The Diet of the Mountain Men
Author(s): William E. Holston
Source: California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Dec., 1963), pp. 301-309
Published by: California Historical Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25155578 .
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of the Mountain Men
The Diet
By William
E. Holston
"the
Jackson Turner, was
can
and civilization."1
This
savagery
meeting
place between
hypothesis
a
be demonstrated
of those American
fur trap
vividly
through
study
were
as
and
who
traders
known
the "mountain men." The average
pers
The
American
mountain
said Frederick
frontier,
man was
an unwashed,
and unwanted
unlettered,
individual.
He divorced himself from civilization for most of the year, preferring
the solitude
most
Unlike
of a
beaver
placid
Anglo-Americans,
to the confines
pond
was
not adverse
he
of an Eastern
to
marrying
city.
one or
two Indian squaws. Similar to the Indian, he distinctly
emphasized his
and understood
often,
sign language.2 The
trapper's
mirrored
Indian way
the
of life. Both the mountain
particular,
and Indians had to live off the land. Their
diet was
largely meat,
words,
gestured
in
diet,
men
especially the flesh of the bison. Elk was probably second in consump
tion for most
men ate
of the trappers.3 Less
the mountain
frequently,
and
other
small
horses, dogs, beaver,
deer, bear, antelope,
game. When
as
was
food
in this
often happened
and
sub
scarce,
hunting
gathering
men
were
to
mountain
the
reduced
sistence,
eating the grease in the rifle stocks, fringes, and unnecessary parts of buckskin
clothes, gun and ammunition bags, and every scrap of edible material, boiled up
in an Assinaboin
buds
and
For
basket
with
hot
stones,
and
finally
were
reduced
to
[eating]
twigs.4
lack of meat
the winter
the Indians often were
months,
during
to a starvation
meat became
When
the Indians
available,
point.
were
to
off
men, also living precariously
prone
gorging. The mountain
this primitive
trait of
was
the land, adopted
when
food
overindulgence
men often
The mountain
obtainable.
in
spent "this month
luxuriating
reduced
William
E. Holston,
who
received
his A.B.
and A.M.
degrees
from
the Univer
sity of Southern California, is currently both a teacher of United States history
at Boyd High School in Long Beach and an instructor in California
history at
Compton College.
301
302
California Historical Society Quarterly
the wealth
of buffalo
and the next
meat,
to the very
reduced
brink
of
starvation."5
The
claimed
major
that
food
of
men
the mountain
meat
fat buffalo
was
far
was
meat.
buffalo
to beef.6
superior
Trappers
Bison were
usually butchered in the Indian manner.7 Turned on its belly, with the
legs positioned
down
the
spine.
white man would
on either
Peeling
butcher
side for support,
away the skin
a buffalo
into about
were
a few
taken
usually
to
the backbone
the tail, were
along
the depouilles.9
just under
From
sides,
the
twenty
opened
average
When
pieces.8
were
taken, and
parts
to scavengers.
small and
The
large
first. Overlying
the hump,
and extending
however,
game was plentiful,
only
the vast bulk of the meat was
left
humps
beast was
the shaggy
from both
choice
two broad,
the hide,
thick
the hunter
of fat called
strips
took large sections
of fat known as the "fleece." The fleece from a large bull might weigh
as much
chop
as two hundred
free
shoulders,
rump. The
pounds.10
ribs. Various
the
hump
the fillets or muscle
A
hatchet
other
cuts
or tomahawk
of meat
was
to
used
taken were
the
the thighs, and
the shoulders,
underlying
removed by "ripping open the skin of the lower
was
tongue
heart and
it out through
the oriface
[sic]."11 The
jawbone and pulling
were
was
marrow
to
liver
added
from the
the fare. A favorite appetizer
one
and the marrow
bones. The bones were
cracked
(about
leg
pound
to a bone) was extracted. Blood often was drained from the
body cavity
and saved. The
were
considered
testicles
as choice
of a bull
bison were
cut
and
the body
a pregnant
cow,
udder
the fetus. The
from
If the animal was
pieces.12
cut from
unborn
calf were
legs of the
was "held as
to the tongue
in delicacy."13
Brains
second
hardly
out the
the skull and scooping
removed
bloody
by splitting open
tents
hand.
by
the raw
were
con
or
If the trappers had enough time, they might make
jerky
pemmican.
was made from sun- and wind-dried
lean meat. Cut with
strips of
Jerky
on cottonwood
to
the thin strips were
the grain of the meat,
dry
hung
racks.14 A slow fire, under the meat, helped to speed up the drying proc
was desired, the
ess. If
removed
from
and sinews were
gristle
pemmican
the jerky. The dried meat was pounded into a powder, poured into a
buffalo hide bag, andmixed with melted fat.15Dried berries were often
added for flavor, and the product kept well on long trips into theRocky
Mountains.
