Mountin Man Giveaway

[Rotte]

I've made it to 1000 posts--time for a giveaway.

As you’ns know by now, I like slightly complicated giveaway contests and I’m not inclined to change my ways just now. So there is a twist in this one, but there are also 2 chances to win a prize.

I’ve been fascinated by the history of the Mountain Men for most of my life. Yes, it’s been overly romanticized and was really very brief, but the Era of the Mountain Men and fur trapping was damn interesting and more than a little exciting. I was riding through some Mountain Man country recently and got to thinking about some of these guys, so I thought I’d do a Mountain Man Giveaway for my 1000th post.

The First Prize: An A.G. Russell Knife.

I’m not sure what the model is called, I think the catalogue called it a deer camp knife or some such (blade is stamped 2004). It feels really good in the hand and is well balanced. The blade is 6.5" long made by Seki of AUS-8. The sheath is leather with a Kydex-type lining.

This is a great knife, but I don’t use it, so I thought I’d pass it on.

The Second Prize: A flint and steel kit from White Hart Forge.

I'll have to order the flint and steel kit once the winner has been decided. I chose the White Hart kit because they make the steel striker there and I lke that. I've never used their kit, but I'm going to order one for myself as well.

The rules (read ‘em all before going off half-cocked ya damn lowlanders):

1. First prize (A.G. Russell knife) goes to the member who guesses the specific Mountain Man I have selected at random (not really at random, but you get the idea). This individual lived free, roamed, hunted, and trapped in North America for a few years during the 19th century (1800-1899). This individual was a real person. Who I am thinking of?

2. Guesses must contain the Mountain Man’s name and some historic information about this individual, i.e. a story, anecdote, or historical information. Since these are Mountain Man stories, some stretching of the facts is assumed, maybe even preferred. Here is an example of a guess: Jeremiah Johnson: He was a mountain man operating around the Musselshell River in Crow country. He went on a bloody campaign of vengeance after his wife and adopted son were massacred. This is a bad example since Jeremiah Johnson was not a real person. Robert Redford is a real person, but he ain’t no Mountain Man.

3. One guess per Bladeforums member per day, first correct guess wins the contest.

4. The Second Prize (flint and steel kit) will be awarded for the best story or anecdote submitted with the mountain man guess. I will be the sole judge of the “Best Mountain Man Story”, but I will ask for member participation in selecting the best story. If no yarn is deemed worthy, the “Best Mountain Man Story” prize may not be awarded. I can be like that.

5. There is no time limit for this contest, but if you guys don’t get the right answer in a day, I will be mighty surprised. I'll let the contest run for a couple days, even if the correct mountain man is guessed right away, so we can get a few good yarns in.

6. Stories and tales of riotous Rendezvous are encouraged but should not contain any material that is sexually explicit, especially not if said stories reference carnal knowledge of mountain cats—let’s keep this family friendly. Being drunk out of your mind while telling your story would add a degree of verisimilitude and authenticity; however, lack of appropriate grammar use may be held against you. (Unless you are writing in character.)

7. Participants must be 18 years or older and legally allowed to own the prize knife.

So, pick a mountain man, tell a little tale, tell a few lies, and you might win a great knife or handmade flint and steel kit. Game on!

 

[RescueRiley]

Jedidiah Smith..A NY native like myself Born in 1799 with an in born wander lust he served as a guide for General WIlliam ashleys troops Through several trapping trips for beaver pelts along the missouri and also deep into the Rockies. He lived the Mtn man Life until his death in 1831 when he was killed by Comanche Indians in at along the banks of the Cimmaron river.

Thanks for the opportunity.

 

[myright]

I'll guess Jim Savage. The king of the indians and the man who discovered Yosemite. Sounds like he was pretty much the man in helping the indians and pissing off the government.

Thanks for the chance bro man!

