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OLD WEST LEGENDS
The Complete List of Old West Explorers,
Trappers, Traders & Mountain Men
More Lists: Explorers | Gunfighters | Lawmen | Native Americans | Outlaws | Outlaw Gangs | Scoundrels | Soldiers | Trail Blazers & Cowboys | Vigilantes | Women |
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Lewis and Clark West to the Pacific by Frank R. "Bob"
Davenport. Photo and Copyright held by:
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc
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Many of these explorers and frontiersmen were the first non-Indians to see the vast regions of the American West. Leaving civilization behind and following rivers, crossing great plains, and scaling mountains, these explorers paved the way for the many pioneers and fortune seekers who followed in their footsteps.
Find an Explorer
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John C. "Grizzly" Adams
(1812-1860) - A hunter, trapper, and prospector,
Adams made fame for himself
when he began to catch and train grizzly bears.
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William Henry Ashley (1778-1838) -
Co-founder of the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company,
Ashley led a hundred men
along the Missouri River on trapping expeditions. The men became known as
"Ashley's Hundred."
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American Fur
Company (1808-1842) - Founded by
John
Jacob Astor in 1808, the American Fur
Company would become one of the largest businesses in the country at the
start of the 19th century.
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John
Jacob Astor (1763-1848) - Astor,
who formed the
American Fur
Company, was the head of the
Astor family dynasty
and the first millionaire in the United States.
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James Pierson Beckwourth
(1798-1860) - Born as a slave, but later freed,
Beckwourth joined William Henry Ashley's
Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Later
he lived among the Crow Indians, established two trading posts, helped to found the town of Pueblo, Colorado,
and acted as a scout for John
C. Freemont.
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Charles Bent (1799-1847) -
He and brother, William, helped to "open the West," by trading with
the
Indians and building Bent's Fort in Colorado in 1833.
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William Bent (1809-1869) - The younger brother of Charles Bent, William was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1809. The brothers established Bent's Fort in Colorado in 1833 to trade with the plains Indians and area trappers.
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Daniel Boone
(1734-1820) - Frontiersman, pioneer, surveyor and Indian Fighter
who blazed the trail known as the Wilderness Road in 1775.
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Benjamin Bonneville (1796-1878) - An explorer and military man, Bonneville expeditions into Wyoming Territory, California,
and Oregon
Territory.
James Bowie
(1796-1836) - An aggressive frontiersman, pioneer, explorer, and commander of
the volunteers at the Alamo,
where he died.
John M. Bozeman
(1835–1867)
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Bozeman
scouted and blazed the Bozeman Trail
through Wyoming to Virginia City, Montana.
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Jim Bridger
(1804-1881) - An accomplished trapper, scout, and mountain man,
Bridger was one of the first non-Indians to see the natural wonders of what would become Yellowstone Park.
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Christopher "Kit" Carson (1809-1868) -
Carson was a
daring and brave explorer, mountain man, trapper, scout,
soldier, and buffalo
hunter.
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Toussaint Charbonneau (1767-1843) -
A French-Canadian explorer and trader, and a member of the
Lewis and Clark
Expedition, best known as the husband of
Sacagawea.
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William Clark
(1770-1838) - Explorer and geographical expert who co-lead the
Lewis and Clark
Expedition
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John Colter (1775-1813)
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Frontiersman, explorer, fur
trapper, mountain man, and army scout credited with the being the discoverer of
the
Yellowstone area.
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"Meek, as usual, had no underwear, or even a shirt. Like most others, he wore only a beaver-fur cap, buckskin breeches, moccasins, and his capote - a blanket coat with a hood attached. A shirt warn't no good in the mountains -- except to dress up in at rendezvous. Thar warn't no warmth in cotton; a man couldn't be bothered to wash it clean, and the seams were always full of lice."
-- Stanley Vestal, from Joe Meek, The Merry Mountain Man
 
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Davy Crockett
(1786-1836) - Frontiersman, explorer, and American folk hero,
Crockett a
represented Tennessee in the U.S. Congress, served in the Texas
Revolution, and died at the age of 49 at the Battle of the Alamo.
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John Charles
Fremont (1813-1890) - Was an explorer, military officer, and politician who
led multiple surveying expeditions through the western territory of the United
States.
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John
W. Gunnison (1812-1853) - After serving in the Florida War
of 1837-1839, Gunnison spent the next ten years surveying the lakes and
harbors of the great northwestern United States.
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Hudson's Bay
Company
(1670-present)
- Chartered on May 2, 1670, the
Hudson's Bay
Company
(HBC) is the
oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the
world. It's trappers and traders were some of the first explorers of the North
American continent.
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Manuel
Lisa (1772-1820) - Frontiersman, explorer, and fur trader, Lisa founded the
Missouri Fur Company.
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Meriwether Lewis
(1774-1809) - Explorer,
soldier, and public administrator,
Lewis was best known
for his role as the leader of the
Corps of Discovery,
whose mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.
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Benjamin "Ben" Vernon Lilly (1856-1936) -
Often called the “last of the mountain men,”
Ben Lilly
was known as the greatest lion and bear hunter in the southwest.
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Joseph Lafayette Meek
(1810-1875) - Meek went westward from Virginia at an early age
signing on with the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company.
Later he settled in
Oregon where he was appointed
the territory's federal marshal, a post he held for the next five years.
In 1855, he played a leading part in the Yakima War, organizing the
Oregon
Volunteers and winning the rank of major for his service.
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Zebulon Montgomery Pike
(1779-1813) - A
soldier and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado
is named, Pike mapped much of the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase.
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Rocky Mountain Fur Company
(1822-1833)
- Sometimes referred to as Ashley's Hundred, the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company was organized in
St. Louis,
Missouri
in 1822 by General
William Henry Ashley
and Major Andrew Henry.
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Sacagawea
(1790?-1812?) A
Shoshone
Indian
woman,
she was captured by an enemy tribe who eventually sold her to a
French Canadian trapper she later married. In 1804,
Lewis and Clark,
her husband,
Toussaint Charbonneau, was hired by the expedition as an interpreter.
Sacagawea
became an integral part of the expedition.
More ...
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Jedediah
Strong Smith (1799-1831) - A hunter, trapper, fur trader and explorer of the
Rocky Mountains, the west coast, and the southwest during the nineteenth
century.
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William
Sublette (1799-1845) - An explorer, fur trapper, trader, and and mountain man,
Sublette was part of
William Henry
Ashley's trapping group referred to as Ashley's Hundred. he went on to
acquire part of the business.
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Pierre Louis Vasquez
(1798-1868) - A trapper, trader, and mountain man, Vasquez
founded one of the first trading posts in the American West.
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William
Sherley "Old Bill" Williams (1787-1849) - A Mountain Man, explorer, army scout,
and frontiersman, Williams explored present day
Arizona. He
was also sometimes an outlaw horse thief.
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Also See:
Trading Posts and Their Stories
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One of the many mountain men of the Old West
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE! |
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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
Old
West Books -
Legends of America and
the
Rocky Mountain General Store has collected a number of
Old West
books for our frontier enthusiasts. For many of these, we have
only one available. To see this varied collection, click
HERE!
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