Editors note: This marks the first installment of this series by Walt Mow. It will continue every Tuesday afternoon until completion.
It is estimated that there were only about 3,000 mountain men and trappers at the peak of the fur trade. Some would become legends in their own time, others would be recognized later. That some were anti-social outcasts from society only added to the myths, tall tales and downright prevarications that are part and parcel of “The Mountain Men”.
Here are a few of these intrepid souls, some of their adventures and their contributions to the knowledge of what was an unexplored wilderness.
George Drouillard, born in 1773 in present day Windsor, Ontario Canada, of mixed blood. Educated to read and write, he also acquired the native skills of his Shawnee mother’s people. With an ear for languages and skilled in the sign language of the tribes plus a native knack for Cartography, at age 28 he was hired to accompany the Corps of Discovery on its historic expedition. After completion of the expedition, he would accompany Manuel Lisa into the upper Missouri River in 1807. His failure to return from an 1810 trapping trip in the Three Forks region prompted a search. The party would find his beheaded remains scattered about in a ceremonial manner. The scene indicated Drouillard had killed several of his Indian attackers before being overcome by superior numbers at approximate age 37.
See Related: George Washington
John Colter was born in 1774 according to his family and moved to present day Kentucky in 1780. Here he would acquire the skills of the frontier and may have served as a ranger under Simon Kenton. Meriwether Lewis would hire Colter October 15, 1803 to accompany the Corps of Discovery to the west coast. Trusted and allowed great leeway, Colter more than delivered when asked to attend any task. On the return journey, Colter requested an early release from the Corps in order to accompany two trappers back to the upper Missouri. The party would dissolve and Colter would travel alone through much of what are now Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons area of present day Wyoming. In 1808 he would join up with John Potts in a trading operation dealing with tribes in the area. Colter would be wounded in an altercation with members of the Blackfeet. The following year, he and Potts were again in Blackfeet country when they were again accosted by warriors of the Blackfeet tribe. Potts would be killed and his body dismembered while Colter already stripped naked was advised to run. It would be a run for his very life. Hiding in a beaver lodge, he would escape from his pursuers. He then walked 11 days to a trading post on the Little Big Horn. He abandoned the wilderness and returned to St. Louis, it is unclear just when he died with one source placing the date as May 7, 1812 and another dating it November 22, 1813 making him 38 or 39 at the time of his death.