A Mountain Man Christmas 

            The fire crackled, lending its light to the wilderness and casting a dim glow on the snow surrounding the camp. The bears were hibernating and the deer and elk had fled to lower elevations. The mountain men were hungry, their traps empty. They stripped the cottonwood tree for nutrients for themselves and their pack animals, boiling the bark. They were afraid to use their guns for fear of the hostile Blackfeet that had pursued them - so the geese flew safely overhead, out of reach. Their stomachs growled and they melted snow for drink. 

            Captain William Sublette donned a pair of snowshoes and prepared for a long journey home. It was Christmas 1829 in the Wind River Country, a wild and untamed land, and he was leaving his trappers to head back to St. Louis for supplies and provisions for the next Rendezvous.

            Among these mountain men were the greenhorns. In 1829, Joe Meek was a teenage runaway who had joined this band of men as a hired hunter and trapper only the spring before. The tall Virginian had already been attacked by Indians, lost in the country and had met starvation. However, this new frontier held him and, as he hunkered near the fire, warming his hands and celebrating Christmas, he wasn’t ready to go back to civilization. 

The group of men has just crossed the Big Horn mountains into Wind River Valley; having had altogether a successful fall hunt. Despite the severity of the weather and difficulty of mountain traveling in the winter, they made some important explorations in this formidable wilderness. 

The snow was so deep that the men had to keep in advance, and break the road for the animals. To make their condition still more difficult, there were no provisions in camp, nor any prospect of plenty, for men or animals, until they should reach the buffalo country beyond the mountain.

Meek, as usual, had no underwear, or even a shirt. Like most of the mountain men, he wore only a beaver-fur cap, buckskin breeches, moccasins, and his capote—a blanket coat with hood attached. A shirt served no purpose in the mountains—except to dress himself up at Rendezvous. There wasn’t any warmth to be found in the thin cotton and the lice liked to nestle down in the seams. 

It was nearly Christmas 1829 when the camp first arrived on Wind River, and the cold intense.  They had traveled from present-day Cody and were heading to the plains where the buffalo roamed. While the men celebrated Christmas, as best they might, under the circumstances, Captain Sublette started to St. Louis with one man, Harris, on snow shoes, with a train of pack dogs. The snow was too deep for the horses and mules so they were left behind in camp with his hungry mountain men.

Such was the indomitable courage and energy of this leader and the men who followed him in pursuit of the beaver and other adventures in this land that would one day be known as Wyoming.

May this holiday season sparkle and shine. May all of your wishes and dreams come true and the fires of friendship keep you warm. Merry Christmas from our family to yours. I am your host Jackie Dorothy. This was written and directed by Legend Rock Media Productions.

Copyright 2022 Legend Rock Media 

References:

Big Horn River Pilot, Volume 02, Number 09, May 11, 1898

Joe Meek: The Merry Mountain Man, A Biography by Stanley Vestal

Music:

Auld Lang Syne instrumental by DJ Williams