Originally published 1970 without index.

To know how the West was really won, start with the exploits of these unsung mountain men who, like the legendary Jeremiah Johnson, were real buckskin survivalists. Preceded only by Lewis and Clark, beaver fur trappers roamed the river valleys and mountain ranges of the West, living on fish and game, fighting or trading with the Native Americans, and forever heading toward the untamed wilderness. In this story of rough, heroic men and their worlds, Laycock weaves historical facts and practical instruction with profiles of individual trappers, including harrowing escapes, feats of supreme courage and endurance, and sometimes violent encounters with grizzly bears and Native Americans.

The legendary mountain men—the fur traders and trappers who penetrated the Rocky Mountains and explored the Far West in the first half on the nineteenth century—formed the vanguard of the American empire and became the heroes of American adventure. This volume brings to the general reader brief biographies of eighteen representative mountain men, selected from among the essay assembled by LeRoy R. Hafen in The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West (ten volumes, 1965-72). The subjects and authors are: Manuel Lisa (Richard E. Oglesby); Pierre Chouteau Jr. (Janet Lecompte); Wilson Price Hunt (William Brandon); William H. Ashley (Harvey L. Carter); Jedediah Smith (Harvey L. Carter); John McLoughlin (Kenneth L. Holmes); Peter Skene Ogden (Ted J. Warner); Ceran St. Vrain (Harold H. Dunham); Kit Carson (Harvey L. Carter); Old Bill Williams (Frederic E. Voelker); William Sublette (John E. Sunder);Thomas Fitzpatrick (LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen); James Bridger (Cornelius M. Ismert); Benjamin L. E. Bonneville (Edgeley W. Todd); Joseph R. Walker (Ardis M. Walker); Nathaniel Wyeth (William R. Sampson); Andrew Drips (Harvey L. Carter); and Joseph L. Meek (Harvey E. Tobie).

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

The first in a trilogy set in the untamed colonial American wilderness, from “a keen observer of the human heart as well as a fine action writer” (Publishers Weekly). Joshua Colter was born of the wild frontier. As a young boy living with his family on the edges of civilization during the French and Indian War, he witnessed firsthand the bloodshed and brutality men were capable of—from the deception and depredations of whites like his own vile father to the merciless vengeance of the native tribes. Forced by cruel fate to set out on his own, he was adopted by an honorable hunter who taught him to fight and survive while remaining true to his own heart. But as much as the solitary Joshua loves living rough and free in the forests and mountains, the troubles of the civilized world are encroaching, as the once-pristine wilderness is being carved up between the all-powerful British crown, settlers searching for a land to call their own, and the native Indians who desperately defy them both to protect their ancestral home. Now, in a burgeoning land of hope and hardship, Joshua will have to decide what he is willing to fight and die for as the birth of a new nation breaks on the horizon.

Tall, dark and muscled like a god, Beau Barnett is great with an axe. Every woman in Rockhead Point wants a taste of the mountain man. Including me. Except he doesn't even know my name. I'm just the girl behind the counter filling his coffee, while he grunts and grumbles, barely making eye contact. Then a newcomer with a charming smile and a fancy suit shows up in Rockhead Point, and refuses to take no for an answer when he asks me to dinner. That's when I find out Mr. Mountain Man not only knows my name... he thinks I'm his property.