The Blazed Trail Of Antoine Leroux

FORBES PARKHILL

Publication: Westernlore Press, 1965, Los Angeles

First edition. 8vo. Signed by the author on front flyleaf. Cloth, 235 pp., foreword, bibliography, index. An excellent biography of this important trapper, guide, and Indian fighter. As a trapper Leroux, at age 21, went up the Missouri with General Ashley in 1822. He reached Taos in 1824 and trapped throughout the Southwest in the 1820's, 1830's, and 1840's. Leroux guided numerous military and exploratory expeditions: the famed Mormon Battalion from Santa Fe to California, 1848 expedition into Navajo Country, 1849 expedition against the Utes, 1851 Sitgreaves Expedition, 1852 Bartlett Boundary Survey from San Diego to New Mexico, 1853 guided Gunnison over the Colorado Rockies, 1854 Whipple Expedition to Los Angeles, 1857 a winter relief party through the Colorado Rockies for the Johnston Expedition against the Mormons, and in 1860 a punitive expedition out of Ft. Union against the Comanches and Kiowas. Leroux also sat in the jury that condemned to death the leaders of the Taos Rebellion. A great, and yet under-appreciated, Mountain Man/Guide in the American West. A fine bright copy in a fine, bright dust jacket. A scarce and important biography.