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Useful
Quotes for Documenting Period Food and Equipment
The following
are a number of quotes mostly from primary sources which give some clues
as to the material possessions of the Mountain Man, Traders and other
folks living in the west at the time. There are many more out there.
It can be an interesting and rewarding pursuit to copy down pertinent
quotes as you come across them while reading. Happy hunting.
Food
"With the exception of scant supplies of salt, flour, tea
and coffee, the trapper, like the Indian, lived wholly off the country.
His favorite meat, day in and day out, was the buffalo, and trappers
who had once formed a liking for buffalo humps, ribs, marrow, and steaks
were never content with other kinds of meat for any length of time.
The craving, in fact, was so pronounced that one wonders if there was
not a definite physiological reason for it.
When a hunter killed a buffalo, he often cut the animal's
throat and drank the thick, red blood, a draught that reportedly had
the taste of warm milk. The heavy layer of fat that ran from the
buffalo's shoulder along the backbone was stripped off, dipped
in hot grease, and then smoked. It was eaten with lean or dried
meat.
Deer, elk, antelope, and bear were also favorite food animals with the mountain men. Beaver tail was a great delicacy, but the rest of the beaver was eaten only when other meat was scarce. According to many reports, a true mountain man preferred lynx meat to any other delicacy. French dumplings, a very special treat, were made of minced meat rolled in balls of dough and fried in buffalo marrow. Thomas Jefferson Farnham, whose writings on the West attained wide popularity in the early forties, made his reader hunger conscious with the following vivid account of a trapper's feast on buffalo: The marrow bones were undergoing a severe flagellation; the blows of the old hunter's hatchet were cracking them in pieces, and laying bare the rolls of "trapper's butter" within them. A pound of marrow was thus extracted, and put into a gallon of water heated nearly to the boiling point. The blood which he had dipped from the cavity of the buffalo was then stirred in till the mass became of the consistency of rice soup. A little salt and black pepper finished the preparation. It was a fine dish; too rich, perhaps for some of my esteemed acquaintances, whose digestive organs partake of the general laziness of their habits; but to us who had so long desired a healthful portion of bodily exercise in that quarter, it was the very marrow and life-blood ... of whatsoever is good and wholesome for famished carniverous animals like ourselves. It was excellent, most excellent, It was better than our father's foaming ale. For a while it loosed our tongues and warmed our hearts toward one another, it had the additional effect of Aaron's oil: it made our faces to shine with grease and gladness. But the remembrance of the palate pleasures of the next course, will not allow me to dwell longer upon this. The crowning delight was yet in store for us. While enjoying, the said soup, we believed the bumper of our pleasures to be sparkling, to the brim; and if our excellent old trapper had not been there, we never should have desired more. But how true is that philosophy which teaches, that to be capable of happiness, we must be conscious of wants! Our friend Kelly was in this a practical as well as theoretical Epicurean. " No giving up the beaver so," said he; "another bait and we will sleep." Saying this, he seized the intestines of the buffalo, which had been properly cleaned for the purpose, turned them inside out, and as he proceeded stuffed them with strips of well salted and peppered tenderloin. Our "boudies" thus made, were stuck upon sticks before the fire, and roasted till they were thoroughly cooked and browned, The sticks were then taken from their roasting position and stuck in position for eating. That is to say, each of us with as fine an appetite as ever blessed a New-England boy at his grandsire's Thanksgiving Dinner, seized a stick spit, stuck it in the earth near our couches, and sitting upon our haunches ate our last course-the dessert of our mountain host's entertainment, These wilderness sausages would have gratified the appetite of those who had been deprived of meat a less time than we had been. The envelopes preserve the juices of the meat with which while cooking the adhering fat, turned within, mingles and forms a gravy of the finest flavor, Such is a feast in the mountains." "This
Reckless Breed of Men" by Robert Clelland
"He had been quietly masticating the last mouthful
of his portion, the stringiness of which required more than usual dental
exertion, when the novelty of the flavour struck him as something singular.
Suddenly his jaws ceased their work, he thought a moment, took the morsel
from his mouth, looked at it intently, and dashed it into the fire.
"Man-meat, by G--!" he cried out; and at the
words every jaw stopped work: the trappers looked at the meat and each
other.
" I'm dog-gone if it ain't!" cried old Walker,
looking at his piece"and white meat at that, wagh!" (and report
said it was not the first time he had tasted such viands)."
"Life
in the Far West" by Frederick Ruxton
"And now the ecstasy of the chase over, there
was a different ecstasy to come, for buffalo meat was the greatest of
foods. Butchering for meat was done thus: The carcass was propped on
the belly, with the knees bent or with the legs stretched out.
The tongue was taken first-and was always taken as a trophy, as proof
of the kill, even when a tough old bull quite unfit for eating had been
killed. Then the butcher made an incision along the spine and
cut away the skin down one side, using it as a table for his meats.