 

[fivefold]

Guess I'll start it off. I guess John Colter.
While trapping beaver he and a partner were attacked by Blackfeet Indians. The attackers swarmed on Colter, stripping him naked and taking all his possessions. They killed his partner and Colter awaited his own execution. To his puzzlement, they set him free and told him to run. He took off and soon realized this was a game of "human hunt". After running a couple of miles, Colter turned around and killed the only Indian that was close with his own spear. He stole his blanket and continued to run until he came to a river. By hiding in the river under a pile of logs, Colter was able to evade his pursuers. He walked the 200 miles back to Fort Raymond with only a blanket for warmth and bark and roots to eat. After eleven days, he stumbled into the stockade, more dead than alive.

 

[dingobubba]

Jim Bridger is the only mountain man that comes to mind besides Jedidia Smith. Sorry I'm at work and don't time to write a story myself so copied and pasted below. Thanks for the chance...


James Bridger (Old Gabe) was in good company when he signed on with Hugh Glass, Jedediah Smith, and Thomas Fitzpatrick to be a member of General Ashley's Upper Missouri expedition. At the age of 17, he was the youngest member of the expedition. This was beginning of a long and colorful career in the mountains for Jim Bridger.

Bridger rose to the status of the quintessential mountain man. Biographer Grenville Dodge described him as:

"a very companionable man. In person he was over six feet tall, spare, straight as an arrow, agile, rawboned and of powerful frame, eyes gray, hair brown and abundant even in old age, expression mild and manners agreeable. He was hospitable and generous, and was always trusted and respected."
Bridger had a remarkable sense of humor and he especially loved to shock tenderfeet and easterners with his tall tales. He would tell of glass mountains, "peetrified" birds singing "peetrified" songs, and reminisce about the days when Pikes Peak was just a hole in the ground. These stories were related in such a serious manner as to fool even skeptics into believing them, making Jim's laughter all the louder when his ruse was revealed.

All of these attributes served Bridger well, and made him adaptable to just about every situation he found himself in. By the end of his lifetime, Bridger could claim the titles of trapper, trader, guide, merchant, Indian interpreter and army officer.

After working for Ashley, Bridger trapped the Rocky Mountains with various companies and partnerships. Renowned by his peers, Bridger was an able brigade leader and an excellent trapper. Year after year he was able to avoid Indian attack and turn a profit from his trapping.

One particular discovery early on in Bridger's career brought him lasting celebrity. To settle a bet in the winter camp of his trapping party of 1824, Bridger set out to find the exact course of the Bear River from the Cache Valley. He returned and reported that it emptied into a vast lake of salt water. The men were convinced he had found an arm of the Pacific Ocean. In reality, he was the first white man to view The Great Salt Lake.

Bridger's most important discovery would come years later, in 1850. Captain Howard Stanbury stopped at Fort Bridger and inquired about the possibility of a shorter route across the Rockies than the South Pass. Bridger guided him through a pass that ran south from the Great Basin. This pass would soon be rightfully called Bridger's Pass and would be the route for overland mail, The Union Pacific Railroad line and finally Interstate 80.

Although he would remain a trapper, Bridger easily turned to other means of income after the softening of the beaver market in the 1840's. In the summer of 1841, Bridger and Henry Fraeb began building a crude structure on the west bank of the Green River. They intended it as a trapping and trading base. Later that summer, the first wagon load of overland missionaries and emigrants rolled up and Fort Bridger was born. Jim did not recognize the significance of that moment, but in the coming years he realized the potential of his crude building. Years later he described it:

"I have established a small store, with a Black Smith Shop, and a supply of Iron on the road of the Emigrants on Black's fork Green River, which promises fairly, they in coming out are generally well supplied with money, but by the time they get there are in want of all kinds of supplies. Horses, Provisions, Smith work &c brings ready Cash from them and should I receive the goods hereby ordered will do a considerable business in that way with them. The same establishment trades with the Indians in the neighborhood, who have mostly a good number of Beaver amongst them."



James Bridger died on a Missouri farm in 1881. At 77, he was one of the last living mountain men.



A tall tale:

Supposedly one of Bridger's favorite yarns to tell to greenhorns was about being pursued by one hundred Cheyenne warriors. After being chased for several miles, Bridger found himself at the end of a box canyon, with the Indians bearing down on him. At this point, Bridger would go silent, prompting his listener to ask, "What happened then, Mr. Bridger?" Bridger would reply, "They kilt me."

