Famous Fur Trappers and Traders

Famous Fur Trappers and Traders
by Ryan Cox

Three famous fur traders or trappers are: John Jacob Astor, Jedediah Smith, and Alexander Mackenzie. Fur trappers are also called mountain men. They trapped or hunted beaver and other animals for their skins. A mountain man would have a pistol in his leather belt and he carried balls for his pistol. He would have a powder horn under his arm. The beaver skins that the fur trappers caught were dried and then folded. Once they were folded they were put in eighty to one hundred pound packs. The packs were then shipped to stores that bought them.

Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Smith was a fur trapper and explorer. He had many adventures. Once he got attacked by a bear and got his scalp nearly ripped off. He also got broken ribs. He had his friend sew his scalp back on loosely. I bet that must have hurt a lot! One of his ears was sewn on backwards. He always wore his hair long to hide the scar. He found the South Pass. On a five year trip, he had twenty-five men killed and over three hundred pack horses stolen. On a later trip, he needed to go out to find water. When he had found water he was ambushed by Comanche Indian warriors. He was only thirty-two years old when he died. I wish he could have lived longer. He might have done even more amazing things. Still, he did some amazing things in his short life.

Alexander Mackenzie
He made the first east to west crossing of North America. It was ten years earlier than Lewis and Clark's east to west crossing. First he made a trip up a river that brought him to, not the Pacific Ocean as he had hoped that the river would bring him to, but to the Arctic Ocean. He named the river that he traveled on Disappointment River. Then he went on another expedition. This one actually brought him to the Pacific Ocean. When he got there he wrote on a rock with vermilion mixed in melted grease so that it said: Alexander Mackenzie, by land, 22nd of July, 1793.

John Jacob Astor
By about 1809, John Jacob Astor was recognized as one of the lead fur traders. He made it so that he was in charge of fur trade in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley regions. This made it so that he could become the first multi-millionaire in the United States of America.

These are some amazing fur traders or trappers that did some exciting things. Fur traders and trappers had an important role in our country's growth because they explored the county. It would have been fun to meet one of these fur traders or trappers.