What is Mountain man?
[[File:Old Bill Williams.jpg|thumb|upright=1|{{center|''Rocky Mountains Trapper'' (Alfred Jacob Miller, 1839)}}]] A '''mountain man''' was an [[explorer]], [[Trail blazing|trailblazer]], and [[Animal trapping|animal trapper]] in [[west]]ern [[North America]]. They thrived between 1810 and 1880. They were well known throughout the [[Rocky Mountains]] region. Famous mountain men include [[Jim Bridger]], [[Kit Carson]], and [[Jedediah Smith]].<ref>''Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West: Eighteen Biographical Sketches'', ed. LeRoy Reuben Hafen (Lincoln; London: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), p. xi</ref> By the mid 1800s the [[fur trade]] was no longer [[profit]]able. Furs were no longer popular in [[Europe]]an [[fashion]]. Many of the mountain men settled into jobs as [[Cavalry|Army]] [[Guide|Scouts]], [[wagon train]] guides and [[settler]]s through the lands which they had helped open up. Others, like [[William Sublette]], opened up fort-trading posts along the [[Oregon Trail]] for the remaining fur traders and settlers heading west.<ref>John Edward Sunder, ''Bill Sublette: Mountain Man'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979), p. 217 n. 21</ref> == References == {{reflist}} [[Category:North American people]] [[Category:Occupations]] [[Category:American explorers]] {{north-America-stub}}