The Diet of theMountain Men
When
mountain
slaying
a buffalo,
men
meat
had been without
traces
all
days before
vanished
civilization
for several
of Anglo-Saxon
skull was hacked
the bison's
Immediately,
instantly.
down
brains were wolfed
in great,
bloody
down
the trapper's
303
chunks.
and the raw
open,
The
blood
was
and usually
face, arms, and body.
spilled
quaffed
was
torn from the
and unwashed,
it was
The
liver
body cavity. Bloody
or
contents
the gall bladder's
seasoned with gunpowder,
by squeezing
over it, and then consumed without
further preparation.16 The gall was
for "a man could get quite a glow if he took it straight
drunk sometimes,
cut away from the
on an empty
stomach."17 The
greasy fleece was
raw meat or fat were consumed
if the
ribs and eaten raw. Other
strips of
was
not satiated.
group still
men would build a fire from
Arriving back in camp, the mountain
either
aspen,
quaking
sunflower
sagebrush,
stalks,
or
dry
buffalo
chips.
The buffalo dung was called hois de vache, literally, "wood from a
It burned
cow."18
and was
well
a favorite
men.
fuel of the mountain
was
was seldom well done. It
Meat,
usually
by the trappers,
en
raw condition.
in a
cooked
Meat was
often
bolted
down
nearly
on
a
meat
lean
of
and
with
fat
appolas,
alternating
sharpened
pieces
stick.19 This
stick was held over the fire or thrust into the ground beside
cooked
the blaze.
over
Bones
were
shoulders
their
clean
by
gnawed
to the wolves.
The
the trappers and then
was
buffalo marrow
thrown
boiled;
into hot water,
and buffalo
blood
dropped
a thick
was
it became
stirred into the mixture
until
"soup."20 Fats,
were
at
were
meal.
boiled
the
fat,
any
kidney
especially
popular
They
however
it sometimes
was
briefly or eaten raw. The oily belly fat of a bison was a favorite but
if taken in excess.
vomiting
food eaten
the most
unique
Perhaps
were
boudins. These
the small intestines
caused
on sticks until
the intestines were
roasted
the heat
lengths,
were
to
tied sometimes
them to become
Boudins
prevent
puffy.
venient
caused
the fat from leaking into the fire. The
and
tended,
When
tures.21
much
men were
by the mountain
of the bison. Cut into con
little
clouds
crisp,
of steam
the intestines
intestines quickly became dis
from numerous
escaped
and their contents were
tiny punc
eaten with
gusto.
George
Canadian
F. Ruxton
trappers.
describes
The
men
a feast
had
placed
that he observed
several
yards
between
of
two
the greasy,
California Historical Society Quarterly
304
on a
them.
saddle
which
lay between
dirty
pad
slightly roasted intestine
ate
at
two trappers started
ends of the coils.
The
They
eating
opposite
as
to
as
each
the middle,
the other,
toward
possible
shouting
rapidly
their well-lubricated
"Feed fair!" Yards of intestine disappeared
down
until
throats
one,
overcome
by the unblushing attempts of his partner to bolt a vigorous mouthful,
would
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
and was bolted whole)
and, snapping up the ravished
required no mastication
to
turn
be
swallowed
in
and subjected
them,
portions, greedily
again withdrawn
to a similar
process
Bison were
therefore
other.22
the
by
incapable of traversing the high passes of the Rockies;
other
food
sources were
essential.
