Journal Of A Trapper, Or Nine Years In The Rocky Mountains,

OSBORNE RUSSELL

Publication: Syms-York Company, Inc, 1921, Boise, Idaho

Second Edition. Maroon Cloth, 149pp. Enlarged reprint of the rare 1914 first edition; with the addition of a 10-page "Publisher's Note" which includes letters from Osborne Russell to his sisters from Oregon in 1848 and the California Gold diggings in 1849, and a 21-page "Appendix" comprised primarily of descriptions of several animals found in the West. Like the 1914 edition, this reprint is reported to be a limited printing of only 100 copies. Born in 1814, Osborne Russell went West with Nathaniel Wyeth's second expedition to the Rocky Mountains and Columbus River regions in 1834. Russell helped garrison Ft. Hall for Wyeth, later joining Jim Bridger's brigade of Rocky Mountain Fur Company men. Eventually Russell became a free trapper for several years, operating out of Ft. Hall when it was owned by the Hudson Bay Company. Russell joined Elijah White's emigrant train to the Williamette River Valley in Oregon in 1843, where Russell helped organize the first provisional government in Oregon in 1843. He completed his journal of a trapper in 1847 or 1848, before going to California. Russell spent the remainder of his life in Oregon and California, where he died in 1892. "The fur trade in its most colorful period."---Wright Howes.---"Russell kept a journal and, an avid reader, his was literate, accurate, observant, perhaps the finest record of mountain man life and adventures extant."---Dan L. Thrapp. Fine, bright, clean copy. As New.

Inventory Number: 53024