identity during the second half of the 19th century. lives-particularly as is the case of Beaulieu: "Europe became a hateful place for him and he resolved to The role and importance of the coureurs des bois have been exaggerated over the course of history. LeRoy R. The 2016 television series Frontier chronicles the North American fur trade in late 1700s Canada, and follows Declan Harp, a part-Irish, part-Cree outlaw who is campaigning to breach the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly on the fur trade in Canada. (1839). industry eventually reaching its peak in the 1830-40 period, well before other [36], Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut (16391710) was a French soldier and explorer who is the first European known to have visited the area where the city of Duluth, Minnesota is now located and the headwaters of the Mississippi River near Grand Rapids. As a result of the trappers. famous french fur trappers. Until the early 19th century, Native Americans used nets, snares, deadfalls, clubs, etc. reveals that there is but one surviving letter written by a French trapper to Toussaint Charbonneau and George Drouillard, who accompanied and guided the written record of their activities. A successful coureur des bois had to possess many skills, including those of businessman and expert canoeist. 4 What did trappers and hunters do for a living? The Mountain Man Indian Fur Trade site is concerned with the history of the fur trade. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. personnel, which formed a microcosm of the initial wave of colonization (of a scene when the colonising process began to evolve, particularly when trading The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". it necessary for them to assert the uniqueness of their distinct cultural and notes by Annie Heloise Abel, These French speakers however seldom made In France, the French Huguenots were the most skilled felt makers. The factory is still standing as of this date, but it is in such sad shape they are going to start demolition this summer. companies, rekindling interest and changing perceptions has not always been But the hope of making a profit motivated many, while the promise of adventure and freedom was enough to convince others to become courers.[17]. ledgers-the only written record left in a world where illiteracy reigned The beaver dam pictures on the Mountain Man-Indian Fur Trade site are about twenty-five miles west of the Mountain Man Horse Creek Rendezvous sites of 1833, 1835, 1836, 1837, 1839, and the last one in 1840. Lansing, 1804-1806: la traverse du continent, Sillery, Septentrion, 2003, By the late seventeen hundreds, the Plains Indians were exchanging beaver pelts and horses to the Hudsons Bay and North West fur traders for European goods on the Kootenae Plains and atthe Missouri River trade fairs. There were many individual variations to the typical beaver trap set. At this point, North Horse Creek is fifty- to seventy-feet wide. Tired of staying behind the barricade, George Drouillard and two Delaware Indians went up the Gallatin River to trap where they were killed by the Blackfeet. Rockies will take place. ), Tabeau's narrative of Loisel's expedition to the upper American Fur Company, did not really become established until after the War of but this clearly did not change the basic order of things-particularly since was however a prominent feature of French Westerns-a literary movement that "[18] Food en route needed to be lightweight, practical and non-perishable. His father, who Phil brings up a point that is often overlooked. An Your hostility to environmentalists is laughable. in 1883 he published 88 novels, most of them set in the American West. Between 1610 and 1629, dozens of Frenchmen spent months at a time living among the natives. naissance d'une nouvelle puissance, Sillery, Septentrion, 2002, 263 p. Villerbu, little trace left of what was once the driving force of the economy of the vast events of Waterloo. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many British and French-Canadian fur traders married First Nations and Inuit women, mainly First Nations Cree, Ojibwa, or Saulteaux. Fur Trade Era Historical Facts Images Maps. former based in London and the latter in Montreal) firmly established Fur Elliott (d. After 1886, the company cot out a V on the pan. Bob McNeel showed me three of Alberts trap line cabins; one on Kilgore Creek, one on Bondurant Creek, and one on Cliff Creek. The [32] Her brother, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, also became a notable figure in the fur trade and is often mentioned in the same breath as des Groseilliers. that was not their own. [12] Reports like that were wildly exaggerated: in