Books about the Fur Trade

[FishDFly]

I use Half Price Books to locate books. where else can you find used books to save some money?

New books, Barnes and Noble can get expensive.

 

[Belleville]

Book - Michigan Fur Trade free https://ia802605.us.archive.org/19/items/michiganfurtrade00johnuoft/michiganfurtrade00johnuoft.pdf

 

[DuncNZ]

For someone who lives about 9000 miles from the area of , and over 200 years after , the Rocky Mountain fur trade I have a lot of books on the subject .
I guess this all started with books by Edward S Ellis ,Ned in the Woods , The Ranger , Lost in the Forrest etc , Then The Last Of the Mohicans etc , then The Long Rifle By S E White , The Northwest Passage and so many more .
I have had an interest in Muzzleloaders since I was 4 , Then when I was 12 I got my first Cf rifle , an 1861 Tower snider . I was hooked on black powder firearms from an early age as they were the firearms used by adventurers ,woodsmen, explorers and real hunters .
I always research anything I am interested in , so I started buying books on the real people and firearms involved in this era . I discovered that books like "The Long Rifle " were historically incorrect , although vastly entertaining .25 years ago I found the Terry C Johnston series of books on Titus Bass and his adventures in the RMFT and thoroughly enjoyed them , reading them start to finish 2 times so far . Johnston was hard on his heroes and real mean to them . Although these tales are not true , they are all , however vaguely ,based on events that probably happened to a greater or lesser extent , they add to the overall enjoyment of being part of the Muzzle loading Fraternity .

 

[cornstalk]

Okay here it is. The book that got me started in this back in '76- Give Your Heart To The Hawks. As of '73 when it was published it was historically accurate, which means it's still really close today. In my opinion it is the easiest read and by far the most enjoyable and that's because the author, while maintaining historical accuracy, writes it like a novel- adding what he believed the Mountain Men saw and what they felt. For someone who is wondering if being a Mountain Man is for them, this is the book they should read. I love it. Highly recommended.

 

[cornstalk]

I agree with you about Hafen’s volumes. I started reading them 35 yrs ago but kids, work, and life interrupted. Retirement is just around the corner and I’ll release any moths residing within then.

Got my volumes, thanks for letting me know about them. Mine were published in 1968 and come with the original brown paper jackets with the volume title on the spine in pencil. I guess for a collector that is special? For me it tells me maybe they were never even read? Any way looking forward to reading them eventually.

 

[Elkpurgatoire]

Got my volumes, thanks for letting me know about them. Mine were published in 1968 and come with the original brown paper jackets with the volume title on the spine in pencil. I guess for a collector that is special? For me it tells me maybe they were never even read? Any way looking forward to reading them eventually.

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Excellent! Congratulations and enjoy your time reading! Keep those covers on the books; in a weak moment I removed them about 15 years ago so I could at least read the spines and show what was on the shelf. The covers reminded me of having to cover our schoolbooks when they were checked out to us at the beginning of the school year. The jackets simply had a Roman numeral neatly hand-lettered near the top of the cover but one had no idea what the title of the book was.
Mine have copyrights from 1965 and ending with Volume 9 in 1972 with a 10th book containing bibliography.
I just opened Vol 1 again after all these years and started reading. Here we go on an adventure.....

 

[cornstalk]

Thanks. I just looked and mine do cover a bunch of copyright dates, probably the same as yours. Same lettering with mine at the same location as yours. Imagine someone actually having to do that by hand for all these. I'd forgotten about all the jackets we made from grocery bags for our school books, wow. Putting artwork all over them. I envy your memory.

 

[Oubaas]

Thanks for this thread. We're not much for TV, so my wife and I both read a lot.

I recently finished, "Jim Bridger, Trailblazer of the American West" by Jerry Enzler and, "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West" by Stephen E. Ambrose. They're both worth a read.

I'm always looking for something good to read, so this is a nice thread for me.

 

[DuncNZ]

Lewis and Clark among the Indians , by James P Ronda is also a good read .

Blood and Thunder . the epic story of Kit Carson and the conquest of the American west . By Hampton Sides . A great book .

Comanches .The History of a People , By T.R. Fehrenbach ISBN 1-8441-3755-4 . Although this isn't about the RMFT it is one of the most interesting books on American Indians and their part in US history , especially for Texans , that I have read . It is one of the favorites in my collection .

 

[tenngun]

Give your heart to the hawks was mentioned, great book. We’ve learned a bit since then, but it’s still a great read, more correct then not.
It is a narrative and not a history.
Saga of Hugh Glass falls in the same category, and Jedidiah Smith and the opening of the west.
While not hard histories I think that gives you a feeling for the events

 

[cornstalk]

I'm nearing completion reading "The COMPANY The rise and fall of the Hudson's Bay Empire". I'll give this one two thumbs up even though it has a hint of WOKE nonsense weaving through it. Not enough to be offensive, although twice it approaches that, but only for a paragraph each time. Fascinating to learn about the beginnings of HBC, and then especially about the North West Company and the war between them both. One gets a much to greater understanding of the American Mountain Man and the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade by studying the fur trade to the north, as well as the fur trade to the south and west. After all they were all intertwined with each other in numerous ways.

 

[William Sublette]

I'm nearing completion reading "The COMPANY The rise and fall of the Hudson's Bay Empire". I'll give this one two thumbs up even though it has a hint of WOKE nonsense weaving through it. Not enough to be offensive, although twice it approaches that, but only for a paragraph each time. Fascinating to learn about the beginnings of HBC, and then especially about the North West Company and the war between them both. One gets a much to greater understanding of the American Mountain Man and the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade by studying the fur trade to the north, as well as the fur trade to the south and west. After all they were all intertwined with each other in numerous ways.

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You would enjoy Mari Sandoz' " Beaver Men"


It ties everything together from the 1500's forward.

 

[cornstalk]

The Snake Country EXPEDITION of 1830-1831 John Work's Field Journal. Another excellent book. In fact now one of my top ten.

John Work was a brigade leader for the Hudson's Bay Company. He wrote journals with daily entries as to his experiences. I've managed to locate copies of three of the fifteen known to exist. In this one Governor George Simpson has tasked John Work with trapping out the beaver in the Snake Country (Idaho). Work has 41 trappers with him and based on a lot of their names (French) I'm thinking a lot were former North West Company trappers, plus their families. Others included indians, half-breeds, and a couple of Americans. This journal is a day to day record of this expedition. Weather, conditions, directions taken, distances traveled, wildlife encountered, indians encountered, beavers trapped and traded for, animals hunted, etc. Really gives a good accounting of exactly what the mountain men did day by day. A few gold nuggets include: the expedition had 150 beaver traps between 41 trappers, there was at least one double gun in the group. Definitely recommend it.

 

[Wawyasto]

This one's a good start, published by the Museum of the Fur Trade it covers from the 1500's to the 20th century across the entire continent. I'm reading it between reads on the Potawatomi post removal, the Santa Fe and Oregon trails.

 

[fred fellows]

love this forum and the guys in it...one book nobody has mentioned yet is a sleeper...ANGUS McDONALD OF THE GREAT DIVIDE BY STEVE A ANDERSON...THE UNCOMMON LIFE OF A FUR TRADER 1816 TO 1889 worked for hbc and ran ft conah on post creek in montana...married a nez perse available on amazon for very much...ft conah most southern post of hbc and about 6 miles north of st ignasis mission on flathead reservation