Mountain Man Journal

[50cal.cliff]

Just started this the other day but has turned out to really good reading. Journal of A Trapper, Osborne Russell, edited by Aubrey L Haines.
Some of the incidents I have read about have been doocumented in some other jounals of the time I have already read. Picked it up and read almost half of it in about four hours. Didn't want to put it down after I got into it. He got to talking about those White flies and the Musketoes eatin them up in a swampy area where they had camped and I didn't get it till I said it out loud to myself! :rotf: :rotf: Haines left the spelling just like Osborne had origioinally wrote it down in his journal! Really good reading so far. Amyone else read it?

 

Great read, especially after walking in his footsteps in a few places...

 

[bwhoffman]

I got a copy 2 years back...have read end to end twice,will read it at least that many more!

 

[Mike Moore]

A good standard for the fur trade.

 

Good book - and for more good books on the western fur trade get the three from Mike Moore - aka coamm - everyone should have a copy (or two :thumbsup: )

PS Mike - nice job on the Jed Smith documentary/drama (still not sure about the drama stuff...??)

PPS anyone interested in the western fur trade should have this link - http://www.mtmen.org/

 

[Desert Rat]

Russell is one of my favorites. I love his descriptions of everything. My favorite part is when he's out hunting alone goes to bed and wakes up covered in snow. His nonchalance over the whole situation is iconic mountain man stuff.

 

[boar]

I have it and read it several times, got it at Log Cabin Supply back in 80's also Crow Killer. Another good one is Captured by the Indians. Have a lot of good ones. I also read a lot of them from libary. Dilly

 

[Mike Moore]

Gray Wolf,
Thanks for the book commerical. I turned in
my fourth book this last November, so I hope to see it out sometime soon. It will continue the topical studies that the first and third had in it. And I agree with you on the recreating, but that is what you get when a Jewish woman producer from New York, who knows nothing about the early west over sees the production. Nice lady, knew her work but not history.
Also, you might be interested to know, am updating the large data base that I have on the AMM site (Names of People in the Fur Trade). I think I can add maybe 400(?) more names to the list with the dozen books I am adding to the list. That may put the number of people in the west over 3000. Am just doing the data entry right now, so look for it sometime.
How are you doing with all the snow there?
mike.

 

Howdy Mike -
IMO the re-creating can be a valuable aid, but sometimes these shows get a bit too much?? - a while back there was one on the Solutrians IIRC and they had a whole soap opera going about one guy killing another ad nauseum

Looking forward to your new book. I leant the other three out sometime ago and haven't seen them since :hmm: so I'll be proably needing all three - Oh well it's all in a good cause and I've never regretted paying for books.. :thumbsup:

BTW - can folks buy directly from you and if so where?

Snow!! - we had about 5 feet on the ground here south of Durango (we're about 5 miles north of the NM border just west of the Animas river) - we got 30" the last storm alone - hoping there's no more. Town is still digging out - they had a bit over 6" accumulated and the mountains are full - which is good since we haven't had a good winter in 12 years.
It's been melting off gradually thank the Lord - got about 34" or so left to go - of course now it's MUD season - caliche is even worse than that east Montana Gumbo! :cursing:

Ya ever get down to this part of the country give us a shout....besides me we've got a couple of ole hivernants down here although we haven't met up yet...

PS Did you ever come across any info on Ole Bill Burrows/Burroughs? The one that Miller painted and Capt Stewart mentions in his book...

 

[Mike Moore]

Gray Wolf,
Yes, anyone can get a copy from me, I have them for people at book signings, lectures and conventions. The only difference is that they come personalized.
No, not seen any more about old Bill, but am
still looking. I hope the snow does not melt too fast and early for you. It was 77 degrees here in Denver yesterday, this morning we have a couple inches of snow and is blowing a steady pace.
But, back to Russel's journal- it is a representive piece of the early west. Which is nice. A average man, who writes in a average way and tells the average adventures that could happen to anyone who came west when he did and you respect what he wrote and know it is right. Don't know about you, Gray Wolf, but so much I find now is fringe information. Tourists come west and are put up by the fur companies and the pages they write don't represent the average person's trip. Or someone came west for three months, had a great time and tells everybody about it (and writes a book, which repays him for some of the expenses he had and gives him a fair amount of unearned respect). Russel's writings are not like that. It is a story of a boy that runs away when he was about 16 for adventure and to see the "world". That world was a great, unknown, facinating place called the West. His trip while doing this starts in Maine, ends up in some very beautiful, rugged places and while he is making this trip, he takes the time to put in his journal what was happening to him. Aren't we glad he did!
mike.

