Mountain Men Essay

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One of the byproducts of American citizens expanding to the West was the emergence of white trappers known as Mountain Men. For years American depended on the help of Native Americans to attain furs, but all this changed when the call of manifest destiny motivated people to seek a new life out West. Though the West were not as urbanized as back East and required pioneers to gain outdoor survival skills. Mountain Men could live off the land as well as Native Americans and explored areas no one else would dare go. There adventures and talents become the stuff of legends during their time and make their way of life idolized by others (Boyer et al, 2011). Written accounts describing Mountain Men ranged from idolatrizing their choice of life style …show more content…

The experience of being a Mountain Men was very isolating and required living away from civilization. Though a majority of Mountain Men hoped fur trading could lead to better opportunities and would quickly leave their dangerous career for civilization. The Mountain Men worked along with companies to make a profit because to them trapping was a job to them despite many framed the activity as just a game. Though there were Mountain Men who did work for themselves many chose to work under the management of others. Also the men who chose trapping as a profession knew about the reputation that came with being a Mountain Men. Since there were people at the time interested in stories about Mountain Men many of them were able to sell their stories. When the trapping field was not profitable anymore many Mountain Men left to trapping to pursue different occupations. Proving that being a Mountain Men had nothing to do with enjoying the freedom of nature or wanting to be in charge (Goetzmann, 1963). People expectants of what it means to be a Mountain Men might be the romantic notion most associate with living among nature. Neither are the Mountain Men the savages other try to make them out to be. They were men looking for economic opportunities and willing to do some hard work to achieve a chance of upping their status in society. Mountain Men did not care whether or not they had to work for a company because they saw trapping as a being a part of a

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