The Mountain Men movie

[Buck Conner]

I had the pleasure of attending the premier showing of that movie in 1980. Charlton Heston, his son Fraser and his wife, and Victoria Racimo (who played the female lead), all spent three days at the 1980 NMLRA/NAPR Joint Rendezvous in La Veta, Colorado. Many of the non- speaking parts in the movie, including most of the people in the rendezvous scenes, were not professional actors but buckskinners who had been invited to participate as unpaid "extras" and Columbia Pictures provided the food and beverages while that part of the filming took place. Showing the movie to buckskinners first was part of the deal.

I was one of the non- speaking parts guys in this movie, got good pay, feed well and lodged - can't beat that. After the movie I took Fraser Heston and several of the stunt men on a buffalo hunt to Leoa Kansas. May have been Fraser first time to shoot something live from the way he acted after getting his animal?

The funny part was the film crew had rented a generator to run the projector, they got tipi poles and bed sheets and made a large screen. They get all setup, the movie starts and we see the credits, then the wind comes up and tears down the screen. Charlton gets up, raises his arms to the heavens (like in the 10 Commandments) "How soon they forget" in a loud, deep voice, the place goes crazy.

By the way, the ranch was owned by John Denver at that time.

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[Buck Conner]

I know I still have the movie on video tape.
More beaver than stars in the sky, all saying "take me, Bill Tyler, take me!

We had a close friend dying of cancer in a VA hospital. Another friend called him and repeated the line from this movie "More beaver than stars in the sky, all saying "take me, take me". Kermit got a kick out of the remark. I was told what he had been told with the remark from this movie.

I called our friend in the hospital, got him on the phone with his doctors in the room, he's on the speaker phone. I told Kermit that what he had been told "More beaver than stars in the sky, all saying "take me, take me" wouldn't be allowed up there (Heaven). They don't allow human and animal relationships.

All I could hear was folks laughing, doctors, nurses and Kermit. He passed a day later, hopefully with a smile on his face.

 

[Tanglefoot]

RanchRoper: When you see mountain men wading the streams in winter, that's a stretch. Most of the beaver trapping was done in Spring and Fall. Still is, although the water's mighty cold even then. That's one of the reasons most of the trappers who survived to old age had "the ague" in their knees and ankles .... probably arthritis or rheumatism.
"... where Walker and his crew were wading in the icy
streams, a-takin' beaver plew."
The deep winter was "robe season" when they stayed mostly in the lodge except for forays to restock the wood pile or hunt some fresh meat. Hard to set a trap in 3 or 4 feet of water when the top foot of it was frozen solid, and beaver tend to fort up in their lodges in the winter anyway. It was the time for repairing gear, getting your squaw to make new `skins and extra moccasins, and catching up on your tall tales. That said, none of it means there wasn't some snow in the high country at least part of the time while they were trapping, or skim ice on the edges of the streams and more in the beaver ponds. Shucks -- I've seen snow in the high country in July, and once I stepped into what I believed was a shallow place in Ashley's Creek (because Two Bears told me it was ... ) and found that it was actually a deep hole. I went in over my head in melt water from the snow on a nearby peak. I'm here to tell you it was cold enough to make your teeth ache and your @@ shrivel up !! Mike was standing on the bank laughing his butt off --- until I grabbed his ankles and yanked him into the water, him screaming "Noooooooo!" That was July in the Uintahs. I climbed out right quick and after a while when Ol' Bears commenced to turn blue I put down the tree limb and let him climb out too.

 

[Buck Conner]

Most of the beaver trapping was done in Spring and Fall. That's one of the reasons most of the trappers who survived to old age had "the ague" in their knees and ankles .... probably arthritis or rheumatism.
The deep winter was "robe season" stayed mostly in the lodge except for forays to restock the wood pile or hunt some fresh meat. It was the time for repairing gear, getting your squaw to make new `skins and extra moccasins, and catching up on your tall tales.
I've seen snow in the high country in July, and once I stepped into what I believed was a shallow place in Ashley's Creek.

