Tales Of The Mountain Men

Classic stories about the adventurers who explored and settled the West.

In 1804, Lewis and Clark set out to find the fabled Northwest Passage to the Pacific. Though they never found it -- or the lost tribes of Israel, rumored to be living in the Great American Desert --- they did discover that the entire region west of the Mississippi was swarming with beaver. And so began the American fur trade, as the first tough trappers headed out to make their fortunes in beaver pelts.

The “mountain men” were the hunters and trappers who fiercely strode the Rocky Mountains in the early to mid-1800s. They braved the elements in search of the skins of beavers and other wild animals, to sell or barter for goods. The lifestyle of the mountain men could be harsh, existing as they did among animals, and spending most of their days and nights living and camping out in the great unexplored wilds of the Rockies. Life outdoors presented many threats, not least among them Native Americans, who were hostile to the mountain men encroaching on the area for their own purposes. For a certain kind of pioneer, this risk and more were outweighed by the benefits of living free, without the restrictions and boundaries of “civilized” settlements. In The Adventures of the Mountain Men, editor Stephen Brennan has compiled many of the best stories about the mountain men—the most daring exploits, the death-defying chances taken to hunt big game, the clashes with the arrows of Native Americans, and also the moments when the men were struck by the incomparable beauty of the unsullied, majestic Rocky Mountains.

The accounts of the mountain men are spun from the experiences of a nation moving westward: a trapper returns from the dead; hunters feast on buffalo intestines served on a dirty blanket; a missionary woman is astounded by the violence and vulgarity of the trappers' rendezvous. These are just a few of the narratives, tall tales, and lies that make up A Rendezvous Reader. The writers represented in this book include dyed-in-the-wool trappers, adventuring European nobles, upward-gazing Eastern missionaries, and just plain hacks who never unsheathed a Green River knife or traveled farther west than the Ohio River. What these writers have in common is that all helped create a uniquely American icon - the mountain man.

This antiquarian volume contains a detailed and insightful biography of Jim Bridger, written by Stanley Vestal. Vestal is well-known for his books about America. In Jim Bridger he paints a bold and authentic picture of a doughty explorer and of the richness of the American nation when it was still young. Full of colourful anecdote and fascinating insights into the life of Jim Bridger, this text will appeal to those with an interest in this noteworthy explorer, and it would make for a wonderful addition to any personal collection. The chapters of this book include: 'Enterprising Young Man', 'Set Poles for the Mountains', 'Tall Tales', 'The Cheyennes’ Bloody Junket', 'Fort Phil Kearney', 'Red Cloud’s Defiance', 'The Cheyennes’ Warning', 'Shot in the Back', 'Arrow Butchered Out', 'Old Cabe to the Rescue', etcetera. We are republishing this volume now complete with a specially commissioned biography of the author.

Winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, the IODE Violet Downey Book Award and the IODE National Chapter Award Drawing on the real background of the Chinese role in the gold rush, the building of the railway and the settling of the west coast in the nineteenth century, noted historian and children’s author Paul Yee has created eight original stories that combine the rough-and-tumble adventure of frontier life with the rich folk traditions that these immigrants brought from China. These tales are funny, sad, romantic and earthy, but ultimately, as a collection, they reflect the gritty optimism of the Chinese who overcame prejudice and adversity to build a unique place for themselves in North America.