 

[chewbacca]

My guess: James Bridger

In 1824 James Bridger set out to find the course of the Bear River from the Cache Valley. After finding the "end" of the river, he returned to camp telling his trapping party that it emptied into a large body of salt water. His party was convinced that he had found an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, but he was actually the first white man to find the Great Salt Lake.

He also showed white men Bridger Pass, later the route of Interstate 80 through the mountains.

Damn...beat me to it!

 

[Shore08]

I'll guess Kit Carson.

From Wikipedia:

Carson's contributions to western history have been reexamined by historians, journalists and Native American activists since the 1960s. In 1968, Carson biographer Harvey L. Carter stated:

In respect to his actual exploits and his actual character, however, Carson was not overrated. If history has to single out one person from among the Mountain Men to receive the admiration of later generations, Carson is the best choice. He had far more of the good qualities and fewer of the bad qualities than anyone else in that varied lot of individuals.

To me he embodies the true spirit of the mountainman. He used his skills and knowledge to survive in places where a lesser man would have been a goner. He went where the action was, and excelled in his field. The epitomy of the 'man's man'.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

John Adams.

Nickname: Grizzly.

Nuff said.


TF

 

[azshaman]

Hugh Glass (c. 1780 – 1833). Now Ol' Hugh was pinted upstream with Ashley's bunch in August of 1823 when he stumbled upon a she-griz and her cubs. Afore he could touch off his flintlock, that b'ar was on him and the dance had begun! Hugh went after her with his knife and the b'ar with her claws...and when it ended the griz was dead and Ol' Hugh just about.

Ashley left two volunteers to stay with Ol' Hugh, who was mauled and dyin' fer certain. They were John Fitzgerald and a feller y'all heard tell of, Jim Bridger. Well, the long and short of it was after tryin' to dig him a grave, the two were surprised by Indians. They grabbed up his possibles and rifle headed outta thar to save their scalps.

But Ol' Hugh didn't die. Mauled, with a broke leg and festering wounds, Ol' Hugh crawled over 200 miles to Ft. Kiowa with only a little help, in an odyssey too long for this short tale. If'n that isn't what bein' a Mountain Man was all about, well, brothers, I don't know what is!

An' it's all the truth, too!

Medicine Woman

 

[bkduckworth]

Rotte,

Wow, you absolutely think of the best contests! I'll set this one out since I was party to your generosity on the beer bowie contest. (Thanks again!) I've already enjoyed reading these few stories. Keep them coming!

Brandon

 

[Marcelo Cantu]

I guess Liver eatin Johnson!
Johnson is said to have been born near Little York, New Jersey, with the last name Garrison. Some accounts say that he joined the United States Navy in 1846, however, research in his genealogy has discovered he would have been too young during the Mexican-American War. He did go to sea, and at the time the Navy was commandeering vessels, and this may have happened to Johnson. He did say he had been in the Navy when he joined the Union Army during the Civil War. After striking an officer, he deserted, changed his name to John Johnston, and traveled west to try his hand at the gold diggings in Alder Gulch, Montana Territory. He also became a "woodhawk," supplying cord wood to steamboats. He was described as a large man, standing around six feet tall and weighing over two hundred pounds.

Rumors, legends, and campfire tales abound about Johnson. Perhaps chief among them is this one: In 1847, his American Indian wife was killed by Crow Indians, which prompted Johnson to embark on a 20-year vendetta against the tribe. The legend says that he would cut out and eat the liver of each man killed, but it's quite possible that this only happened once and that he just pretended to eat the liver. In any case, he eventually became known as "Liver-Eating Johnson". Since eating the liver of a victim is a symbolic way of completing a revenge slaying, or assuming some qualities of the vanquished, credence might be given to this activity. The story of how he got his name was written down by a diarist at the time. There were three Johnsons, nicknames were commonplace, and with Johnson's show of eating the liver, he received his name.