What cuts he took depended on how plentiful the buffalo were.
He always took the "boss" a small hump on the back o the neck,
the hump itself, and the "hump ribs" which were the prolongations
of vertebrae that supported it; then the 'fleece" which was the
flesh between the spine and the ribs, and the three-inch layer of fat
that covered it, the "side ribs" and the lower "belly
fat" that was considered one of the greatest delicacies.
He would probably take the liver too and such portions of the intestines
as his tastes suggested. Then he would butcher out a thigh bone
and use it to crack such other bones as might provide the best marrow.
Francis Chardon, a celebrated factor of the American Fur Company, listed
as specially choice "the nuts"the earliest Rocky Mountain
oysters, therefore. But when buffalo were scarce all the meat
was eaten. Nor are the books right when they reproach white hunters
alone for reckless waste of meat, for the Indians were just as wasteful
when it was plentiful and took only the cuts they liked most.
(There were special, empirical skills even in butchering.
"Ti-ya!" exclaims Old Bill Williams in Ruxton's "Life
in the Far West" "do 'ee hyar, now, you darned greenhorn,
do 'ee spile fat cow like that whar you was raised? Them doin's won't
shine in this crowd, boy, do ' ee hyar, darn you? What! butcher meat
across the grain! why whar'll the blood be goin' to, you precious Spaniard?
(More likely, you damned greaser.) Down the grain, I say, and let your
flaps be long or out the juice'll run slick-do'ee hyar now?") -
There were few delicate feeders in the mountains.
The Indians preferred their meat high and kept the surplus till it began
to rot. The river tribes liked the green, putrid flesh of buffalo drowned
while crossing the ice and hauled ashore weeks later, "so ripe,
so tender, that very little boiling is required." They ate the
kidneys raw, but the delight of an Indian gourmet was to eat his way
down a ten foot length of raw, warm, perhaps still quivering gut in
one snapshot by an appalled white the gourmet squeezes out the
contents just ahead of his teeth. Guts of boudins were delicious
to the white palate too, but thev were first lightly seared above the
fire, "I once saw two Canadians," Ruxton savs,"commence
at either end of such a coil of grease, the mass lying between
them on a dirty apishemore (saddle pad) like the coil of a huge snake.
As yard after yard glided glibly down their throats, and the serpent
on the saddle-cloth was dwindling from an anaconda to a moderate-sized
rattlesnake, it became a great point with each of the feasters to hurry
his operation, so as to gain a march upon his neighbor and improve the
opportunity by swallowing more than his just proportion; each at the
same time exhorting the other, whatever he did, to feed fair and every
now and then, overcome by the unblushing attempts of his partner to
bolt a vigorous mouthful- would suddenly jerk -back his head, drawing
out at the same moment, by the retreating motion several yards of boudin
from his neighbor's stomach (for the greasy viand required no mastication
and was bolted whole) and, snapping up the ravished ,portions, greedily
swallowed them." The white man would eat the liver raw as soon
as it was taken; he seasoned it with the gall or sometimes with gunpowder,
But the feast was still to come.
"Meat's meat," the trapper said, and he ate
what meat was at hand, from his own moccasins, parfleche, and lariats,
in "starvin' times," on through the wide variety of mountain
game, of which some tidbits were memorable to gastronomes-boiled beaver
tail, "panther," and as an acquired taste young Oglala puppy.
But when coming out from the States you shot your first fat cow, or
when after finding no buffalo for some weeks you reached them at last,
you touched the very summit of delight. Nor can there be any doubt
that buffalo meat, an indescribably rich, tender, fiberless, and gamey
beef, was the greatest meat man has ever fed on. The mountain
man boiled some cuts, notably the hump, and seared or saut'eed others,
but mostly he cooked them by slow roast, skewered on his ramrod or on
a stick. Every man to his own fire (unless messes, each with
its own cook, had been appointed) and no man with more tableware than
his beltknife--gravy, juices, and blood running down his face, forearms,
and shirt. He wolfed the meat and never reached repletion.
Eight pounds a day was standard ration for Hudson's Bay Company employees,
but when meat was plentiful a man might eat eight pounds for dinner,
then wake a few hours later, build up the fire, and eat as much more.
All chroniclers agree that no stomach rebelled and no appetite ever
palled. Moreover, to the greases that stained the mountaineer's
Garments were added the marrow scooped from bones and the melted fat
that was gulped bv the pint. Kidney fat could be drunk without
limit; one was more mode.-ate with the tastier but oily belly fat, which
might be automatically regurgitated if taken in quantity, although such
a rejection interrupted no one's goumandizing very long.
There will
be occasion farther on to describe Indian methods of hunting the buffalo,
the making of dried meat and pemmican, and the additional uses the buffalo
served. It seems proper to point out here that buffalo meat was
a complete diet. The Indians who lived along the Missouri cultivated
corn and squashes and their immediate neighbors sometimes got their
produce in trade; those who lived near the Continental Divide and on
the inner edge of the Great Basin regularly ate a variety of roots;
all tribes knew many edible plants on which to fall back in starving
times, But most of the Plains tribes lived exclusively on meat, and
so except for two or three weeks a year did the mountain men.
