
Softback
8 1/2″ x 11″
FarCountry Press, 2000
Great Gunmakers for the Early West
Three Volume Set – Hard Cover with Protective Sleeve
Written by James D. Gordon
Within the three volume set you will find Gordon’s personal collection of firearms of the American Frontier. With this set of books his collection is more accessible to all who enjoy owning this three volume set. It contains most of his collection and some other collections as well. Jim Gordon sees the firearms that served America through its frontier period by falling into three chronological and geographical periods.
Volume One – English, 176 Pages
Volume Two – Eastern U.S., 176 Pages
Volume Three – Western U.S., 163 Pages
Hardback
14 1/2″ x 11 1/2″
James D. Gordon, 2007
Great Knife Makers for the Early West
Within this book the author hopes to cover makers whose works may still be found by today’s collectors. Concentrating on terms of volume and historical impact, not necessarily based upon quality of craftsmanship. These makers cover a wide range, including those who might have been dealers or have subcontracted the actual manufacture of knives but did indeed in fact stamp their names on the blades of said knives.
283 Pages
Hardback
11 1/4″ x 10 1/2″
James D. Gordon, 2010
Tan T-shirt with Green River Rendezvous Image on the front. Museum logo is on the left sleeve with nothing printed on the back.
Lettering and picture are in dark brown.
Sizes available – Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, 2XL, and 3XL.
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.
The Encyclopedia of Trade Goods – Volume 2, Gun Accessories & Hand Weapons of the Fur Trade
This volume is 442 pages long, with 671 illustrations, most in color. It has eighteen chapters covering fighting knives, bayonets, dag knives, pipe tomahawks, arrowpoints, lances, Missouri war axes, spike tomahawks, swords, powder horns, flasks, hunting pouches, and armor.
Other subjects include gun powder, lead, bullet molds, cartridges and loading tools, gun parts, wood, percussion caps, gun flints, gunstock clubs, and knife clubs.
There is a full index and an appendix dealing with the changing chronology of trade goods over several centuries. A second appendix reproduces artist George Catlin’s observations on Indian weapons. – Museum of the Fur Trade
ISBN – 9780-9126-11-19-8
407 Pages
Hardback
11 1/4″ x 11 1/4″
Museum of the Fur Trade, 2021
Guns on the Early Frontiers – From Colonial Times to the Years of the Western Fur Trade
This thoroughly documented, authoritative and highly readable book not only details the weapons used during the settlement and westward expansion of America, but also describes their use by fur traders, trappers, soldiers, and Native Americans. The result is a lively historical examination of the momentous events that were strongly influenced by the gun trade.
ISBN – 978-0-486-43681-4
395 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
Dover Publications, 2005
