A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific (Paperback)

by Robert M. Utley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
It's true, Robert Utley writes, that mountain men such as "Crazy Bill" Williams and Jeremiah "Liver-Eating" Johnson were an unlearned, unwashed, drunk, and violent bunch who tore a bloody swath across the then-unconquered American West from the 1810s to the 1840s. Yet their travels across deserts and plains and over high mountains yielded a huge body of geographical knowledge that would enable American pioneers to cross the Mississippi and traverse the continent in relative security. Utley, a historian with a fluent narrative style, tells the stories of hard-fighting men like Jim Bridger, Benjamin Bonneville, Kit Carson, and Joseph Walker, whose names now figure prominently on maps of the region but are otherwise little remembered. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Utley, former chief historian of the National Park Service, knows his terrain firsthand and admirably captures the exciting adventures of the first white men to explore the Rocky Mountain West. While he offers minibiographies of characters such as Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, and Jim Bridger, he has fashioned a full-blown social history of a movement that still captures the imagination of readers today. Though scholars might criticize the book for being "once over lightly," general readers will appreciate the popular magazine style. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?David S. Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (October 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080505989X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805059892
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #370,261 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mountain Men and Manifest Destiny, January 11, 2001

By	Randy Stafford (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific (Hardcover)

In the years between 1804 and 1847, Americans explored the Louisiana Purchase, the Rocky Mountains, took California from Mexico, and colonized Oregon. And the explorers and trappers called mountain men were instrumental in all those events.

Utley starts his account with George Drouillard and the legendary John Colter, both members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and concludes his main story with Kit Carson's actions in the Mexican-American War. However, this book is not a collection of biographies. Utley does provide sketches for some mountain man, the events they are most famous for, and, sometimes, details of their deaths. He does not provide any real details about their gear or trapping and fighting methods. Utley concerns himself with a broader theme: how the travels of mountain men filled in the maps of the west, expunged certain geographical fantasies from the public mind, and drew people west.

Some of the mountain men here are famous. Besides Colter, we meet Jim Bridger, trapper, Army scout, guide, and establisher of the famous trading post named after him. We also, briefly, meet Hugh Glass who once swore to kill Bridger after he and another trapper left Glass for dead after Glass was mauled by a grizzly. Kit Carson's adventures with John Fremont are discussed.

But Utley also covers less well-known, but important, mountain men. The greatest explorer of all, Jedediah Smith, trapped beaver mainly as a means to subsidize his extensive wanderings. Atypically literate for a mountain man, he kept extensive journals and maps -- most of which vanished after his death. Utley considers another trapper, Joe Walker, the most accomplished of all in the mountain man craft and, as an explorer, second only to Smith. Others had less august reputations. Edward Rose, a trapper who lived for many years with the Crow, was frequently sought as an interpreter but never really trusted. Too often negotiations he was involved with broke down, and he was suspected of mischief for private ends. Old Bill Williams was known as an eccentric mountain man. Jessie Fremont, John's wife, even accused him of cannibalism.

In their quest for beaver pelts, before changing fashion, overtrapping, and substitution of nutria made trapping untenable, the mountain men not only added to geographical knowledge but served as agents, intentionally and unintentionally, for American expansion to the Pacific. They traveled to Spanish California and helped bring it into the Union by their settlements there and their actions in the Mexican-American War. But California was not the only Pacific territory whose national ownership was disputed. American mountain men, and this book is concerned with American citizens or those mountaineers who served American interests, competed with the English Hudson Bay Company in the Columbia River basin. Their knowledge inspired and guided missionaries and, later, settlers into what became the Oregon Territory. British interests there were supplanted, and some mountain men, like Joe Meek and Doc Newell, became important political figures in Oregon's early history.

Besides the broad story of mountaineers as the vanguard of American expansion west, there are other things of interest here. Taos, New Mexico and its importance to fur trading is covered. Utley talks about the little known 1823 punitive expedition against the Arikara. Writer Washington Irving shows up as an important source for this period of history.

Though it is not a main point of the book, Utley does talk some about relations between the mountain men and Indians. The attitudes ranged from racism to toleration to admiration. Some tribes, like the Blackfeet, were constant foes of the mountain men. Others, like the Shoshone and the Nez Perce (at least during the time of this history), were almost always friendly.

Utley uses his last chapter to wrap up the loose ends of some of his subjects' lives and the ultimate nature of their contributions to American development. Cartographer Peter Dana has the final say with an interesting chapter on how the book's extensive topographical maps, detailing the travels of various mountain men and the fur trade in general, were prepared from satellite photos.

Utley organizes the book along geographical lines and accounts of how particular routes of travel were developed. This leads to some confusion since he jumps back and forth in time. However, Utley's clear style and a well-done index help keep things straight. The footnotes are not only extensive but full of useful information.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great history of the early West, April 13, 2000

By A Customer

For anyone who read and enjoyed Stephen Ambrose's great book on the Lewis and Clark expedition, "Undaunted Courage," this book is the perfect sequel. It picks up where Lewis and Clark left off, with Colter's and Drouillard's trips back up the Missouri River for trapping and further explorations in Blackfeet country, and continues through the great period of exploration and mapping of the American West leading up to the Mexican War and the California gold rush. This book has given me a whole new perspective on the history and geography of the West. I see that one reviewer found it a bit dry, but I think it depends on what you're looking for. If you want a collection of "wild west tales" of legendary mountain man exploits, you may be a little disappointed (although there actually are a few of those too), but if you'd like a deeper understanding of the geography and early history of the West, and a compelling picture of the Rocky Mountain region, the Pacific Coast, the Great Basin and the Desert Southwest before they were transformed by large-scale emigrant migrations, you'll love this book. I could hardly put it down. Utley does a great job of weaving the stories of individual mountain men together into a story of exploration and discovery that reads like a novel, and the excellent maps make it easy to follow the routes and place names.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trappers, Indians, Grizzley Bears and US West Exploration, April 5, 2001

By	Daniel Hurley (Chesapeake, VA.) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

True story of the perilous exploration of the American West by Trappers from Lewis and Clarke's time up through the end of the era with Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. A catalogue of the trappers that follow the rivers to find beaver and crossings to the west coast. Outcomes with Indians particularly tribes that were once powerful before the effects of smallpox and the incursions of man were evident, the dominant tribe being the Blackfeet who killed many trappers and contacts with the numerous tribes throughout the west. A virtual history of the beaver trade, how the trappers lived, encounters with Grizzly bears, western emigration, contacts with Mexican authorities, the Fremont explorations, Brigham Young led to the salt lake by Bridger. An enormous book that tells you almost the story of the rivers of the west and how important they were to the development of the US. The main question that stays with me after reading this book is how could these men endure such hardships so far from civilization dealing with hostile tribes, limited provisions and particularly medical emergencies? You also learn about the less known trappers that opened the west like J. Smith and the early explorers with Lewis and Clarke. Breaks a great myth that trappers trapped alone but instead traveled in brigades that offered some protection until the glorious rendezvous. Big book but a great reference on the west and all the major historical contributors of westward expansion.