Of
all the foods
to
known
as
the flesh of the cougar or mountain
men,
lion, known
was
was
to
meat
of dogs
said
be the best of all.23 The
"painter meat,"
second in flavor to that of the cougar, and many
considered
early jour
the mountain
nals record
the eating
of dogs by trappers.
a source of food.
always
a fur
Charles
Larpenteur,
meat
wrote
makes
that he could "assure the reader that horse
trader,
horse
excellent
steaks."24 Other men were not so enthused. After
eating
as
man
one
wrote
white
that his party "belched
meat,
up the old stud
were
Horses
as ever"
strong
was gone.
for
several
days.25
were
Mules
eaten
also when
food
Deer and elk were common food sources. Jedediah Smith described
a feast on elk meat when
with
meat
raw
and half
greatest
alacrity."26
Bears were
hunted
who
is not
person
has no business
"men
be seen in ev'ry part of the camp
it with
the
in their hands devouring
could
roasted
"a
Nidever
and sport. George
wrote,
a
and
has
and
cautious,
good rifle,
good shot, cool,
a retired
fur
to hunt bears."27 Andrew W
Sublette,
for
food
a
trader, fell victim to a grizzly bear while hunting near Los Angeles
1853.28 His
case was
not
unusual,
for many
mountain
men
in
suffered
death or maulings because they loved the sport of bear hunting.
meat was
considered
extremely
Lynx
beaver tail was also relished. The mountain
or bark
plants
been
had
which
beaver,
type
of
that
the beavers
feeding
on wild
good
men
were
parsnip,
by
the
trappers,29
observed
carefully
The
eating.
caused men
flesh
but
the
from
to become
The Diet of theMountain Men
ill.30 Unless
violently
of the beaver.
When
they
became
food
were
scarce,
ate
the trappers
starving,
both
305
the
Indians
the tail
only
and mountain
men
would
scrape the putrid flesh from animal corpses. One famous trapper,
Thomas
in order to survive, peeled
the rotting flesh from
Fitzpatrick,
suste
the bones of a buffalo.31
beaver skins
roasted
Similarly,
provided
raven
nance for a
one
band divided
among
group of trappers. Another
seven men.
hide. The
buffalo
effort
were
reduced
and his
Sage
companions
or
was
boiled
hide
for twelve
fourteen
Rufus
It was of "so
it palatable.
glutenous
in its mastication."32
teeth employed
to make
cemented
the
a
eating
an
hours in
to
a nature
it almost
Jedediah
Smith,
writing to Ralph Smith inDecember of 1829, remarked that he would
go for days without eating, and am pretty well satisfied if I can gather a few roots,
a few snails, or better satisfied if we can afford ourselves a piece of horse flesh,
or a fine
roasted
dog.33
were
a
since they
annually placed in similar predicament,
of any sort along with
them.
was forced to eat wolves,
in
Bonneville
roots, and muskrats
Captain
order to survive.34 Joe Meek,
another mountain
man, was lucky enough
a crude hook, he
to find a brass
his
Fashioning
pin among
trappings.
Most
trappers
seldom took food
replenished his food supply with fat trout from the Snake River. He
did, however, admit the following: "I have held my hands in an ant hill
until they were covered with the ants, then greedily licked them off.
I have
the soles off my moccasins,
them in the fire, and
crisped
eaten them."35 Meek
also collected
for the cooking
large, black crickets
were
from the
When
the
insects
pot.
they
plucked
stopped kicking,
boiling
When
taken
water
and eaten.
forced
on a diet of
trappers existed
by drastic circumstances,
and insects. An
Indian village
in the Great
Basin was
frogs, snakes,
raid
for food. The
several sacks
invaded by trappers searching
yielded
ants. In another crisis, a band of
ate small
of sun-dried
trappers
hungry
cakes that were made of crushed, dried ants.36
Trappers did not worry
of
the men
with
Captain
about drinking the blood of animals. One
Bonneville's
trapping
party,
slit the
throat
of awounded buffalo and drank the tepid blood.87 James Ohio Pattie,
even went
so far as to describe
the blood
trapper and trader,
as
an
like
milk."38
fresh
Pattie
also
hinted
that his
of
"tasting
antelope
famous
California Historical Society Quarterly
306
drank
party
own
their
in a vain
urine
to refresh
attempt
parched
throats.89
man
the mountain
be
desperate,
might
most
cannibalism.
traits,
primitive
dietary
a mountain
man who
a
Bill Williams,
was
became
accused
of
guide,
some of his
ran out.40
when
the
food
eating
companions
supply
Perhaps
If the food
situation
became
to one of mankind's
reduced
the classic
of cannibalism
example
was
Charles
Gardner,
as "Old
known
Phil." On a trip to Fort Laramie, supplieswere exhausted, but Old Phil
solved the problem by eliminating his Indian companion. He amputated
the legs at the hip joints and took them with him. Witnesses at Fort
swore
Laramie
which
Phil
ner killed
that they saw him throwing
remnants,
away the gnawed
to as his
On
another
occasion, Gard
"provisions."