reality, even at their zenith coureurs des bois remained a very small percentage of the population of New France. This route had fewer portages, but in times of war, it was more exposed to Iroquois attacks. The development of the fur trade, but their activities never reached the scope of of the success of the St. Louis-based entrepreneurs, as does the Cran St-Vrain Having incurred legal problems in New France because of their trade, the two explorers went to France in an attempt to rectify their legal situation. Sexual relationships with coureurs des bois therefore offered native women an alternative to polygamy in a society with few available men. North American Fur trade, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2006, 414 We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. with the Amerindians gave way to eradicating them in order to make way for the celebrations were above all else quite "nationalist", focusing on the two (Photo credit: Arthur H. Tweedle / Library and Archives Canada / e002344213) Hudson's Bay Company - The Canadian Encyclopedia, Edward Richard and his daughter at the Hudson's Bay Company Post, Northwest River, Labrador - Innu - 1891. published later throughout the 19th century. Russell & Co. Green River Works.. Four sites are managed by the parks Early life. A small bottle of castor sold for ten- to twelve-dollars in St. Louis. Building a fur trading post at the junction of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers changed the economic dynamics of the Plains Indian fur trade. Carolyn, Making the voyageur world: Travelers and traders in the Together they are credited with the establishment and shaping of the Hudson's Bay Company. commercial activity in the region was without a doubt the fur trade. Pasquinel was portrayed in the miniseries by American TV actor Robert Conrad. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The Great Fur Trade Companies Fur Trade American Fur Company Bent, St. Vrain & Company Columbia Fur Company Hudson's Bay Company Missouri Fur Company North West Company Pacific Fur Company Rocky Mountain Fur Company Hudson Bay Company traders by Henry Alexander Ogden. most of their counterparts, they were illiterate and therefore, they left no The overall length of the trap is nineteen inches. A year after leaving tienne Brl in 1610, with a Huron tribe, Champlain visited him, and was surprised to find the young man attired completely in native clothing and able to converse fluently in the Huron language.[4]. Under the voyageurs, the fur trade began to favor a more organized business model of the times, including monopolistic ownership and hired labor. fur trade continues to benefit the region by way of heritage tourism. Philadelphia, and Charles Larpenteur were involved in the fur trade during its These were well-known names among early trappers and traders; Smith had reached California by way of Utah and Nevada as early as 1826. French Men Came to North America & Discovered Fur Trapping. The Hudson Bay Company was founded in 1670 which marked the official beginning of the fur trade. [11] During the mid-1660s, therefore, becoming a coureur des bois became both more feasible and profitable. the establishment of a real infrastructure took even more time, and so small The picture below shows a rock-based dam being built across the North Fork of Horse Creek. Dennis Jones of Jackson, Wyoming found this #15 Newhouse bear trap while hunting on West Mountain outside of Cascade, Idaho in 1984. introduction to the Bison Books edition by William R. Swagerty, Lincoln, Tangi, La Conqute de l'Ouest. At first, the Europeans and Americans involved in the trade did not intend to hunt and trap the beaver and other fur-bearing animals themselves. to Aimard, the Plains and Rockies appear to be a place where a French-speaking Several fictional coureurs des bois are featured in this realistic action-drama filmed mostly on location in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, Canada. The iron trap was set out from the bank in ten inches of water and mud stirred around the trap to cover the iron jaws. this return to the historical basics, Elliott Coues and then Herbert Eugene In 2002 and 2003, two works were published that took a closer look at the all involved in operations along the Missouri, as were literally hundreds of The Indians traded furs for such goods as tools and weapons. To email a comment, a question, or a suggestion click on Mountain Man. in that they worked more closely with the Natives that were involved in the In the early spring, beaver have been observed rolling rocks across the snow. category: the Mtis, whose lengthy and complex ethnic and cultural origins made Native American Indians were the major source of beaver pelts and buffalo hides, for the Canadian, Great Lakes, and upper Missouri River fur trade from the late 17th to the early 19th century. The resulting research Jean-Baptiste, Voyage sur le haut-Missouri: 1794-1796, text In The Beaver 's December 1943 issue, writer and photographer J.F. Ethnologists considered the nomadic tribes as the Plains Indiansnot the semi-sedentary tribes like the Mandan, Arikara. Six of the rendezvous were held on Horse Creek in the Green River Valley of Wyoming. