Fur, fur, fabulous fur!

“The mountain man is one of the most recognizable symbols of the young American West. He represents the dream that people can seek out their destiny through hard work, a little luck, and an abundance of natural resources. We nostalgically look to him to find what many of us seek in our increasingly frenzied world: scenic beauty, individualism, adventure, and freedom. One hundred and fifty years after the heyday of the rendezvous, the landscape of the American West still holds glimpse of the enterprising soul of the mountain man.”[1]

This is the introduction from a book I have picked up for this project and I could not bring myself to try to put it into my own words. The author, Doug Erickson, Head of Special Collections in the Aubrey R. Watzek Library at the Lewis & Clark College put it eloquently. When thinking of the mountain man we feel all these things and more. He is an icon that stands out as we look back at history; he is not the brave soldier or the rich railroad man that perhaps comes to mind as an icon of American history, but he is an icon that appeals to us all as the any man who can make it. As an icon, he stands to give us hope that we can better our lives even if we have to get a little dirty and kill a few bears to get it done.

Furs have been important to humans as far back into history as the term “man” can be used. They have been used to clothe us, keep us warm, and to show status. Furs have been dyed, cut, stitched, and softened into warm wearable symbols of wealth. Kings in England and Scotland ordained that furs were only to be worn by the rich and powerful men and women of the church and courts and that those of lesser stations wore clothes that illustrated their place in the world. To show the world their new status, the newly rich would invest heavily in furs to announce their coming into the higher echelons of society. As time wore on, more and more people demanded furs and while the social bar for wearing them lowered the luxury of the furs did not. Populations of fur wearing people exploded while the populations of fur-bearing animals were dropping drastically. When word came that furs were found aplenty in the New World, the spark of the mountain man was born.[2]

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[1] Fred Gowans, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (n.p.: Gibbs Smith, 2005), pg. 11.

[2] Eric Dolin, Fur, Fortune and Empire (n.p.: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011), pg. 6-8

Figure 1 Beaver Photo Credit: http://animal.discovery.com/mammals/beaver/

Figure 2 Natalie Clifford by artist Alice Pike Barney. Photo credit: http://www.modeknit.com/2009/06/work-rest-work-play.html