At rendezvous and at the beginning of the trip West there would be coffee,
sugar, hardtack, and bacon, usually nothing more and these in sternly
limited quantities. For the rest there was only meat and this
meant primarily buffalo meat, fresh, dried, or made into pemmican.
No hardier people ever lived. There was no scurvy; in fact, nothing
is rarer in the literature than mention of a sick trapper.
Almost daily immersion in the glacial water of mountain streams eventually
stiffened their joints, but otherwise a trapper sick enough to be mentioned
has a hangover or "the venereals," which he got from a squaw
who had got them from one of his predecessors. One illness
was attributed to the diet: greenhorns making their first acquaintance
with buffalo were supposed to get dysentery. Larpenteur speaks
of "mal de vache," others mention the same phenomenon, and
there is some modern evidence that a shift to a meat diet may temporarily
produce it. The chances are, however, that the facts which Larpenteur
noted should be explained with a reference to another shi which occurred
at about the same stage of the western journey. The travelers were now
frequently drinking alkali-impregnated water, which is to say more or
less concentrated solutions of Epsom or Glauber's salts, or of both.
This, then, is the mountain epicure's moment of climax.
Hump and boss boil in a kettle, cracked marrow bones sizzle by the fire,
there are as many ribs to roast as a man may want. Crosslegged on the
ground, using only their Green River knives, the trappers eat their
way through sit or ten pounds of fat cow. Wellbeing overspreads
them; fat cow is an intoxicant only less persuasive than the alcohol
which they will not taste again till the next rendevous-unless the partisan
has brought a couple of curved tin kegs for Indian customers and on
some noteworthy occasion can be induced to broach one."
"Across
the Wide Missouri" by Bernard DeVoto
"
among the delicacies set before us, was...the fruit of prickly pears
(cacti) boiled in water some 10 or 12 hours... compressed
through a thickcioth Into the fluid in which it had been boiled ...
The immense quantities ... at the proper season, render the above an
entertainment not uncommon
"Rocky
Mountain Life" by Rufus B. Sage Page 19
The flesh of these animals (Prairie Dog) is tender and
quite palatable, and their oil superior in fineness ... to that of any
other known animals; it is highly valued as a medicine in certain cases."
IBID
Page 150
"The agreeable odor exhaled from the drippings of
the frying flesh, contained in the pan, invited the taste ... Catching
up the vessel a testing sip made way for the whole of its contents,
at a single drought,-full six gills! (24ounces) Strange as it may seem.
I did not experience the least unpleasant feeling as the result of my
extraordinary potation. The stomach never rebels against buffalo
fat... "
IBID
Page 69
"We
rise in the morning with the sun, stir up our fires, and roast our breakfast,
eating usually from one to two pounds of meat at a morning meal.
At ten o'clock we lunch, dine at two, sup at five, and lunch at eight,
and during the night-watch commonly provide ourselves with two or three
"hump-ribs" and a marrow bone..."
"Across the Rockies to the Columbia" by John
Kirk Townsend Pace 106
"This evening, we purchased a large bag of Indian
meal, of which we made a kettle of mush, and mixed with it a considerable
quantity of horse tallow and salt. This was, I think, one of the
best meals I ever made, We all are heartily of it and pronounced it
princely food."
IBID
Page 170
"I was surprised to find Mr. N (Nutell) and Captain
T. picking the last bones of a bird which they had cooked ...
it was an unfortunate owl which I had killed in the morning..."
IBID
Page 167
"...an abundance of dry buffalo beef, and some bags
of coarse oventoasted loaves, a kind of hard bread, much used by Mexican
travellers. "
"Commerce
of the Prairies" by Josiah Gregg
Page 65-67
"That night parched coffee gave out...we selected two flat
stones ... which we placed on the fire till heated; then one was taken
off, the coffee poured on, and stirred with a stick. The stones
switched alternately as they became cool. When the coffee was
sufficiently burned, a piece of skin was laid on the ground, and a clean
stone,...rested on the knee of the grinder... a smaller stone, held
in hand, reduced the grains between it ... to a powder by rotary
motion.
"Wah-to-Yah and the Taos Trail" by Lewis Garrard Page
285
"I galloped up to our party again, with a piece
of mess pork, for which I gave one dollar"
IBID
Page 235
"...for
at the Fort (Bents) we purchased pepper, pepper sauce and other rarities"
IBID
Page 249
"Usually the beaver were skinned at the place where
they were trapped, and only the pelt, castor glands, and tail were taken.