his own squaw, ate most of her, and left the remains unburied.
referred
Old Phil stated that if the human hands, head, and feet were cooked
as
as
then they were
tasty
enough,
pork. The
were
and
"too
recorded
Such
body
gristly
tough."41
are very rare.
nibalism,
however,
long
All
the months
when
they
of starvation
and gorging
for their annual rendezvous.
met
Fights
gathering.
were
ended
for the mountain
men
was a
drunken
noisy,
"a constant uproar from
This
and there was
frequent
parts of the
instances
of can
other
the hoards of Indian dogs brought along for the final grand feast."42
a
raw alcohol.
Indians, trappers, and traders drank diluted
Metheglin,
raw alcohol
was
a favorite.
drink made
from diluted
and honey,
sold for five
Whiskey
only
was
item which
dollars
a
pint
sold for several
at the
1832 rendezvous.
It was
the
days.48
Following a few days of drunken living, the trapper traded his beaver
skins
pound;
for
such
coffee,
pint.44 Typical
a year, Iwould
I would
as tobacco,
a
at three dollars
two dollars a
and sugar, at two dollars a
worth
pound;
"once
remarked:
of all of the mountain
men, Kit Carson
consider
luxurious
commodities
ameal
consisting
a
it
luxury."45
have
of bread, meat,
sugar,
and coffee.
After a few weeks of fighting, drinking, trading, and chasing Indian
man was
and return
eager to leave "civilization"
of
to his trap lines. His
of long months
furs, the resultant
product
on
sold.
been
His money
had
in icy streams, had been
spent
wading
was
to some
in
He
debt
and
often
Indian
alcohol,
gambling.
prostitutes,
not
did
he
trader, however
regret his actions and enthusi
apparently
next
rendezvous.
year's
astically
anticipated
women,
the mountain
The Diet of theMountain Men
The
helped
refused
excellent
recorded,
to
certain
disprove
to believe that men
307
man
has
average mountain
scientists
theories. For many
years
dietary
on
an
meat
all
could subsist
diet and remain
of
health
the
in good health. Experiments by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, in the twentieth
have
century,
meat diet will
shown
this belief
result
in dietary
to be
only
deficiencies;
partially
however
true.
a
Eating
a lean
predominantly
raw, fresh meat bill of fare, supplemented with liberal quantities of fat,
can eat. To main
that an individual
regimens
to
eat
to
need
six
would
tain good health,
person daily
eight pounds
find the cost
Americans
of meat.46 Modern
would
Also,
prohibitive.
raw
not be enthusiastic
most Americans
about eating almost
would
is one of the most
healthful
a
meat,
All
which
was
in grease and chunks of fat.
their health to meat and swore
attributed
smothered
the mountain
men
that
live on such
"the only food" for a man. "If a man could always
never
one
"he
die."47
old trapper,
would
didins," said
mountain
lasted only about
the
for
man, his heyday
Unfortunately
were
18
8
of
The
and
rendezvous
3
1839
twenty years.
noticeably
quieter
scarce as
fur
than previous years. The beaver had become
competitive
it was
companies depleted the supply. Silk hats had replaced beaver felt in
as
had replaced
the rendezvous.
The West,
style, and the trading fort
man
knew
the beaver. Never
the mountain
it, vanished with
again
a smokeless
in greasy buckskins
would
bearded men
fire
squat around
on
rare
of fat, roasted boudins,
hunks of
and gorge
and
meat, handfuls
to "Feed fair!"
raw liver, amid exortations
NOTES
i. George Rogers Taylor, The Turner Thesis (Boston, 1956), p. 2.
2. George E Ruxton, Life in the Far West (London, 1849), Passim. Ruxton's
book
presents
an excellent
description
of
the mountain
men's
jargon.
3. Hiram Martin Chittenden, The American Fur Trade in the Far West (New
York, 1936), II, p. 816.
of theWest (New York, 1958), p. 78.
4. Oscar Lewis, The Autobiography
5.
Chittenden,
op.
cit.,
II, p. 823.
6. Warren A. Ferris, Life in the Rocky Mountains
(Denver, 1940), I, p. 42.
ed., Commerce of the Prairies (Cleveland, 1905),
7. Reuben Gold Thwaites,
XX, p. 271; n. work of Josiah Gregg.
