Here's this week's installment:

In the spring of 1834, twenty year old Osborne Russel joined a trapping expedition led by Nathaniel Wyeth.
The party departed Independence, MO on the 4th of April 1834 and arrived at the annual rendezvous spot, on
the banks of Ham’s Fork of the Green river on June 20th. What did this expedition look like? How did a party
of trappers headed to the mountains for a beaver hunt appear? Wyeth’s expedition left Independence in the
words of Russell, “we were all equipped and mounted hunter like: about forty men leading two loaded horses
each were marched out in double file with joyous hearts.” Later in his journal, Russell describes a company
trapper’s equipment as: “one animal upon which is placed one or two epishomores [padded blankets] a riding
saddle and bridle, a sack containing six beaver traps, a blanket with an extra pair of moccasins, his powder horn
and bullet pouch with a belt to which is attached a butcher knife, a small wooden box containing bait for beaver,
a tobacco sack with a pipe and implements for making fire with, sometimes a hatchet fastened to the pommel of
this saddle his personal dress is a flannel or cotton shirt, a pair of leather breeches with blanket or smoked
buffalo skin leggings, a coat made of blanket or buffalo robe, a hat or cap of wool, buffalo or otter skin, his hose [socks]
are pieces of blanket lapped around his feet which are covered with a pair of moccasins made of dressed deer
elk or buffalo skins, with his long hair falling loosely over his shoulders completes his uniform. He then mounts
and places his rifle before him on his saddle.” We can envision a party of men, leading spare horses loaded
with the mere essentials for survival heading into the mountains after the festivities of rendezvous. Hunters,
trappers, and camp helpers all made up the trapping parties of the fur trade companies. Russell’s journal is a
great source of firsthand information on a company trapper’s life during the last half and after the beaver boom
years.

Thanks...I enjoy the weekly history lesson.

The firsthand accounts by the actors themselves are so few that the Osborne journal is a treasure trove of information for us modern day mountain man aficionados. Osborne was certainly not given to braggadocio and exploit amplification like many of his cohorts. In the early going of the journal he admits to being unskilled at the use of a rifle.... failing to down a buffalo at 80 yards after shooting his whole pouch of 25 balls! His careful, deliberate accounts in the journal of his travels and decade in the mountains provide us with a very factual picture of what life was like for the mountain men of the period.

Keep them coming, all very interesting. thank you for sharing.

I always prefer reading firsthand accounts (primary documentation) over anything written later. But yes, the mountain men sure could spin a yarn.

Osborne retelling the tale of missing the buffalo was almost unbelievable. He can be a touch dry to read, but if you want an honest picture of their life, he paints it pretty well.

I agree with you k snow, I really appreciate firsthand accounts. I've enjoyed and gotten a lot out of accounts by Gabriel Franchere "Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America", Alexander Ross' "Fur hunters of the Far West" and various journals including Harrison Rogers' who was a member of Jedediah Smith's ill-fated brigade to Oregon.

I also especially enjoyed Frances Fuller Victor's interviews with Joe Meek in her book: "The River of the West". She was a historian with keen interviewing talent. Without her seeking out "Colonel" Joe in his twilight years we wouldn't have that wealth of mountain man lore.

Good stuff. Osborne was diligent in keeping a daily journal which was rare at that time. Lots of info about the day to day workings of a trapping and trading expedition. Only thing I have against him was that he was a company man rather than a free trapper and the way they followed the free trappers to the good beaver grounds was kinda cheap. The book Journal of a Trapper is required reading for anyone interested in the mountain men.

Think I'll read it again come to think of it, I haven't cracked it open for 25 years.

Keep the good stuff coming!

He started out a company man as did most young men that entered the trade. Later on he actually did become a Free Trapper.

thanks good read,

Thanks for this thread, I remember being at a Sandhills Wisconsin Trapper Training event about 1990. Free trappers rode in on horseback at the evening campfire, very cool.

The fur companies practiced a lot of cut throat policies in the day. Small scale warfare even broke out in some cases. It was the epitome of a free market system, and fairly self regulating. Yep, it boiled over once in a while, but things got calmed down. No one made money from conflict.

I am glad everyone appreciates these tidbits of history.

The 80's and early 90's were the height of the buckskinning period. I try to bring a little of that to trapping events by wearing my skins, and setting up camp when invited to do so.

Thanks

Really appreciate what you're doing with the MM Monday k snow. Got something to look forward to on Mondays now.

I'll do my best to keep it up. Next week is gun deer season here in WI, I'll still try to get one out.

Well, making meat was just as important...(probably more) than stacking up beaver back in the day. Good luck!