Complete List to Explorers, Trappers, Traders, and Mountain Men of the American West

Explorers, Trappers, Traders & Mountain Men - "S"

Index 1 2 3 Summaries A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Rufus B. Sage (1817-1893) - A frontiersman, mountain man, and author, Sage was born at Cromwell, Connecticut, where he became a newspaper man when he grew up. Somewhere along the line, he made his way to Independence Missouri. In September, 1841, he left with Lancaster P. Lupton, headed to Fort Platte, Wyoming where they stayed for the winter before returning to Missouri the next summer. Before long,he was off to the mountains again, where he lived as a mountain man and travled from Fort Hall Idaho to Texas, studiously taking notes all the while. In 1844, he went to Ohio, where he wrote the book Scenes in the Rocky Mountains. He died on December 23, 1893.

Alexander Sinclair (1790-1832) - Probably born in Tennessee, he grew up tobecome a trapper. In 1830, he joined with George Nidever and others, forming the Bean-Sinclair trapping party at Fort Smith, Arkansas. Leading the party, Sinclair and his men joined the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole in 1832. In the Battle of Pierre's Hole, he was killed on July 18, 1832.

Prewett Fuller Sinclair (1803-1882) - The younger brother of Alexander Sinclair, he was probably born in Tennessee. Along with his brother, he joined the Bean-Sinclair trapping party at Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1830. His older brother was killed two years later at the Battle of Pierre's Hole in present-day Idaho. Prewett remained in the mountains until 1837 when he became a partner in Fort Davy Crockett at Brown's Hole, Colorado. He then went to California in 1843. In 1846 he briefly joined one of John Charles Fremont's expeditions, before settling at Corralitos, California. There, he became a prominent pioneer and businessman. He died in 1882.

John Simpson Smith, aka: Uncle John, Blackfoot Smith (1812-1871) - Trader and frontiersman, Smith ranged from the Yellowstone to the Gila River, and from the upper Missouri River to the Rio Grande River. He was born in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1810 and at the age of 18 joined a party of Santa Fe traders. By 1830, he was trapping in the Rocky Mountains and when he saved himself from Blackfoot Indians by using trickery, he earned the nickname Blackfoot Smith. Somewhere along the line he married a Cheyenne woman and in 1843 was at Fort Laramie, Wyoming and in 1846, at Bent's Fort, Colorado. Smith, who spoke four Indian dialects, as well as French and Spanish, served as an interpreter for the Fort Laramie Treaty council in 1851. He served briefly as a guide for the army's Utah Expedition of 1857. He was a pioneer founder of Denver, Colorado and by 1862, was living at Fort Lyon, Colorado. In 1864, acting as an interpreter, he helped to persuade Black Kettle and his Cheyenne followers to camp at Sand Creek, Colorado. Before the Chivington Massacre occurred there on November 29th, Smith did everything in his power to prevent it and during the massacre, Smith's son, Jack was killed and John narrowly escaped death, himself. Afterwards, he again served as an interpreter at the Little Arkansas council and accompanied the Cheyenne to their new reservation in Indian Territory, where he lived until he died on June 29, 1871.

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Index 1 2 3 Summaries A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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