The tail was considered a delicacy, but only when meat was extremely
scarce would the trappers eat any other part of the body
"Broken
Hand" by Leroy Hafen Page 28
"Mr. Fitzpatrick (writes Fremont), who
had often endured every extremity of want during the course of his mountain
life, and knew well the value of provisions in this country, had watched
over our stock with jealous vigilance, and there was an abundance of
flour, rice, sugar and coffee in the camp; and again we fared luxuriously."
IBID
Page 190
"Never in his life was Jedediah Smith disposed to
laze about a fort eating salt pork, or even hump-rib and beaver tail."
"Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West"
by Dale Morgan Page 45
"The camp had been without meat since the morning
of the fourth, and the ration these two days was half a
pint of flour per man, plus the only dog they had in camp."
IBID
Page 264
"...it is for this that I go for days without eating,
& am pretty well satisfied if I can gather a few roots, a few Snails,
or, much better Satisfied if we can afford our selves a piece of Horse
Flesh, or a fine Roasted Dog."
IBID
Page 312
Clothing
"The elder of the company was a tall gaunt man, with a face browned
by a twenty years exposure to the extreme climate of the mountains;
his long black hair, as yet scarcely tinged with gray, hung almost to
his shoulders, but his cheeks and chin were cleanly shaved, after the
fashion of the mountain men. His dress was the usual hunting-frock
of buckskin, with long fringes down the seams, with pantaloons similarly
ornamented, and mocassins of Indian make."
"Life in the Far West" - George Frederick Ruxton
Page 4
"Thus
soliloquizing, Killbuck knocked the ashes from his pipe, and placed
it in the gaily ornamented case which hung round his neck, drew his
knife-bell a couple of holes, took his rifle, which he carefully covered
with the folds of his Navajo blanket ......
IBID
Page 1
"...Williams
always rode ahead, his body bent over his saddle-horn, across which
rested a long heavy rifle, his keen gray eyes peering from under the
slouched brim of a flexible felt-hat, black and shining with grease.
His buckskin hunting-shirt, bedaubed until it had the appearance of
polished leather, hung in folds over his bony carcass; his nether extremities
being clothed in pantaloons of the same material ( with scattered fringes
down the outside of the leg which ornaments, however, had been pretty
well thinned to supply "whangs" for mending mocassins or pack-saddles),
which, shrunk with wet, clung tightly to his long, spare,, sinewy legs.
His feet were thrust into a pair of Mexican stirrups, made of wood,
and as big as coal-scuttles,. and iron spurs of incredible proportions,
with tinkling drops attached to the rowels, were fastened to his heel,
a bead-worked strap, four inches broad, securing them over the instep.
In the shoulder-belt which sustained his powder-horn and bullet- pouch,
were fastened the various instruments essential to one pursuing his
mode of life. An awl, with dear-horn handle, and the point defended
by a case of cherry-wood carved by his own hand, hung at the back of
the belt, side by side with a worm for cleaning the rifle: and under
this was a stout and quaint-looking bullet wood, the handles guarded
by strips of buckskin to save his fingers from burning when running
balls, having for its companion a little bottle made from the point
of an antelope's horn, scrapped transparent, which contained the "medicine"
used in baiting the traps."
IBID
Page 112-113
The two strangers approached. One, a man of some fifty years of
age, of middle height and stoutly built, was clad in a white shooting-jacket,
of cut unknown in mountain tailoring, and a pair of trousers of the
well-known material called "shephard's plaid"; a broad brimmed
Panama shaded his face, which was ruddy with health and exercise; a
belt round the waist supported a handsome bowie-knife, and a double-barreled
fowling-piece was slung across his shoulder."
His
companion was likewise dressed in a light shooting-jacket, of many pockets
and dandy cut, rode on an English saddle and in boots, and was armed
with a superb double rifle, glossy from the case, and bearing few marks
of use or service. He was a tall, fine-looking fellow of thirty,
with light hair and complexion; a scrupulous beard and mustache; a wide-awake
hat, with a short pipe stuck in the band, but not very black with smoke;
an elaborate powder-horn over his shoulder, with a Cairngorm in
the butt as large as a plate; a blue handkerchief tied round his throat
in a sailor's knot, and the collar of his shirt turned carefully over
it. He had, moreover, a tolerabled idea of his very correct appearance,
and wore Woodstock gloves."
IBID
Page 132
AMERICAN
TRAPPERS IN TAOS
"
These, divested of their hunting-coats of buckskin, appear in their
bran-new shirts of gaudy calico, and close fitting buckskin pantaloons,
with long fringes down the outside seam from the hip to the ankle with
mocassins, ornamented with bright beads and porcupine quills.
Each, round his waist, wears his mountain-belt and scalp-knife, ominous
of the company he is in, and some have pistols sticking in their belt."
IBID
Page 187
"
Also they had artifacts to sell, especially moccasins and buckskins.
