"[This] richly documented book is the definitive study of the decisive role mountain men played in the exploration and expansion of the Western frontier." -Jay P. Dolan, The New York Times Book Review
Early in the nineteenth century, the mountain men emerged as a small but distinctive group whose knowledge and experience of the trans-Mississippi West extended the national consciousness to continental dimensions. Though Lewis and Clark blazed a narrow corridor of geographical reality, the West remained largely terra incognita until trappers and traders-such as Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Tom Fitzpatrick, and Jedediah Smith-opened paths through the snow-choked mountain wilderness.
These and other Mountain Men opened the way west to Fremont and played a major role in the pivotal years of 1845-1848 when Texas was annexed, the Oregon question was decided, and the Mexican War ended with the Southwest and California in American hands-thus making the Pacific Ocean America's western boundary.