Another story is when Johnson was ambushed by a group of Blackfoot warriors in the dead of winter on a foray to visit his Flathead kin, a trip that would have been over five hundred miles. The Blackfoot planned to sell him to the Crow, his mortal enemies, for a handsome price. He was stripped to the waist, tied with leather thongs and put in a teepee with an inexperienced guard outside. Johnson managed to chew through the straps, then knocked out his young guard with a punch to the face, took his knife and scalped him, then quickly cut off one of his legs. He made his escape into the woods, and survived on the Blackfoot's leg until he reached the cabin of Del Que, his trapping partner, more dead than alive, a journey of about two hundred miles. However, this story was true, but the protagonist was Boone Helm, another raucous frontiersman.

Eventually, Johnson made peace with the Crow, who became "his brothers", and his personal vendetta against them finally ended after twenty-five years and scores of Crow warriors had fallen. The West, however, was still a very violent and territorial place, particularly during the Plains Indian Wars of the mid 1800s. Many more Indians of different tribes, especially but not limited to, the Sioux and Blackfoot, would know the wrath of "Dapiek Absaroka" Crow killer and his fellow mountain men.

The above information is based upon the yarns and tales told over and over through the years. The novel Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher is a good fiction source. The accurate story is told in the diaries of Lee and Kaiser who were on the Missouri River in 1868 when Johnston was given his moniker, after a rainy fight with the Sioux.

He joined the Union Army in St. Louis in 1864 (Co. H, 2nd Colorado Cavalry) as a private, and was honorably discharged the following year. During the 1880s he was appointed deputy sheriff in Coulson, Montana, and a town marshal in Red Lodge, Montana. He was listed as five foot, eleven and three-quarter inches tall according to government records.

In his time, he was a sailor, scout, soldier, gold seeker, hunter, trapper, whiskey peddler, guide, deputy, constable, builder of log cabins, and any other source of income producing labor he could find.

His last residence was just outside Red Lodge, Montana where he lived in the side of a hill while building his cabin. The cabin is still in Red Lodge although it has been moved many times.

 

[jctrapper]

KIT CARSON

The mountain men had a great deal of first hand experience in dealing with Native Americans, and though they were not always sympathetic, they at least understood the Indian. Their experience proved invaluable as they helped military and emigrant parties try to avoid conflict. Though often of limited literary capacity in their native tongue, most mountain men could speak one or more Indian languages and also communicate with sign language. A few of the mountain men even used their skills in a more formal setting: as Indian agents for the federal government.

Though he was an Indian fighter for several years, Kit Carson also served as an agent for the Ute Indians in Taos where he had a reputation for being firm but fair. Thomas Fitzpatrick used his diplomatic skills to smooth over conflicts during his tenure as a guide, and he eventually worked for the Upper Platte and Arkansas Indian agency. There, he inspired the first treaties with the plains Indians at Fort Laramie in 1851 and Fort Atkinson in 1853.

Jim Bridger's long life in the mountains provided him with both the expertise and the opportunity to facilitate relations with the native population. During the expedition through Bridger's Pass in 1850, he saved the surveying excursion of Howard Stansbury from a confrontation with the Ogalalas through his outstanding use of sign language. Bridger also interpreted at the Fort Laramie treaty council in 1851. He continued to advise military commanders through the opening campaigns of the wars with the Sioux.

 

[Dannyboy Leather]

Post expired.

 

[jctrapper]

I have already submitted my name but would like to tell ya'll about a group that impacts young men. Its a church affiliated group so i hope it does not offend anyone here. I was involved in this program when i was young, it made a large impact on me. It definitely points ya in the right direction and teaches you valuable skills along the way, the Name of this program is Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship (FCF). Here is its history;

The Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship (originally called "Frontiersmen Camping Fraternity") was founded during the summer of 1966. For some time prior to this date, the national commander had felt the need for a special honor society to give recognition to men and older boys who had distinguished themselves in advancement, training, and camping.

The early American frontiersman was an excellent example of man's ability to adapt to the outdoors and the wilderness. His achievements were also an example of courage and determination. The national office, therefore, made the decision to base this fraternity on the lore and traditions of these early frontiersmen.

The first FCF chapter was organized in the Southern California District on July 8, 1966. High in the San Bernardino Mountains in a clearing surrounded by gigantic trees, a large group of Royal Rangers sat around a blazing campfire. As they waited, a feeling of mystery and expectancy filled the air.

