What It Was Really Like Being A Mountain Man In The 1800s Buyenlarge/Getty Images
By Jan MacKell Collins/Dec. 28, 2020 1:12 am EDT/Updated: Jan. 18, 2021 11:49 pm EDT
Tough. Resilient. Determined. Adventurous. These are just some of the words used to describe the mountain men (also commonly referred to as fur trappers) who rambled all over the Rocky Mountains but also eastern parts of early America as far back as the 1500 s. By the early 1800 s, says Legends of America, Joseph Dickson became one of the first known mountain men when he traveled alongside explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the Missouri River. Dickson and others like him literally made the wilderness their home, embracing the seasons as their time clock and living off the land as they made their way through the mountains, says X Roads. The life could be harsh, even brutal, but somehow many of these men prevailed.