The mountain man would likely outfit himself with expensive heavy shirts,
breeches, and capotes of wool, but these would not last long in
his business and he needed buckskin breeches and leggings to fall back
on. He comes down in our iconography clad in this buckskin uniform,
a native American costume always handsome in dry weather ( though black
where pageantry makes it tan ) whose fringe and natural folds
especially recommend it to sculptors. But the uniform signified
that he had ripped his store clothes to pieces, for buckskins, though
tough and so ideal for brush country, were uncomfortable. The
best smoked of them would turn rain for a good many hours ( a
Mackinaw blanket was as waterproof as a Navaho rug ), but in the end
even the best would get watersoaked and clammy, shrink painfully, and
hang baggily when they dried."
"Across
the Wide Missouri" Bernard DeVoto
"...his
personal dress is a flannel or cotton shirt (if he is fortunate
enough to obtain one) If not, antelope skin answers the purpose of over
and undershirt, a pair of leather breeches with blanket or smoked buffalo
skin leggins. A coat made of blanket or buffalo robe, a hat or
cap of wool, buffalo or other skins, with his long hair falling loosely
over his shoulders completes his uniform."
"Journal
of a Trapper" written in 1846 by Osborne Rassell
made
of prepared skins, though most of the "The clothing of the hunters
themselves is generally m wear blanket "capotes" and calico
shirts."
"Life
in the Rocky Mountains" by Warren Ferris
"Red
shirts (flannel) appear in other descriptions as well as paintings of
the era. Flopped hats were the most common form of headgear,
but so were bandanas and various fur caps. The familiar
caps of fur with a leather visor often seen today is nowhere to be found
in the period, either in descriptions of eyewitness sketches."
The Buckskin-Clad Mountain Man Fact or Fiction? by Richard B. Lacrosse
Jr.
"...is
his ludicrous apology for pantaloons. This is generally made of deer
or buffalo skin, similar to our present fashion, except the legs, which
are left unsewed from the thigh downwards a loose pair of cotton drawers,
cut and made in like manner, and worn beneath....the next thing that
meets the gaze, is his black, slouching, broad-brimmed hat, (sombrero)
...next.a coarse parti-colored blanket ( charape ) ... securely girted
.. by a waistband of leather..with heavy spurs attached to their heels
(bearing gaffs an inch and a half in length.."
"Rocky
Mountain Life" by Rufus B. Sage Pace 40
"The
shirts of his jeans coat"
IBID
Page 82
"the hunter, turbaned with a red handkerchief"
IBID
Page 56
"He
accompanied us to a store in the town, and selected a number of articles
for us, among which were several pairs of leathern pantaloons, enormous
overcoats, made of green blankets, and white wool hats, with round crowns,
fitting tightly to the head, brims five inches wide, and almost hard
enough to resist a rifle ball"
"Across
the Rockies to the Columbia" by John Kirk Townsend
Page 11-12
"Such
things as spare waist coats, shaving boxes, soap and stockings.....in
fact the whole appearance of our party is sufficiently primitive; many
of the men dressed entirely in deer skin...the old trappers and hunters
wear their hair flowing on their shoulders, and their large grizzled
beards would scarcely disgrace the bedouin of the desert."
IBID
Page 66
"...our
large blanket capeans..."
IBID
Page 72
"On
my neck was a black silk handkerchief..."
"Wah-to-Yah and the Taos Trail" by Lewis Garrard
Page 36
"...... par fleche ... moccasin soles is the principle use.."
IBID
Page 52-53
"Some
Mexican-Indian (Pimo) moccasins, that 1 have worn, are long toed with
a sole of
par fleche lapping, over on top of the foot..."
IBID
Page 96
"...a
Mexican, mounted of a strong iron grey horse, He wore, in lieu of a
hat, a handkerchief bound over his head..."
IBID
Page 120
"A long-browned rifle rested on his shoulder ... his long black,
uncombed hair hung in strings from beneath his greasy wool hat ... on
his feet were thick moccasins, and to judge from the cut, of his own
fashioning. His pantaloons, of grey cassinet, were threadbare
and rudely patched with buckskin. Instead of a coat, a blanket
was thrown over the shoulder and fastened, at the waist, by a black
leather belt, in which was thrust a brass-studded leather sheath, sustaining
a "Green River" of no small pretensions as to length..."
IBID
Page 121
"The
spurs are generally iron, though silver spurs are very frequent.
The shanks of the vacquero spurs are three to five inches long, with
rowels sometimes six inches in diameter."
IBID
Page 150
"...that
myself and several others had not changed hickory shirts since leaving
Bents fort- forty-one or two days."
IBID
Page 154
"The
women ... do not wear bonnet.;, using instead the rebozo or mantilla-a
scarf of cotton or silk, five to six feet in length by two or more in
width ... A shirt is worn a trifle shorter than the present States
fashion ... the figures above the waist, is invested with a chemise,
with short arms ... were too low-necked ... The men, generally speaking,
wear pantaloons open on the outside seam of the leg and lined with buttons
to fasten at pleasure; while underneath, a pair of
white drawers is disclosed
to view - a funny colored shirt and vest, and an oblong blanket (of
Mexican or Navajo Indian manufacture...) with a hole in the center for
the head. A tall, peaked, oil cloth-covered hat of straw or brown
wool and yellow zapotes-shoes- complete the costume."
