The West Old & New Vol. III Issue III March 2014 | Page 8

American system. The last rendezvous was held in 1840. During the
same years, fashion in Europe shifted away from the formerly popular
beaver hats; at the same time, the animal had become over hunted. After achieving an American monopoly by 1830, Astor got out of the fur
business before its decline.
By 1841 the American Fur Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur
Company were in ruins. By 1846 only some 50 American trappers still
worked in the Snake River country, compared to 500-600 in 1826.
Soon after the strategic victory by the HBC, the Snake River route was
used for emigrants as the Oregon Trail, which brought a new form of
competition. Former trappers earned money as guides or hunters for the
emigrant parties.
A second fur trading and supply center grew up in Taos in what is
today New Mexico. This trade attracted numerous French Americans
from Louisiana and some French Canadian trappers, in addition to Anglo-Americans. Some New Mexican residents also pursued the beaver
trade, as Mexican citizens initially had some legal advantages. Trappers
and traders in the Southwest covered territory that was generally inaccessible to the large fur companies. It included parts of New Mexico,
Nevada, California and central and southern Utah. After the decline in
beaver and the fur trade, with some emigrants to the West using the
Mormon Trail, former trappers found work as guides and hunters for
the traveling parties.
After the short-lived American Pacific Fur Company was sold, the
British controlled the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, under first the
North West Company and then the Hudson's Bay Company. To prevent
American fur traders from competing, the British companies adopted a
policy of destroying fur resources west of the Rocky Mountains, especially in the upper Snake River country. After the Hudson's Bay Company took over operations in the Pacific Northwest in 1821, the Snake
River country was rapidly trapped out.
This halted American expansion into the region. After 1825 few American trappers worked west of the Rocky Mountains, and
those who did generally found it unprofitable. According to historian Richard Mackie, this policy of the Hudson's Bay Company
forced American trappers to remain in the Rocky Mountains, which gave rise to the term "mountain men".
The stereotypical mountain man has been depicted as dressed in buckskin and a coonskin cap, sporting bushy facial hair and
carrying a Hawken rifle and Bowie knife, commonly referred to as a "scalpin' knife." They have been romanticized as honorable
men with their own chivalrous code, loners who would help those in need but who had found their home in the wild.
Their typical dress combined woolen hats and cloaks with serviceable Indian-style leather breeches and shirts. Mountain men
often wore moccasins, but generally carried a pair of heavy boots for rough terrain. Each mountain man also carried basic gear,
which could include arms, powder horns and a shot pouch, knives and hatchets, canteens, cooking utensils, and supplies of tobacco, coffee, salt, and pemmican. Items (other than shooting supplies) that needed to be "at hand" were carried in a "possibles"
bag. Horses or mules were essential, in sufficient number for a riding horse for each man and at least one for carrying supplies and
furs.
In the summer, mountain men searched for fur animals, but they waited until autumn to set their trap lines. They sometimes
worked in groups. Several men would trap, others would hunt for g