TRAPPERS AND TRADERS Subject: History, Language Arts, Drama, Economics Theme: Human History of Yellowstone OBJECTIVE Students will be able to:
METHOD Working in small groups, students research mountain men and present skits which dramatize their lives. BACKGROUND: 1. Mountain men engaged in the rugged and dangerous activities associated with the fur trade obtained much of the early knowledge of the upper Yellowstone River and the area now comprising Yellowstone National Park. 2. In the later 18th and early 19th centuries, fashion conscious American and European men wore Beaver felt top hats made from premium beaver pelts. The resulting demand for beaver provided the economic stimulus for one of the most colorful periods of American frontier history. To understand who the mountain men were and how fur trapping was a response to the style demands of the time, help students to understand the motivation of these men who lived and explored in the west. Their tales, unbelievable as many of them were, and their understanding of the region’s geography helped open the way for later, more scientific exploration. The fur trade and the colorful period of the mountain man were actually quite short-lived. It flourished between the early 1820s and 1840, when fashions changed. People then wanted to wear silk hats, and there was no longer an economic market for beaver pelts. The era of the fur trapper was over. Some of the more famous mountain men to explore and trap in the Yellowstone region:
Notable but lesser known:
MATERIALS
PROCEDURE Talk with students about mountain men. Ask students to share what they already know about mountain men from their own past education or from visiting local rendezvous or western museums. Relate what students know about moutain men to those mountain men who trapped and explored in Yellowstone. Emphasize the roles these men played in the early exploration of the Yellowstone region and discuss how the demand for beaver pelts led these men to trap further and further into unexplored regions in order to supply beaver pelts to the American and European markets. Some of these trappers were very literate and kept records so accurately that it is possible to follow them through the area even today. If you would like to illustrate how a mountain man recorded carefully the routes they took and what they observed, you can quote from Osborne Russell’s Journal of a Trapper. He details the route into the "Secluded Valley," today’s Lamar Valley, by writing the following in his journal: "24th We took up the right hand fork in a NW direction about 15 mls thro. a rugged defile in the mountain. 25th Travelled about 18 miles in the same direction still following the stream which ran very rapid down thro. the dense piles of mountains which are formed of Granite Slate and Sand Stone covered with pines where there is sufficient soil to support them 26th followed the stream almost due Nth. about 8 mls. and encamped where we staid the next day 28th We crossed the mountain in a West direction thro. the thick pines and fallen timber about 12 mls and encamped in a small prairie about a mile in circumference Thro. this valley ran a small stream in a North direction which all agreed in believing to be a branch of the Yellow Stone. 29th We descended the stream about 15 mls thro. the dense foret and at length came to a beautiful valley about 8 Mls. long and 3 or 4 wide surrounded by dark and lofty mountains. The stream after running thro. the center in a NW direction rushed down a tremendous canyon of basaltic rock apparently just wide enough to admit its waters. The banks of the stream in the valley were low and skirted in may places with beautiful Cotton wood groves" Some of the trappers became known as tellers of "tall tales." If you would like to illustrate how Jim Bridger popularized the wonders of Yellowstone, but at the same time made them unbelievable, you can relate some of his descriptions. Trappers were well known for telling tall tales to relate their experiences in wild country, but Jim Bridger may have been the greatest of all the "yarn spinners." He called Yellowstone "the place where Hell bubbled up." He (and other trappers) talked of going to the petrified forest, where the grass was petrified, the animals were petrified, and even the birds in flight were petrified. They told of places where the animals were miniature in size, caused by the shrinking qualities of Alum Creek. Then there were the fish that were cooked as they came from the bottom of certain springs to the top. Hunters searching for elk were known to have bumped right into a glass mountain. Were there some elements of truth behind Jim Bridger’s tales? People, especially in the east, began to wonder about this fanciful place. Divide students into small groups. Ask each group to sign up for one mountain man to research. Allow plenty of time for students to search out resource information, library materials, and internet references and write descriptive reports about their mountain man. When the research has been completed, ask students to prepare skits, which relate some major characteristics of the mountain man they studied or depict interesting events in their lives. Props and costuming are optional. ASSESSMENT Ask students to write a summary of what they have learned about the mountain men. Ask them to include the dates of the fur trapping era in the west, name two famous trappers, and describe how the mountain men lived. EXTENSIONS
SOURCE Expedition: Yellowstone! Curriculum |