IBID
Page 174-175
A
DESCRIPTION OF A MEXICAN VAQUERO
"...a peculiar riding costume ... consists of a sombrero a peculiarly
shaped low crowned hat with wide brim, covered with oil-cloth and surmounted
with a band of tinsel cord nearly an inch in diameter; a chaqueta or
jacket of cloth gaudily embroidered with braid and fancy barrel buttons;
a curously shaped article called caizoneras, intended for pantaloons,
with the outer part of the legs open from hip to ankle-the borders set
with tinkling filigree buttons, and the whole fantastically trimmed
with tinsel lace and cords of the same materials ... the nether garment
is supported by a rich sash which is drawn very tightly around the body
... Then there are the botas which somewhat resemble the leggins worn
by the bandits of Italy, and are made of embossed leather, embroidered
with fancy silk and tinsel thread and bound around the knee with curiously
tasselled garters. The sarape saltillero (a fancy blanket) completes
the picture."
"Commerce of the Prairies" by Josiah Gregg
Page 149
"The most "fashionable" prairie dress is the fustion
frock of the city-bred merchant furnished with a multitude of pockets
capable of accommodating a variety of "extra tackling".
Then there is the back woodsman with his linsey or leather hunting shirt-the
farmer with his blue jean coat. The wagoner with his flannel-sleeve
vest..."
IBID
Page 33
...
similar modes of costume and equipage, but of coarser material, are
used by the lower classes. Nor are they restricted among these
to the riding-dress, but are generally worn as ordinary apparel.
Common velveteens, fustions, blue drilling. and similar stuff are very
much in fashion..."
IBID
Page 151
"The
ladies, however, never wear either hat, cap or bonnet,
except for riding; but in lieu of it ..... the rebozo (or scarf)
or a large shawl, is drawn over the head. The rebozo is for the
most fashionable; it is seven or eight feet in length by nearly
a yard wide, and is made of diverse stuffs-silk, linen or cotton,
and usually variegated and fioured in the warp by symmetrically
disposed threads waved in the dying,
IBID
Page 151-152
"The ordinary apparel of the female peasantry and the rancheras,
is the enagus or petticoat of home-made flannel; or ... of coarse blue
or scarlet cloth, connected to a wide list of some contrasting-colored
stuff, bound around the waist over a loose white chemise, which is
the only covering for
the body, eccept the Rebozo."
IBID
Page 152
"Them's
great briches of yourn" broke in he abruptly, after eyeing
my fringed buckskins for some moments, "Whord' they riginated-
Santy Fee? Beats linsey-woolsey all holler..."
IBID
Page 192
"What
with the blood drippings of one sort and another, and a aood substantial
coat of grease, the color of a mountain man's buckskins was a
far cry from the delicate beige-brown of the moving picture. They were
black. Dirty black, greasy black, shiny black, bloody black,
stinky black. Black."
"A
Majority of Scoundrels" by Don Berry
Page 312
"We
remember to have seen them with their band ... Their long cavalcade
stretched in single ftle for nearly half a mile. Sublette still
wore his arm in a sling. The mountaineers in their rude hunting
dresses, armed with rifles and roughly mounted, and leading their
pack-horses down a hill of the forest, looked like banditti returning
with plunder."
IBID
Page 312
A
DESCRIPTION OF A CALIFORNIO
"
The men wore garments of many colors, consisting of blue velveteen
breeches and jacket, the jacket having a scarlet collar and cuffs, and
the breeches being open at the knee to display the
stocking of white, Beneath these were displayed high buskins made of
deer skin, fringed down the outside of the ankle, and laced with a cord
and tassels. On the head was worn a broad brimmed sombrero; and
over the shoulders the jaunty Mexican sarape. When they rode,
the Califonians wore enormous spurs, fastened on by jingling chains.
Their saddles were so shaped that it was difficult to dislodge the rider,
being high before and behind; and the indispensable lasso hung coiled
from the pommel. Their stirrups were of wood, broad on the bottom,
with a guard of leather that protected the fancy baskin of the horseman
from injury. Thus accoutred, and mounted on a wild horse, the
Californian was a suitable comrade, in appearance, at least, or the
buckskin clad trapper, with his high beaver-skin ca , his gay
scarf, and moccasins, and profusion of arms. The dress of the women
was a gown of gaudy calico or silk, and a bright colored shawl, which
served for mantilla and bonnet together."