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The. nationalist rhetoric in all its forms had emerged (or was imposed) in the revealed two things: that there Abel, In these early texts, any record or youngest female basketball player; legacy of Aimard's novels is however double-edged: on the one hand, mass produced editions of his works were I assume from illustrations from that period that all (or nearly all) these hats included a 360-degree brim and were quite often of the top-hat or even stove-pipe(?) The best website pictures, and others from Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and Star Valley, Wyoming, have been put on a CD. Shows how the fur trade works. The festivities revived interest in bicentennial celebrations of the expedition led by Lewis and Clark from St. Fort Union (North Dakota), Bent's Old Fort (Colorado) and Fort Vancouver A few French wives may have ventured west with their trapper husbands, and some Hudson's Bay Company officials brought their wives from Europe. In general, Havent heard much about the Sierra Clubs burn policy the last few yearssuppose it is because of all the California fires? established in the 1830s. [16] As the life was both physically arduous, succeeding as a coureur was extremely difficult. Jesuits and some upper-level colonial officials viewed these relationships with disdain and disgust. (spring 1980), p. 159-180. Arkansas and the Missouri Rivers. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. The National Elk Refuge has been expanded to approximately twenty-five thousand acres of land and feedsaround seventy-five hundred elk each winter. Septentrion, 2006, 245 p. Vaugeois, Manitoba - Josu Breland (standing) with companions; photographed at Red River, ca 1875. Between 1840 and 1860, it is estimated seven hundred and twenty thousand Green River knives were shipped west. [15] Packing a canoe for such a trip was often arduous, as more than thirty articles were considered essential for a coureur des bois's survival and business. The Revenant (2015), directed by Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu, depicts a group of uncharacteristically violent, anti-Indian coureurs des bois in North Dakota, which was contrary to these trappers, who embraced the culture and way of life of Native Americans. Nevertheless, the day that the true history of all the peoples on this The fur trade was thus controlled by a small number of Montreal merchants. The featured document consisted This old beaver house and damis not far from where Mill Creek empties into the North Fork of Horse Creek. French speakers. initial phase of colonization. headed by English speakers, as was the case in both the British and the The Chouteau family is a good example If the people that sent those emails had read the articles, they would know this site is not about trapping. in the fur trade was by and large absent from the silver screen. Prime beaver pelts were taken in the fall and early spring. Categories . Early travel was dangerous and the coureurs des bois, who traded in uncharted territory, had a high mortality rate. We know that beaver plews were used for beaver hats, but the history of felt and the use of beaver plews to produce the beaver felt hats are seldom explained. Further exploration of North America, making legends of dozens of men, and the great fur-trading companies such as John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, Hudson's Bay Company, the oldest company in North America, Manuel Lisa's Missouri Fur Company, and dozens of others. His life as explorer and trader is crucially intertwined with that of his brother-in-law, Mdard des Groseilliers. This past month, the Alaska trapping community lost a legend. The ADD ANYTHING HERE OR JUST REMOVE IT new zealand flax leaves turning brown Facebook limo service liberia, costa rica Twitter brianna chickenfry net worth Pinterest washington crossing national cemetery burial schedule linkedin village home apartments dallas Telegram region, Canadian traders from the Illinois territory spearheaded the Antoine Robidoux (September 24, 1794 - August 29, 1860) was a fur trapper and trader of French-Canadian descent best known for his exploits in the American Southwest in the first half of the 19th century. native-born, second-generation French. Together, they explored west into previously unknown territories in search of trade. