The mountain men did not adventure into the wilds to conquer the land nor to oppress or convert the Indigenous tribes. Many of them married and had mixed-blood children; all were welcome. They had a strong bond with the natural world and appreciated its awesome power.
Win has written numerous books about the western mountain trappers. Publisher’s Weekly says he is “known for his mastery of western lore.” Win’s Dictionary of the American West is held in 728 libraries–have fun with it! Among his works are a catalog of Mountain Man Classics that you’ll want for your library, whether you’re a history buff, a fan of literature of the West, or simply amazed by the folks who lived, survived, and thrived with sheer will, humor, and innovation. Give Your Heart to the Hawks, after 50 years in print, is still considered a seminal word on mountain men. Pick it up and be amazed!
”We love the mountain man. The cowboy is a figure from pseudo-realism, the mountain man from romance. In one of the great adventures in a trapper tale, a man rides down a ridge on a thunderstorm bellowing Beethoven back at the gods. No cowboy ever did that!”
This is the only collection of authentic mountain man stories, told first hand. Come and howl with joy!
JOURNAL OF A MOUNTAIN MAN: A member of Jedediah Smith’s first mountain man brigade, Clyman was there when the South Pass was discovered, opening the inter-mountain West to fur trappers. Crossing the country during the great migration of 1846, Clyman encountered the Donner party and gave them sound advice, which they tragically ignored. A few other adventures: He sewed Jim Bridger’s ear back on after a grizzly bear attack; explored the Green Valley and the Salt Lake Basin; alone and weary, he walked 600 miles to Fort Atkinson. (Still one of the West’s most remarkable tales of survival.) He also kept Bill Sublette from freezing to death en route.
THE RIVER OF THE WEST — THE MOUNTAIN YEARS: Come meet Joe Meek. He is full of thumb-your-nose at the universe sass. His recollections are a barbaric yawp of joy—joy in life, joy in youth and vitality, exultation at challenge and danger. Of all the men who walked the Rocky Mountains a century and a half ago, none other is so alive.
THE RIVER OF THE WEST, PART TWO — THE OREGON YEARS: Through Meek’s wondrous recollections, his memoir also becomes an important history of Oregon’s formative years, and that of the entire Northwest United States. The struggles of women, Native Americans, missionaries, trappers, early settlers, explorers, and the Hudson’s Bay company all shaped a territory, and finally a state. Originally published in 1870, this book includes the original illustrations and offers a new introduction, map, notes, bibliography and index.
THE LONG RIFLE: The author does not so much write the tale as he does launch onto its energies and roars downstream with the river’s current. Yes, it is old-fashioned. It is heroic, sentimental, and romantic. It is touched with magnificence. It is imbued with the innocence and optimism that young people, about to venture into unknown worlds, want to believe in.
THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF JAMES O. PATTIE: This is the autobiography of a man who traveled through early California and the Southwest in the 1800’s. How did we find the story of James O. Pattie? Through a remarkable stroke of luck. An anonymous traveler passed through Cincinnati one day in 1830, and the local newspaper carried a story about him. The man was identified only as “a passenger who arrived yesterday from Vera Cruz,” and the story contained a few of the man’s vague, political comments about Mexico. His name was James O. Pattie, and he had just returned from wandering in the almost unknown territory between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean–his stories are the stuff of a live lived wild and adventurous.
EDWARD WARREN: One of the few firsthand accounts of the West before white people came. A must read. Captain Sir William Drummond Stewart, Scotland’s baronet of Murthly, was an enthusiastic adventurer with a deep curiosity about the untamed Western United States. He spent seven years exploring the American West, far ahead of the first white settlers. He traveled in the company of the legendary trappers Jim Bridger, Tom Fitzpatrick, William Sublette and many others. This is a novel of his travels.
ROADSIDE HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE PARK–TRAVEL GUIDE: History is about people, and this guide gives you the full insight into one of the most incredible places on earth, Yellowstone Park. Learn the stories of the Indian people who lived and traveled through Yellowstone, as well as the mountain men who were the first white people to find and explore Yellowstone. Imagine their amazement! Also learn about the government explorers who mapped the area and fought hard to make it a park, the poachers and other exploiters who threatened the park, and those who protected it.
JEDEDIAH SMITH–THE STORY OF A WAYFARING HEART: The most complicated, and enigmatic, of the mountain men is Jedediah Smith. In this biography Win Blevins gives Jedediah’s adventures the drama and passion of a novel. He uses Jedediah’s own point of view to tell the story from his first venture into the west, to his discovery of the pass over the Rocky Mountains, to his crossing great deserts to reach California, to his journey to Oregon and back to the Rockies. In the end Blevins takes the reader, breathless, to Smith’s last moments.
Into the uncharted West came the mountain men. They were French Canadians, Blacks, and Whites who left society and conventions behind. They all wanted to see a vast, unknown landscape. An earth that roiled and bubbled and erupted even when the skies were snow-filled. Powerful rivers that sculpted the land. An ocean that was wild with promise and mystery.