The Mountain Men [Paperback]

George Laycock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1996

To know how the West was really won, start with the exploits of these unsung buckskin heroes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Laycock chronicles the American fur trappers of the 1820s and 1830s, discussing their role in the westward expansion of the U.S.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Laycock, the author of more than 40 volumes dedicated to the outdoors, here offers a history of the fur trappers who pushed West in the early 1800s in search of the much-prized beaver pelt. Though theirs was purely a financial venture, their interaction with Native Americans and the knowledge they gained of the terrain and its dangers made the way a little less treacherous for the homesteaders and farmers who followed.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558214542
• ISBN-13: 978-1558214545
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,326,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Mountain Man Book For Your Library, January 28, 2002

By 

"musicguy5" (Burleson, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mountain Men (Paperback)

I purchased a hard back copy of this book in the early 1980's. It was then, and still is one of my favorite books on the life of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trappers of the early 19th century. Mr. Laycock did a great job of covering the life of these adventurous trappers. It would take volumes to cover it all but this book is a great condensed version. If I were going to recommend a single book to someone who had no knowledge of the Mountain Men, and wanted to learn of their lifestyles, this would be the book. It is an easy read, lots of great photos and illustrations, and it offers a high rate of accuracy. Also included are some brief biographies of some of the famous mountain men such as Jim Bridger and John Colter, and others. This book tells how they applied their trade and the hardships they faced doing it. This is a great book. I assume the paperback version offered will have the same photographs and illustrations. However, my hard back copy has great color in it and I don't know if the paper back will contain color photographs. Anyway, it is my opinion that this is a great book.

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real Men, October 28, 2003

By 

Robert R. Briggs "robroyb" (Santa Barbara, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Mountain Men (Paperback)

If you love stories of the old West, this book is a must read!George Laycock does a nice job of giving us a good overview of this time period in our Western History. The book tells much about those days of trapping and exploring when the West was an unknown and unmapped area. In addition to telling the stories of several individual characters like John Colter, Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass, Jeidiah Smith and others, the author takes time to explain the fur trapping business. There are several sections in the book explaining weapons, traps, boats, clothing, tools, etc. The result is that the reader gets a good insight into what these men did and how they did it. The one drawback might be that some of the character studies are a bit short, often leaving the reader wanting more information. However, for a general overview of an important time in our early history, this is a wonderful book. I'd like to see this as required reading in our schools.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction to Mountain Men and their Lifestyle, January 22, 2006

By 

Daniel Hurley (Chesapeake, VA.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mountain Men (Paperback)

Great introduction to the life of Mountain Men in a mere 240 pages. The book starts with several introductory chapters of how Mountain Men got started virtually with Lewis and Clark and then with various fur companies with such men as Manuel Lisa. The author then discusses their lifestyle, the mountains, what trapping was like, how they trapped beaver and their relationships with the Indians. The bulk of the rest of the book contains numerous short chapters on the most famous of the mountain men such as John Colter (perhaps the greatest), Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, Tom Fiztpatrick, Kit Carson, James Beckworth, the Sublette brothers and several more. What makes the book unique are numerous intervening short sections discussing in detail, with pictures, the equipment or materials the trappers used. Everything from Bull boats, the various types of rifles including the famous Hawken (flint versus percussion), traps, leather clothes, tools and how their leather covers were made as well mocassins. The only negative is that some of the tall tales, which the Mountain Men wre famous for, are not always discriminated. An example is James Beckworth's claim that he ran 95 miles in a single day to escape a band of Indians, and another claimed they covered 150 miles in two days. Stonewall Jackson's corps was famous for covering 30 - 35 miles on relatively good roads, thus it is impossible to accept these numbers by the trappers who were in broken country. But overall, an excellent introduction to Mountain Men, each of which seemed to have several stories about running into a grizzly bear.