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I too have traveled these mountains with the Baker Party of the AMM and it can be cold in mid summer. Our forefathers were a hell of a lot harder than many of us would ever be ....

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[Omahkapi'si]

Not uncommon here in the mountains too. Frost at dawn and hot by noon.

 

[tenngun]

Was in the wind rivers in June. Dug a trench and filled it with cedar, pine and sage brush then had my bed on top of that. Had canvas underneath me, one blanket folded and then two doubled that I slept inside of like a taco.
Then one blanket open and on top. I was plenty warm, but enough moisture came off of me to leave frost on that top blanket and the edges were froze to the ground.
By noon I was shirtless and just in clot and leggings

 

[mushka]

Back in them days they put up with what they had to. Nowadays we really don't have to put up with it on a regular basis, so we don't. We usually have an easy way out of discomfort.

 

[SamTex1949]

Cold in Montana ? 1995 we had snow on the ground at sometime or other 11 months of that year ! The highest
temp was in low 70s and this was on the Hi-line east of the rockies 70 mi near Sweet Grass hills

 

[Buck Conner]

RanchRoper: When you see mountain men wading the streams in winter, that's a stretch. Most of the beaver trapping was done in Spring and Fall. Still is, although the water's mighty cold even then. That's one of the reasons most of the trappers who survived to old age had "the ague" in their knees and ankles .... probably arthritis or rheumatism.

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Several of us did trapping scenes for the production folks in this movie, done in the winter. Caught several beavers while in the process which they enjoyed watching and filming. Cold and wet but we did it for the money just like done a 100 years before. My neighbor trapped year around keeping different animals from taking over our creeks and streams, winter included. This was common for most of the guys I knew that trapped.

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[tenngun]

My Grandfater lived in Montana, Idaho and Washington he was a logger, dairy worker and hunted Bear. He told my dad that they would say ‘if summer comes on Sunday I’m going fishing’.

 

[griffiga]

Cold in Montana ? 1995 we had snow on the ground at sometime or other 11 months of that year ! The highest
temp was in low 70s and this was on the Hi-line east of the rockies 70 mi near Sweet Grass hills

A friend of mine from North Dakota used to tell me that where he lived, they had 9 months of winter and 3 months of damn cold weather. When he came to Utah during the winter, he seemed to never wear a coat.

 

[Buck Conner]

One of my favorite and funny movies of all time was The Mountain Men, a 1980 film starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith. My brothers and I watched it so many times that we could quote the whole script. There were so many "one liners" that dealt with life, and it's misfortunes. I'm sure most of you have seen it, but if not, you'll have to find and watch it. In between all of the humor is a pretty good story line.

You don't know the half of it. Keith would go off on a different subject ine (the ass. directors are going throught the script and can't find what is being said). Finally the director asked Keith if he went over his lines for the day.

Brian would look at him and say"Who the hell has time for that, we didn't stop the party until 3AM this morning."
They left what was said and moved on to the next scene.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

Well it’s a refreshing -27F at home right now.

 

[Dale Lilly]

Well it’s a refreshing -27F at home right now.

bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Santa Fe]

Just watched this Movie again the other day. It's a great movie. "My mammy was a Wolf My Pa was a Boar Grizzly"

 

[griffiga]

Just watched this Movie again the other day. It's a great movie. "My mammy was a Wolf My Pa was a Boar Grizzly"

"Can't stand that nasty talkin Bast--d."

 

[griffiga]

Mountain Man has gone down in the annals as one of my all-time favorite movies.

 

[Beadman]

It's a classic!!!!

 

[The Crisco Kid]

In the '70's I knew a fellow named Jules Martino who I'm pretty sure told me that he was at the rendezvous filming. I wonder if he's still around? He had a unique carving in his patchbox.

 

[CapPopper]

It's a classic!!!!

You bumped this all the way up into new posts and now I gotta go watch it.... Got to be in to work at 7pm tomorrow for the ol 12 hour day and everyone here is asleep. So mountain men and gun work it is!