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Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (pb)
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Description
An excellent guide for mountain-man enthusiasts and an intriguing exploration of the West, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous focuses on the fur-trading rendezvous that took place from 1825-1840 in the Central Rocky Mountains. Originally commercial gatherings where furs were traded for necessities such as traps, guns, horses, and other supplies, they evolved into rich social events that were pivotal in shaping the early American West.Carefully crafted and compiled from primary sources, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous includes fascinating text by Gowans accompanied by firsthand accounts of 16 rendezvous from scientists, artists, military personnel, government explorers, and missionaries. Their diaries, journals, narratives, and books, along with Gowan’s careful research, are illustrated with photographs and drawings. Maps pinpoint the location of each rendezvous, and photos depict the site today.
An excellent guide for mountain-man enthusiasts and an intriguing exploration of the West, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous focuses on the fur-trading rendezvous that took place from 1825-1840 in the Central Rocky Mountains. Originally commercial gatherings where furs were traded for necessities such as traps, guns, horses, and other supplies, they evolved into rich social events that were pivotal in shaping the early American West.
Dr. Fred Gowans is a former professor at Brigham Young University who continues to lecture on the West and its unique history. His books include Mountain Man & Grizzly and Fort Bridger: Island in the Wilderness. He lives in Wyoming.
Preface
The mountain man is one of the most recognizable symbols of the young American West. He represents the dream that people can seek out their destiny through hard work, a little luck, and an abundance of natural resources. We nostalgically look to him to find what many of us seek in our increasingly frenzied world: scenic beauty, individualism, adventure, and freedom. One hundred and fifty years after the heyday of the rendezvous, the landscape of the American West still holds glimpses of the enterprising soul of the mountain man.
Remote, fraternal rendezvous, which brought together the converging lifestyles of trappers, Indians, and eastern merchants, were opportunities for tall tales, bartering in many creative forms, and even skirmishes between different peoples and cultures. Indeed, the gatherings helped shape frontier free trade, Indian relations, and migratory patterns in nineteenth-century America.
Modern literature has presented the mountain man rendezvous in two stereotypical ways: on one hand, as a gathering of men seeking the freedom and riches of the wilderness, and, on the other, as a group of social Neanderthals lacking even the most basic social graces. Each stereotype has its basis in reality. However, the complexities of the rendezvous can best be analyzed through participants” own accounts. An invaluable anthology of primary sources, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous provides a chronology of frontier gatherings through the original writings of men who experienced them.
Though the American West is no longer untraveled or unmapped, the rendezvous symbolism of boundless resources, the adventure of open spaces, the entrepreneurial spirit of the mountain man, and the cry of “Westward Ho” still echo through the American psyche in the twenty-first century.
Doug Erickson
Head of Special Collections
Aubrey R.Watzek Library
Lewis & Clark College
The mountain man is one of the most recognizable symbols of the young American West. He represents the dream that people can seek out their destiny through hard work, a little luck, and an abundance of natural resources. We nostalgically look to him to find what many of us seek in our increasingly frenzied world: scenic beauty, individualism, adventure, and freedom. One hundred and fifty years after the heyday of the rendezvous, the landscape of the American West still holds glimpses of the enterprising soul of the mountain man.
Remote, fraternal rendezvous, which brought together the converging lifestyles of trappers, Indians, and eastern merchants, were opportunities for tall tales, bartering in many creative forms, and even skirmishes between different peoples and cultures. Indeed, the gatherings helped shape frontier free trade, Indian relations, and migratory patterns in nineteenth-century America.
Modern literature has presented the mountain man rendezvous in two stereotypical ways: on one hand, as a gathering of men seeking the freedom and riches of the wilderness, and, on the other, as a group of social Neanderthals lacking even the most basic social graces. Each stereotype has its basis in reality. However, the complexities of the rendezvous can best be analyzed through participants” own accounts. An invaluable anthology of primary sources, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous provides a chronology of frontier gatherings through the original writings of men who experienced them.
Though the American West is no longer untraveled or unmapped, the rendezvous symbolism of boundless resources, the adventure of open spaces, the entrepreneurial spirit of the mountain man, and the cry of “Westward Ho” still echo through the American psyche in the twenty-first century.
Doug Erickson
Head of Special Collections
Aubrey R.Watzek Library
Lewis & Clark College
Additional information
| Weight | 1 oz |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 1 × 6 × 9 in |