"River
of the West-The Adventures of Joe Meek" by Francis Ford Victor
"Sometimes
after trapping all day, the tired and soaked trapper lies down in his
blankets at night, still wet. But by-and-by he is awakened by the pinching
of his moccasins, and is obliged to rise and seek the water again to
relieve himself of the pain. For the same reason, when spring comes,
the trapper is forced to cut off the lower half of his buckskin breeches
and piece them down with blanket leggins, which he wears all through
the trapping season."
IBID Page 55
...
Sadler, an old acquaintance, with as big a heart as any man in the mountains,
attired in a costume claiming originality with the Indians, Mexicans
and himself."
"Wah-to-Yah and the Taos Trail" by Lewis Garrard
Page 202
Camp
Gear and Miscellaneous
"Here
the trappers erected skin lodges or rough log cabins and "holed
up" for the winter."The winter-camp of a hunter of the Rocky
Mountains would doubtless prove an object of interest to the unsophisticated,"
wrote Sage. "It is usually located in some spot sheltered
by hills or rocks, for the double purpose of securing the full warmth
of the sun's rays, and screening it from the notice of strolling
Indians that may happen in its vicinity. Within a convenient proximity
to it stands some grove, from which an abundance of dry fuel is procurable
when needed; and equally close the ripplings of a watercourse salute
the ear with their music. His shantee faces a huge fire, and is formed
of skins carefully extended over an arched frame-work of slender poles,
which are bent in the form of a semicircle and kept to their places
by inserting their extremities in the ground. Near this is his
"graining block," planted aslope, for the ease of the operative
in preparing his skins for the finishing process in the art of dressing;
and not far removed is a stout frame contrived from four pieces of timber,
so tied together as to leave a square of sufficient dimensions for the
required purpose, in which, perchance, a skin is stretched
to its fullest extension, and the hardy mountaineer is busily engaged
in rubbing it with a rough stone or "scraper" to fit it for
the manufacture or clothing. The dirt floors of the
skin lodges, such as Sage describes were covered with reeds, dried grass,
or small evergreen boughs, and on these the trappers spread their fur
robes and heavy woolen blankets.. The larger pieces of baggage
were then placed inside the lodge, close against the walls to help exclude
the wind and cold."
"This Reckless Breed of Men" by Robert Clelland
Page 33-34
"His
next visit ,was to a smith's store, which smith was black by trade and
black by nature, for he was a nigger, and, moreover celebrated as being
the best maker of beaver-traps in St. Louis, of whom he purchased six
new traps, paying for the same twenty dollars-procuring, at the same
time, an old trapsack, made of stout buffalo skin, in which to carry
them.
"Life
in the Far West" by Frederick Ruxton Page 55
"A single buffalo robe folded double and spread upon the ground,
with a rock, or knoll, or some like substitute for a pillow, furnishes
the sole base-work upon which the sleeper reclines, and, contentedly
enjoys his rest."
"Rocky
Mountain Life" by Rufus B. Sage
Page 37
"Facilities
for carrying water were small and few. After a hard march they
made a dry camp, and on the following day continued the journey,
the men and animals suffering greatly from exhaustion and thirst."
"Broken
Hand" by Leroy R. Hafen
Page 24
"...camp whare we pitched a tent the onley one we had--"
IBID
Page 27
"They are all priced and set down at what I believe they cost me
except the spy class which would be worth here about fifteen dollars,
but in the Indian country I could at any time get a good horse or forty
dollars for it."
IBID
Page 184
"...the
American camp consisted of twenty-five tents, perhaps a hundred trappers..
"Jedediah
Smith and the Opening of the West" by Dale Morgan Page 180
"A
trappers equipment in such cases is generally one animal upon which
is placed one or two Epishemores a riding saddle and bridle a sack containing
six Beaver traps, a blanket with an extra pair of moccasins, his powder
horn and bullet pouch with a belt to which is attached a butcher knife
, a small wooden box containing bait for Beaver, a tobacco sack with
a pipe and implements for making fire with sometimes a hatchet fastened
to the pommel of his saddle..."
"Journal
of a Trapper" by Osbourne Russell Page 82
"This
was a severe cold night but I was comfortably situated with one Blanket
and two Epishemores and plenty of dry wood to make a fire
IBID
Page 94
"The
men of the party, to the numbers of about fifty, are encamped on the
banks of the river, and their tents whiten the plain for the distance
of half a mile . ..... The beautiful white tents..."
"Across the Rockies to the Columbia" by John Kirk Townsend"
Page 84
"They are all frequently taken with the hook, and, the trout particularly,
afford excellent sport to the lovers of angling."
IBID Page 84
"...except for the scanty supply they carried in their canteens."
"Commerce of the Prairies" by Josiah Gregg
Page 14
"...kitchen
and table ware' of the traders usually consists of a skillet, a frying-pan,
a sheet-iron camp kettle, a coffeepot and each man with his tin cup
and a butchers knife."
IBID Page 39
"...
outside the wagons, also, the travellers spread their beds which consist,
for the most part, of buffalo rugs and blankets. Many content
themselves with a single Mackinaw, but a pair constitutes the
most regular pallet."