Suddenly, the blast of a hunter's horn shattered the night's stillness and echoed through the trees. National Commander Johnnie Barnes stepped into the firelight, dressed in a buckskin outfit and a coonskin cap. As lie began to explain the new FCF program, a hum of excitement rose above the sound of the crackling campfire. Assisted by two district leaders, Ron Halvorson and Bob Reid, these men proceeded with the first FCF callout. After pledging to endure a time of testing, the candidates were led away carrying a large rope to a mountaintop nearby for an all night initiation.

Later as the new members (five men and five boys) were officially inducted into the fraternity at the final friendship fire, they sensed that this ceremony was a milestone in Royal Rangers history.

That same year, three more chapters were organized in the Northern California, the Southern Missouri, and the Iowa Districts. This exciting and unique fraternity has so captured the imaginations of men and boys until the program has now grown to include organized chapters in the majority of our country.

 

[Shotgun]

I'm going to guess my great uncle Alfred Packer.

Alfred G. "Alferd" Packer (January 21, 1842 – April 23, 1907) was an American prospector who was accused of cannibalism. First tried for murder, Packer was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.

Packer's life
Packer was born as Alfred G. Packer in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to James Packer and wife Esther Griner. Packer served on the Union side in the American Civil War, enlisting in April 1862 in Company F, 16th U. S. Infantry Regiment. However, he was discharged for epilepsy the following December. He then enlisted in Company L, 8th Iowa Cavalry Regiment, but was discharged again for the same reason. He then decided to go west and try his luck at prospecting.

In November, 1873, Packer was with a party of 21 who left Provo, Utah, bound for the Colorado gold country around Breckenridge. On January 21, 1874 he met with Chief Ouray, known as the White Man's Friend, near Montrose, Colorado. Chief Ouray recommended they postpone their expedition until spring, as they were likely to encounter dangerous winter weather in the mountains.

Ignoring Ouray's advice, Packer and five others left for Gunnison, Colorado on February 9. The other men were Shannon Wilson Bell, James Humphrey, Frank "Reddy" Miller, George "California" Noon and Israel Swan.

The party got hopelessly lost, ran out of provisions, and became snowbound in the Rocky Mountains. Packer allegedly went scouting and came back to discover Bell roasting human flesh. According to Packer, Bell rushed him with a hatchet. Packer shot and killed him. Packer insisted that Bell had gone mad and murdered the others.

On April 16, 1874, Packer arrived alone at Los Pinos Indian Agency near Gunnison. He spent some time in a Saguache, Colorado saloon, meeting several of his previous party. He initially claimed self-defense, but his story was not believed. During the trial, a local newspaper reported that presiding judge M.B. Gerry said:

"Stand up yah voracious man-eatin' sonofabitch and receive yir sintince. When yah came to Hinsdale County, there was siven Dimmycrats. But you, yah et five of 'em, goddam yah. I sintince yah t' be hanged by th' neck ontil yer dead, dead, dead, as a warnin' ag'in reducin' th' Dimmycratic populayshun of this county. Packer, you Republican cannibal, I would sintince ya ta hell but the statutes forbid it."
The actual sentencing statement was more in character for an educated state judge:

"Close your ears to the blandishments of hope. Listen not to its fluttering promises of life. But prepare to meet the spirits of thy murdered victims. Prepare for the dread certainty of death."
Packer signed a confession on August 5, 1874. He was jailed in Saguache, but escaped soon after, vanishing for several years.

On March 11, 1883, Packer was discovered in Cheyenne, Wyoming living under the alias of "John Schwartze." On March 16, he signed another confession. On April 6, a trial began in Lake City, Colorado. On April 13, he was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to death. Packer managed to temporarily avoid punishment again. In October 1885, the sentence was reversed by the Colorado Supreme Court as being based on an ex post facto law. However, on June 8, 1886, Packer was sentenced to 40 years at another trial in Gunnison. At the time, this was the longest custodial sentence in U.S. history.