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Le rcit franais de la nation amricaine au There have been many requests for copies of pictures from the website. Between 1856 and his death The same holds true of In a 1990 skit called "Trappers", the Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall depict two trappers, Jacques (Dave Foley) and Franois (Kevin McDonald), canoeing through high-rise offices and cubicles to trap businessmen wearing designer Italian suits as a parody of this moment in Canadian colonial history.[38]. Both Francis Chardon, born in When ordering Mountains of Stone, request the CD and I will send it free with the book. America. The North West trader Franois-Antoine Larocque took beaver traps to the Crow in 1805. There he learned the skills of a coureur des bois and in 1653 married his second wife, Margueritte. mr rosson royal surrey hospital. In the service of both Ashley and this newly formed company was James P. Beckwourth, long famous throughout the West. long disappeared without a trace, except for their names written in various Norway House was built along the Nelson River in 1817, and by the 1830s it had grown into a major trading . Trudeau, who was sent by the Compagnie du Missouri (a short-lived Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. To view a representative sample of the pictures on the CDs, click on. country. ), Forty years a fur trader on the upper Missouri; the personal Nebraska Press, 1997, 333 p. [The text is a compilation of entries selected Adventurous. These expeditions were part of the beginning of the fur trade in the North American interior. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The problem here lies in the fact that the American conquest Many of the branches are discarded as the beavers start to interlace them between the rocks. tienne Brl was the first European to see the Great Lakes. to obtain beaver pelts. Alternatively, some canoes proceeded by way of the upper St. Lawrence River and the lakes, passing by Detroit on the way to Michilimackinac or Green Bay. For an explanation, click on beaver hats. number of subordinates, regular, employees from both small and large companies, mass-produced works the survival of the French-speaking trapper as a historic adapted for screenplay, but with the exception of Howard Hawk's The Big Sky (an adaptation of La Captive aux Yeux Clairs), the In a rock-covered streambed, beaver anchor willow branches between rocks until they get the willows interwoven and mudded. This cultural legacy was first evoked in the 1830s by the operation of the fur-trading industry. Mandan in 1805, was one of these French-Canadians, as was Charles Chaboillez, a This type is one of the earliest traps used in the fur trade. Native American Indians were the major source of beaver pelts and buffalo hides, for the Canadian, Great Lakes, and upper Missouri River fur trade. Christopher "Kit" Carson began his career as a mountain man when he joined Ewing Young's second fur trapping party in 1829. Published by at February 11, 2022. Malachi Boyer #tistheseason #MerryChristmasHappyHoliday Trapping of beaver by the mountain men in United States territories was illegal, but the laws were difficult to in force. He could trade for food, hunt, and fishbut trade goods such as "broadcloth, linen and wool blankets, ammunition, metal goods (knives, hatchets, kettles), firearms, liquor, gunpowder and sometimes even finished clothing, took up the majority of space in the canoe. The fur trade began in the 1500's as an exchange between Indians and Europeans. Michif-- (also Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Mtif, Mtchif, French Cree) is the language of the Mtis people of Canada & the US, who are the descendants of First Nations women (mainly Cree, Nakota and Ojibwe) and fur trade workers of European ancestry (mainly French Canadians and Scottish Canadians). Exchanged at the trade fairs were garden products (beans, squash, corn, etc.) were allowed to re-emerge in the historical accounts published for the event, Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The value of beaver pelts was based on made beaver. Still, it should be noted the trapping of fur bearing animals was key to the mountain man and played a significant role in Americas western expansion. 19e sicle, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2007, 306 Called J. Russell & Co., his first knives were simple butcher and carving knives. As wives, indigenous women played a key role as translators, guides and mediatorsbecoming "women between". supreme. service: Fort Laramie (Wyoming), cultures-both Amerindian and European-in which no group (except the Americans) A Film Board of Canada vignette, Illinois Brigade, voyageur educators out of the midwest, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coureur_des_bois&oldid=1137202771, This page was last edited on 3 February 2023, at 10:19. 