IBID
Page 43
"...a small sheet of iron or copper, called a coval..."
IBID
Page 109
"...Two
forked poles, which are generally driven upright into the ground, as
far apart as occasion requires, with four feet or about, visible, A
pole is then laid from one fork to the other, and other small ones,
seven or eight feet in length, laid, the smaller ends on the cross pole,
the butts resting on the ground. On top of these are spread raw
hides of beef and the skins of game, and under the frame the soft ends
of the pinyon and cedar branches are spread to the depth of a foot or
more. On top of that, deerskins are laid ... In front is
the blazing pine fire, and at one side a small stick is driven in the
ground, an inch or two of the branches remaining, on which the tin cups
are
hung when not in use."
IBID
Page 145
"....one
dollar and a half per yard for course tow linen for tents...."
"Three
Years Among the Indians and Mexicans" by Thomas James
ITEMS RECOVERED AFTER THE UMPQUA MASSACRE..
"..3 horses,
2 mules, 7 steel traps, 1 copper covered kettle, 1 rifle, I rifle barrel,
some beads, books, journals and other papers..."
"Jedediah
Smith and the Opening of the West" By Dale Morgan
s
horse, at the same time trying to put a cap on his gun..."
"River
of the West-The Adventures of Joe Meek" - Francis Fuller Victor
"As
Pike had found during his trip up the Mississippi, rifles adequate for
use in the eastern woodlands simply could not handle game of this size,
especially at extended ranges. ..it was found that the rifles of small
bore taking form 60 to 70 balls to the pound (.40 to.43 caliber) very
frequently did not kill, although they might hit; while rifles taking
from 30 to 40 to the pound (.49 to .54 caliber) seldom missed killing
on the spot.."(Grizzle Bear)
"Firearms of the American
West 1803-1865"- Louis A. Garavaglia and
Charles G.Worman Page 54
"...in terms of supplying Pennsylvania-made rifles to the West
during the fur-trade years, John Joseph Henry and his Bolton Gun Works
of Nazareth soon overshadowed all other makers... In October of
that year(1825) William B. Astor wrote Henry we usually get 100 or 200
(rifles) manufactured in the United States. The barrels of our
Rifles are, from 3ft 8 inches, to 3ft 10,. and the calibre is in part
of them 32(to the pound) while others carry a ball of 40 to the pound-the
Locks are of the best strong roller kind; but not waterproof-The stocks
are generally of our native Maple, or Sugar- tree, but we may wish part
of them of Black Walnut. The mounting including the Patchbox ,
is of Brass and well ornamented: and each Gun must have Wipers to screw-on
to the thimble-rods, and a good Ball mould. The whole weight
of the Rifle complete, is from 9 to 10 lbs...
Another order sent to Henry
in September of 1831, requested: 10 Rifles, sing. trig. bar(rels) 3ft.
4 (inches). Cal. 32(to the pound) 5 inch locks, best quality,
maple stock. chequered, steel mt. with covers, weight not less than10#
nor more than 11#. 10 Rifle Barrel 3ft. 6 in. long cal. 23(to
the pound) otherw. same as the above..."
IBID
Page 35-36
"Despite
the variance in some details of construction, however, the styles and
dimensions of the plains rifle's major components had, by 1830, become
relatively common. A representative Hawken of that period would
have a heavy octagon barrel, with a length from 38 in. to 40 in. and
a caliber of .50 to .53, inletted into a stout full- length, stock of
straight-grained stain-darkened maple, fitted with iron buttplate, trigger
guard, and forestock cap. If the rifle had a patchbox it too would
be of iron, but by this time patchboxes were becoming less and less
popular .... this 1830 Hawken very probably had double set trigcers,
which had been popular on earlier Kentuckies and became a standard feature
of Hawkens. The lock, whether flint or percussion, commonly came
from an independent lock supplier."
IBID
Page 41
"...in
1832 .... Nevertheless, flintlocks remained the choice of the
more conservative frontiersmen for another ten years of so .... there
is a strong probability that the Hawken 'shop continued turning out
Flintlocks well into the 1830s ... By the mid-1830s the advantages of
the
percussion loct were becoming apparent to a respectable number of plains-rifle
buyers, and probabilities are that at that time there were at least
as many percussion arms coming out of the Hawken shop as flintlocks."
IBID
Page 42-43
"...decorative
inlays were rare indeed .... Double set trigaers and iron mountings
remained standard items. By the late 1830s most Hawkens incorporated
the percussion lock..."
IBID
Page 45
"...one
of the most important suppliers of muzzle-loading rifles to the West,
was Henry E. Leman,..After working for other Pennsylvania smiths, Leman
established his own concern in 1834. ... not until the mid-1830s, as
percussion arms, did underhammers acquire a following amoung the gunmakers
of New England."
IBID
Page 46
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