Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men: A Guide to the Equipment of the Trappers and Fur Traders Who Opened the Old West

by Carl P. Russell

Overview

This classic, scholarly history of the fur trappers and traders of the early nineteenth century focuses on the devices that enabled the opening of the untracked American west. Sprinkled with interesting facts and old western lore, this guide to traps and tools is also a lively history. The era of the mountain man is distinct in American history, and Russell’s exhaustive coverage on the guns, traps, knives, axes, and other iron tools of this era, along with meticulous appendices, is astonishing. The result of thirty-five years of painstaking research, this is the definitive guide to the tools of the mountain men.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602399693
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	05/26/2010
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	805,844
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Carl P. Russell (1894–1967) was a conservationist with a PhD from the University of Michigan and was the author of a number of books including One Hundred Years in Yosemite and Guns on the Early Frontiers. He was superintendent of Yosemite National Park from 1947 to 1952.

Table of Contents

I The Mountain Men in American History 3

II Firearms of the Beaver Hunters 34

III Beaver Traps and Trapping 97

IV Knives of the Frontiersmen 164

V The Ax on America's Frontiers 232

VI Miscellaneous Iron Tools That Went into the West 312

VII Irons in the Fire 357

Appendix A Historic Objects as Sources of History 387

Appendix B John Jacob Astor's Inventory of Tools and Blacksmithing Equipment on the Columbia River, 1812-1813 402

Appendix C Markings on Axes and Tomahawks 408

Appendix D Representative Fur Returns, American Fur Company, Indiana, 1839-1841 425

Bibliography 427

Index 448