 

[Rod Lassey]

Russel's book is among the best. I read it back when I was a freshman in high school, and it's the book that started me down this trail. I could say that that book has cost me untold dollars and time, but it's been worth every penny.

By the way, when Aubrey Haines died, Montana magazine (published by the Montana Historical Society) published an article on him, but failed to mention the editing of Journal of a Trapper. I took the author and mag editor to task over that ommission--they even published my letter--which I hope led more people to read this book. I think it's one of the best--as if you couldn't tell by now.

Rod

 

[50cal.cliff]

I think I found it great reading! It's even better than most journals I have read so far! I would recommend it highly. Also accurate as a couple of the incidents related I have read other accounts in other journals of the same incident. Kinda funny though the slant of the incident depends on who is tellin the story! :wink:

 

[50cal.cliff]

In the Journal Of A Trapper their are several refrences to a fusee ball. It is most allways mentioned in refrence of an attack, by the hostile Indians upon the trappers or the Indians friendly with the trappers. Such as this refrence.
"We were riding carelessly along our rifles lying carelessly before us on our saddles when we came to a deep narrow gulch made by the running water from the hills in the Spring Season when behold! the earth seemed teeming with naked Savages A quick volley of fusess a shower of balls and a cloud of smoke clearly bespoke their nation tribe manners and customs and mode of warfare:"
OK so what is meant by a fusee ball? Are we talking about a ball fired from a Matchlock? This refrence states "mode of warfare", that's what really got to thinking what was meant by this word(s) Fusee Ball?

 

A fusee, fuzee, fuzil, fuke, et al are the common names for smoothbore trade guns - at that time most were Hudson Bay aka Northwest aka Mackinaw guns - most came in .58 caliber (which is 24 gauge).

 

[aragornelessar86]

Bought this a while back and never got around to reading it. I'll have to dig it back up.

 

[50cal.cliff]

Thanks for the info Gray Wolf! :thumbsup: There is also a refrence in the book of "a Delaware being shot by a poisioned ball which lodged up under the knee cap he lived four days and expired". Do you have any info on what they meant by "poisioned ball"?
To AE86 if you got it and haven't read it you need to, it's very informative. I have really been enjoying it. It is wrote as one mans view of daily life in the wilds and alot of it has been left entirely how he would have wrote it, in as many words are spelled like they might sound but not as they are actually spelled such as the "Musk et oes", had to laugh when I said it out loud to myself! One of the best reads I have picked up in along time.

 

[Heidi 1672]

What are the titles of your books and how can they be purchased? Thanks!

 

[Mike Moore]

The three I have out are:
Heroes to Me
Rocky Mountain Album
Life in the Early West
They can be found at alot of fur trade museums and historical parks in the intermountain region, or by contacting me off line. Bent's Fort, Fort Laramie, Museum of the Mountain Man, different books stores in Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas have them.
mike.

 

[laufer]

...
PPS anyone interested in the western fur trade should have this link - http://www.mtmen.org/[/quote]

thank you very much for the link, made my day!! :thumbsup:

 

[50cal.cliff]

The books I have got are Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West, by Harvey L Carter, Journal of a Trapper edited by Aubery L Haines. That one is the actual journal of OSborne Russell, it is extremely good. Rocky Moutain Rendevous, by Fred R. Gowans.
I have one more that I haven't found time to read yet it is,John Colter, his years in the rockies by David Lavender. I got all these through Amazon.com. There is a link on this site that will kick back some of the proceeds to the forum.