Thanks again k snow for your interesting and informative articles Regarding the references to the black hills by the mountain men it is my understanding that they aren’t referring to what we now call the Black Hills but rather the mountains/ hills south of the North Platte river kind of from roughly the Douglas to Casper Wy. area what are your thoughts on this?

What did trappers do in the mountains in mid-summer? Did the trap most of the year?

Thank you I am not sure when Townsend wrote his account but having left Independence and presumably followed the Platte out to Red Buttes it seems that it wasn’t unusual for trappers to peel off from the pack trains and trap the area I am referring to I have read references to it a few times but the only article that comes to mind right now is Philip Covington’s article in the 2020 The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal He relates how while accompanying Wm Sublettes 1827/28 supply train they wintered along the N. Platte and in the spring of 1828 after caching the rendezvous supplies Sublette had them go south into the Laramie Range/foothills to trap before they had to head for the rendezvous at Bear Lake Later in his account he tells how in the spring of 1828 while trapping beaver at the foot of the Black Hills one of the men named Gardner (Johnson Gardner?) wounds a grizzly bear.Anyhow I hope you don’t take this as criticism of your articles I very much enjoy them and am always willing to learn more

I've a candidate for you el smasho. Look up "John Day". He was a mountain man attacked by Indians in Oregon and left naked near the river that now bears his name. He eventually went nuts, tried to commit suicide and ran off into the woods where he perished. They claimed he had gone nuts from the hardships he had endured.