Mountain Man Dismounting

A miner was an explorer who lived in the wilderness. They were instrumental in the development of the various Emigrant Trails (which were expanded into wagon roads) that enabled Americans in the East to settle the new territories in the far West by organized wagon trains traveling over roads explored and inhabited by the mountain men in many cases physically improved The large fur companies originally served the domestic fur trade with mule trains.
Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 to the 1880s (with a population peak in the early 1840s). About 3,000 mountain men lived in the mountains between 1820 and 1840, the height of the beaver harvest season. While there were many free trappers, most mountain men were employed by large fur companies. The life of a company man was almost militarized. The men formed groups, hunted and set traps in brigades and always reported to the leader of the trapping group.
This man was called “Boosway,” a variation of the French term “bourgeois.” He was the leader of the brigade and the main dealer.

Representing the Beaver Skins of the original WSP title, The Mountain Men is the smallest installment in the series as it focuses primarily on the individual men and characters who worked alone or in pairs in the mountain wilderness.