Journal Of A Trapper Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains 18341843 Osborne Russell 9781545359990 Books
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Osborne Russell's thrilling lifetime involved trapping and wilderness exploration, and makes for a adventurous, eventful and highly readable autobiography.
In the nineteenth century, the USA's wilderness was enormous and largely uncharted by the white European settlers who had, until the nineteenth century, been largely confined to the easterly coasts of North America. The discovery of the Rocky Mountains - a remote and rugged landscape unfamiliar to all but the local Native American tribes - sparked a new phase of exploration.
Among the first people to learn the lay of these vast lands were fur trappers and traders. Hearing tell of great forests and craggy lands, heavily populated by beasts whose pelts would fetch a great price, trappers such as Osborne Russell ventured to these places in search of adventure and fortune exotic, high quality fur pelts in those days fetched a handsome price at market.
Russell's accounts take place between 1834 and 1843, beginning in the town of Independence, Missouri. Prefacing his journey with a warning that his recollections are not of a gentile or 'classical' nature, Russell offers a sequential series of episodes adapted from notes and diaries he kept over the years. Although he modestly downplays his recollections as 'rambles', Russell's narrative is often exciting; skirmishes with hostile Native Americans, and tense moments finding and catching creatures, make for riveting reading.
As well as its valuable insight into the fur trapping trade, Journal of a Trapper also contains some historical insights into the era. Particularly we see how the incipient white settlers and the Native Americans interacted; often they would come to blows not from a desire of combat, but a lack of communication and poor understanding between the contrasting cultures.
In all, this book remains a valuable and worthwhile account of a bygone age.
Journal Of A Trapper Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains 18341843 Osborne Russell 9781545359990 Books
Even for me who thrives on these early American tales this is tough to get through. It plods along in a monotone way. The author does warn in the beginning that if you are looking for an adventure novel this is just his "diary" of sorts and isn't that exciting, more of a testimonial. I love the authors matter-of-fact way of describing what's going on around him whether it's and Indian attack or the man from Pennsylvania getting swept down the swollen river and drowning. These people were TOUGH and had to be to cut it back then. For $1 it's worth it.Product details
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Journal Of A Trapper Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains 18341843 Osborne Russell 9781545359990 Books Reviews
I really enjoyed reading about the life of this man as a trapper less than two hundred years ago. It amazed me to consider the amounts of distance that he traveled through the Rockies only on foot or horse back with out benefits of roads or even established trails. I wish that maps would have been provided to better follow his travels.
I thought I would be reading about the trials and escapades of a mountain man.. but what I got was a travel log of all the rivers and streams in the "west". I know to go west or north or south or east to find this stream or river or meadow but I still don't know much about the life of a mountain man. This was supposedly written by an uneducated person from Boston.. I wish I could write as well as this uneducated Bostonian "did".......
Osborne Russell was a New England born man who left to find his destiny in the Rocky Mountains in the 1830s and 1940s. He spent 9 years living with friendly Indians, trapping, riding, fighting hostile Indians, working for various fur companies, and keeping a daily diary.
This book is his (basically) unedited diary, and it's a treasure. It's hard to read because it's basically a hundred-page long paragraph without much punctuation. It tells of temperatures, and distances, and describes the wonders of Yellowstone. It talks of hunting and cooking, huge herds of buffalo, suffering in winter, the Rendezvous the Mountain Men are famous for, and his fellow mountain men. Punctuation aside, it's one of the most authentic accounts of the trapper days I've ever read.
Most useful are the footnotes in the back of the book, which the editor added to help explain places and people Russell refers to. There are also many maps and reproductions of paintings by Charles Russell (no relation to the author) and others which set the tone for the book. I also enjoyed the biography of Osborne Russell, added by the editor, which prefaced the diary part of the book.
As you read this book, you will see his attitude towards wildlife change. At first he was happy to shoot multiple buffalo and only take choice parts. Towards the end he writes about the way the Indians kill only what they can use, and that perhaps white men should move on before all the wildlife is gone.
When Russell decided to leave the mountains, he wrote a beautiful poem (included in this book) which portrays a gentle, romantic side of the man that wasn't apparent in the rough and tumble of his diary. And the inclusion of some personal letters he wrote to family back East round out the whole picture of his personality.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading about the Old West, the Mountain Men, or historical diaries.
Fun and interesting read. It is fairly easy to following the wording and easier to read than I expected as it is a diary format. I read it on a and it would have helped to have had an easier way to reference a map. Nonetheless, as an outdoorsman, I appreciated the diary and the descriptions of his travel and camping. I have my doubts as to how accurate it is - he seems to have covered many miles in in short times - but it is worth the read.
Osborne Russell was the real article a respondent to Ashley's famous advertisement "to enterprising young men", Russell was one of the few who both survived and wrote about the experience. His life as a trapper was an enviable one, for he both survived and thrived in his nine years in the mountains, and those experiences stood him in good stead for the remainder of his life as a frontiersman in Oregon and California. However, his writings consist primarily of an uninspired travelogue spend two weeks trapping on this creek, then three weeks on this other creek, then crossed the divide and descended this river to that fort, then spent two weeks trapping that river, etc. There are a few good yarns mixed in and he met many famous people, but you'll find more yarns, better told, and more insights, and better biography, in other books. If you've read a dozen good books about the mountain men, then you should add Russell to your list, but first you should read A Majority of Scoundrels An Informal History of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, which is fantastic, and also Across the Wide Missouri, equally so, even though they were both written by modern authors. If you want an eyewitness account, then your first stop should be Tough Trip Through Paradise, 1878-1879, one of the best books about a mountain man's life by anybody, from anywhen. You'll also want to check out Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West Eighteen Biographical Sketches to get some more background on some of these characters, and after that, you'll probably want to read more about the likes of Jed Smith, Jim Bridger, John Coulter and Hugh Glass (who came closer than any other man to getting et by a grizzly without actually dying) before you turn to the relatively humdrum life of Osborne Russell. So, to sum it up, I'd trade moccasins with Osborne any day, but there are better tales in store from other mountain men.
There is a lot of text about going up a canyon, turning Southeast, continuing to the North, passing through a mile-wide valley, etc, etc. But the stories in between are just incredible! And to hear it in the words of the person who experienced it more than 150 years ago! I live in the same part of the country where this took place and it really makes me want to get out in the wilderness more.
Even for me who thrives on these early American tales this is tough to get through. It plods along in a monotone way. The author does warn in the beginning that if you are looking for an adventure novel this is just his "diary" of sorts and isn't that exciting, more of a testimonial. I love the authors matter-of-fact way of describing what's going on around him whether it's and Indian attack or the man from Pennsylvania getting swept down the swollen river and drowning. These people were TOUGH and had to be to cut it back then. For $1 it's worth it.
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