On June 19, 1899, Packer's sentence was upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. However, he was paroled on February 8, 1901 and went to work as a guard at the Denver Post. He died in Deer Creek, in Jefferson County, Colorado, reputedly of "Senility - trouble & worry" at the age of 65. Packer is widely rumored to have become a vegetarian before his death. He was buried in Littleton, Colorado. His grave is marked with a veteran's tombstone listing his original regiment.

Oh and all are welcome at my house. The menu consists of meat with farva beans and a nice cianti.

 

[PayetteRucker]

A series of tall tales based around one Sergeant John O'Keefe, became widespread when the Sergeant was assigned to the Army Signal Corps post on top of Pike's Peak during 1876. Left alone for months at a time on top of the 14,000 foot summit, O'Keefe swore all of his stories were true. A combination of boredom and fear being alone on top of the peak probably lead to most of the dramatic events that he claimed to witness, but they lead to some pretty interesting tales about zombie-like mountain rats attacking him by the thousands, a dog named Seldom Fed and his trusty issued mule, Balaam. Wondrous Times on the Frontier, by Dee Brown, accounts for many of his stories that were published by Colorado newspapers at the time.

 

[MattM_Gilbert]

Frederick Russell Burnham, DSO (May 11, 1861 – September 1, 1947) was an American scout and world traveling adventurer known for his service to the British Army in colonial Africa and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell, thus becoming one of the inspirations for the founding of the international Scouting Movement.

Burnham was born to a missionary family on an Indian Reservation in Tivoli, Minnesota. As a toddler, he witnessed the burning of New Ulm, Minnesota, by Taoyateduta (Little Crow) and his Sioux warriors in the Dakota War of 1862. During the uprising, his mother, Rebecca (Elizabeth) Russell Burnham, hid the not quite two-year-old boy in a basket of green corn husks and fled for her life. Once the Sioux had been driven away the mother returned to find the house burned down. Her young son was safe, fast asleep in the basket and protected only by the corn husks.

The young Burnham attended schools in Iowa and there he met Blanche Blick, who would later become his wife. His family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1870. Two years later his father, the Rev. Edwin Otway Burnham of Kentucky, himself a long time pioneer and missionary along the border of the Ho Chunk (Winnebago) Indian reservation in Minnesota, died when Burnham was only 11. While the rest of the family returned to Iowa, the young Burnham stayed in California to make his own way.

For the next three years, Burnham worked as a mounted messenger for the Western Union Telegraph Company in California and Arizona. On one occasion his horse was stolen from him by Tiburcio Vasquez, a famous Californio bandit.

At 14, he began his life as a scout and Indian tracker in the Apache Wars. He traveled in northern Mexico and the American Southwest, including Texas and Oklahoma, earning a living as a buffalo hunter, cowboy, and prospector, and he continued working as a scout while tracking Indians in the Cheyenne War. The young Burnham eventually went on to attend high school in California but never graduated.

In 1882, Burnham returned to Arizona and was appointed Deputy Sheriff of Pinal County, but he soon went back to cattle and mining interests. He joined the losing side of the Tonto Basin Feud before mass killing started, and only narrowly escaped death in Arizona. He returned to Prescott, Iowa, to visit his childhood sweetheart, Blanche, and the two were married on February 6, 1884. That same year, he and Blanche settled down to tend to an orange grove in Pasadena, California, but within a year he was back prospecting and scouting.

Burnham then went to Africa where this background proved useful. He soon became an officer in the British Army, serving in several battles there. During this time, Burnham became friends with Baden-Powell, and passed on to him both his outdoor skills and his spirit for what would later become known as Scouting.

Burnham eventually moved on to become involved in espionage, oil, conservation, writing and business. His descendants are still active in Scouting.

 

[Moff8]

great competition again. Love reading the stories so far. I pick a mountain man who shares the same first name as me Thomas Fitzpatrick

copied from Wikipedia:

Thomas Fitzpatrick, known as Broken Hand, was a trapper and a trailblazer who became the head of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. With Jedediah Smith, he led a trapper band that discovered South Pass, Wyoming.

He also was responsible for shepherding the first two emigrant wagon trains, including the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, to Oregon, was official guide to John C. Fremont on his longest expedition, and guided Col. Philip Kearny and his Dragoons along the westward trails to impress the Native Americans with their howitzers and swords.