California Historical Society Quarterly
308
8. Elliott
and David
Coues, The Manuscript
Journals of Alexander Henry
Thompson
(New York, 1897), I, p. 446.
9. Archer Butler Hulbert, The Forty Niners (Boston, 1932), p. 103.
10. Reuben Gold Thwaites,
ed., Wyettfs
Oregon and Townsentfs Narrative
(Cleveland, 1905), XXI, p. 170.
11.
2
Randolph B. Marcy, The Prairie Traveler (New York, 1859), p. 37.
12. Annie Heloise Abel, Chardon's Journal at Fort Clark (Pierre, S. Dak.,
1932),
p.
188.
13. Josiah Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies
369.
14. Archer B. Hulbert, The Call of the Columbia
p.
(Norman, Okla.,
(Colorado
1954), p.
Springs,
1934),
192.
15. Marcy,
op.
cit.,
3 3.
p.
16. Richard
Irving Dodge, Our Wild Indians (Hartford, 1882), p. 276.
17. Stanley Vestal, The Old Santa Fe Trail (Boston, 1939), p. 107.
18.
op.
Marcy,
cit.,
155.
p.
19. Lewis H. Garrard, Wah-to-Yah
p.
and the Taos Trail (Oklahoma City,
1927),
24.
20. Reuben
Prairies
21.
Gold
ed., Farnham's
1906),XXVIII, p. 202.
Thwaites,
(Cleveland,
op.
Garrard,
cit.,
p.
Chittenden,
op.
in the Great Western
24.
22. George E Ruxton, Adventures
York, 1848), p.255.
23.
Travels
cit.,
II, p.
inMexico
and the Rocky Mountains
(New
820.
24. Elliott Coues, Forty Years a Fur Trader: The Personal Narrative of Charles
Larpenteur (New York, 1898), p. 266.
25. David H. Coyner, The Lost Trappers (New York, 1847), p. 134.
26. Maurice S. Sullivan, The Travels of Jedediah Smith (Santa Ana, Calif.,
i934)i P- 98.
27. W. H. Ellison, Life and Adventures of George Nidever,
1802-1883 (Berke
ley, 1937), p. 52. Jedediah Smith, for example, was badly clawed by a grizzly bear
while
hunting;
28. LeRoy
i96i),p.
29.
see Sullivan,
op.
cit.,
"Andrew W.
Hafen,
p.
12.
Sublette,"
Colorado Magazine,
X
(Sept.,
184.
Ferris,
op.
cit.,
p.
248.
30. Frances E Victor, The River of theWest (Hartford, 1870), p. 119.
ed., Adventures of Zenas Leonard, Fur Trader and Trapper,
31. W. F.Wagner,
1831-1836 (Cleveland, 1904)^. 103.
(Glendale,
1956), II, p. 218.
3 2. Rufus B. Sage, Scenes in the Rocky Mountains
The
the
and
Harrison
C.
Dale,
Ashley-Smith
Expeditions
of
Discovery
33.
a Central Route to the Pacific (Cleveland, 1918), p. 301.
United States
of Captain Bonneville,
34. Washington
Irving, Adventures
Army
(New York,
1861), p. 99.
The Diet of theMountain Men
35.
op.
Victor,
cit.,
p.
309
120.
36. Howard L. Conard, Uncle Dick Wootton, The Pioneer Frontiersman
the Rocky Mountain Region (Columbus, 1950), p. 124.
37.
op.
Irving,
cit.,
p.
105.
38. Reuben Gold Thwaites,
p.
of
ed., Paniens Personal Narrative
(Cleveland,
1905),
105.
39.
Ibid.,
p.
212.
40. Alpheus H. Favour, Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man
(Chapel Hill,
1936), p.169.
41. LeRoy Hafen, "Mountain Men: Big Phil the Cannibal," Colorado Maga
zine, XIII (1936), pp. 54-55.
42. Charles Kelly and Maurice L. Howe, Miles Goody ear, First Citizen of
Utah, Trapper, Trader, and California Pioneer (Salt Lake City, 1937), p. 29.
43.
Coues,
op.
cit.,
p.
33.
44. Osbourne Russell, Journal of a Trapper (Boise, 1921), p. 63.
45. Blanche C. Grant, ed., Kit Carson's Own Story of His Life (Taos, N. M.,
1926),
p.
50.
46. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Not by Bread Alone (New York, 1946), p. 110
47. Ray Allen Billington, The Far Western Frontier (New York, 1956), p. 51.