Fitzpatrick negotiated the Fort Laramie treaty of 1851 at the largest council of Native Americans of the Plains ever assembled.

Among the most colorful of mountain men, Fitzpatrick was also party to many of the most important events in the opening of the West.

 

[Ramm9]

A unique mountain man of the time was Jim Beckworth. He was born in Virginia in 1798 the son of an English nobleman and an African-American woman. After moving to Missouri he went to school in St. Louis and worked as a blacksmith.

Beckworth started trapping in 1824 and “tall tales” told at rendevous made him out to be a Crow Indian that had been taken by Cheyennes and traded to whites. The rumors persisted and came in handy when he was captured by Crow’s after being separated from other trappers, including Jim Bridger.

Bridger, believing the Crow’s were Cheyenne, gave Beckworth up for dead and spread the word. In the meantime, Beckworth was welcomed with open arms by the Crow who believed him to be a lost Crow child. Beckworth became part of the tribe and enjoyed trapping without fear of attack.

Beckworth returned to St. Louis in 1837 and worked as far west as Sonoma California as a trader, shop owner, guide and even in later years as a trapper. He died in a Montana Crow village in 1866.

....A tall tale?
Let’s imagine Beckworth tells it..
(from Howard L. Conard, “Uncle Dick” Wootton

I remember a funny thing happened there that winter, and I laugh yet when I think of it. We had some visitors at the fort who were from St. Louis and were friends of Bent and St. Vrain.

Among them was the most comical fellow I ever knew, whom we called “Belzy” Dodd.

His head was as bald as a billiard ball. Dodd wore a wig, and one day when there were a number of Indians hanging about, he concluded to have a bit of fun with them.

He walked around eyeing the Indians savagely for some time, and finally, dashing among them, he gives a series of war-whoops discounted the Comanche yells, and pulling off his wig, he threw it down at the feet of the astonished and terror-stricken red men.

The Indians thought the fellow had jerked off his own scalp, and not one of them waited to see what would happen next. They left the fort running like scared jack rabbits, and after that none of them could be induced to come near Dodd.

They named him “the-white-man-who-scalps-himself,” and I think he could have traveled across the plains alone with perfect safety.

 

[Trent Rock]

I'll go with William Sherley "Old Bill" Williams
(Don't call me Sherley!!)
He was involved in a a battle with the Utes near my house in Colorado (Cumbres Pass or La Veta Pass..I forgot)
He was killed trying to retrieve a cache of his stuff in Ute territory

There are many historical accounts of the life of the fur trapper known as "Old Bill Williams." It is known that he was born in North Carolina and ventured to the mountains of the West for adventure and to preach. If not one of the most famous, Old Bill was certainly one of the most interesting and colorful of all the early free trappers. He was known to have frequented Northern Arizona, and is believed to have been killed by Indians in Southern Colorado in 1849.

Williams had a pattern, as a notoriously sharp trader, of buying and selling furs promptly for an immediate cash profit. However, the fur trade was declining by 1840, and many trappers pursued other interests. In a carefully planned enterprise, Old Bill joined a mixed band of American trappers, New Mexicans, French-Canadians, and Indians intent on "collecting" abandoned horses in Southern California. Three thousand animals were gathered and driven on a hard journey of about 1000 miles; over half were lost before clearing the Mohave Desert. Bill's usual, good business sense failed him in this instance, as he sold his share and settled for a barrel of whiskey.

http://www.allthingswilliam.com/willynilly/oldbill.html

I've read about 30 books on The Mountain Man Era
My favs are:
A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific by Robert Utley

The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540-1846 by David Weber

A Rendezvous Reader: Tall, Tangled, and True Tales of the Mountain Men 1805-1850 By Donald Barclay

Bent's Fort by David Lavender

Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West: Eighteen Biographical Sketches By Leroy Hafen

My Great Grandfather was a "mountain man" in Southern Colorado in the 1850's
Although I now know it was AFTER the BEAVER trade ended
He was more of a hunter/explorer than a trapper
I'm sure he trapped some beaver in his day though!!

Cool knife!!
Cool contest!!!
Thanks for opportunity.....