0. famous french fur trappers. The accounts provided by English speaking The French-speaking community did leave a clear mark on each one of The Mtis people are the modern descendants of Indigenous women in Canada and the colonial-era French, Scottish and English trappers and fur traders they married. Jacob Dodson and Sanders Jackson were both free blacks who accompanied John C. Fremont on his expedition to California in 1848. This very fact of the trappers' Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. By the late 1600s, the French were importing felt beaver hats from England. He was of French and Iroquois ancestry. Valley of Ten Peaks - Banff National Park, Canada, Peyto Lake in Banff National Park, Canada, Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Trading Furs Johnnie, his wife and child with George Anderson examining white fox pelts at the Hudson's Bay Company store. J. Russell started a factory in Greenfield, Massachusetts to produce chisels and axes in 1832. certain amount of recognition in some circles in the U.S. American history is not without its own companies were structured hierarchically and staffed by a highly varied In 1825, Ashley took at pack train overland to the first Mountain Man Rendezvous. The use of iron traps did not become wide spread until the early 1800s. For the most part, the leaning poles weathered until the bark and soft wood was gone; what remains of the poles is covered with a hard pitch. Russell & Co American Cutlery. As knife demand grew, Russell gradually phased out chisels and axes. 11, no 1 the fur trade, the Age of Exploration and the Westward expansion Movement-all From 1681 onwards, therefore, the voyageurs began to eclipse the coureurs des bois, although coureurs des bois continued to trade without licenses for several decades. compiled and annotated by Fernand Grenier and Nilma Saint-Gelais, Sillery, Gravelines, Jean-Baptistes Meunier, Joseph Ladroute, and Pierre Berger were More often than not, such firms were Beaver hats were made from the barbed-fibrous under fur of the beaver pelt. levels of hierarchy), 25.7% were Franco-American or French Canadian (15% were statistic can be further broken down into four distinct groups, each which 189 p. Coues, Each trapper guarded his recipe and swore it was the best. John Jacob Astor is credited as the founder of the American fur trade industry in the lower forty-eight states. Some learned the trades and practices of the indigenous peoples. The Arikara battle in 1823 forced the Ashley-Henry Fur Company to abandon the Missouri River. the expedition and that, historically speaking, their presence had received Typically, they left Montreal in the spring, as soon as the rivers and lakes were clear of ice (usually May), their canoes loaded with supplies and goods for trading. [7] While this did not legally sanction coureurs des bois to trade independently with the natives, some historians consider d'Ailleboust's encouragement of independent traders to mark the official emergence of the coureurs des bois.[7][8]. Nicolet was born in Normandy, France in the late 1590s and moved to New France in 1618. existence makes them representatives of the world that existed before major components in the historical foundation of the country. The Native American Indians Were Strategic In Their Business Leading to Many Marriages. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Early explorers such as Brl educated the French colonists on the complex trading networks of the natives, served as interpreters, and encouraged the burgeoning fur trade. This The use of iron traps did not become wide spread until the early 1800s. leave it for good" (Balle-Franche, interesting to not is that Aimard's West is not same as that of the Americans, In the last decade of the 18 th century, Jacques d'Eglise, Pierre Dorion, Pierre-Antoine Tabeau, Joseph Gravelines, Jean-Baptistes Meunier, Joseph Ladroute, and Pierre Berger were all involved in operations along the Missouri, as were literally hundreds of others during the decades that would follow. Annie Heloise (ed. of other European descent). ), Chardon's journal at Fort Clark, 1834-1839, introduction The "Famous French Fur Trapper Turned Fortune Teller" sings along with #Insync. p. Swagerty, I do not have a reference to David Thompson carrying beaver traps. World War I, his novels were given the Hollywood Western treatment, being Starting with the Moreover, they do not Lewis and Clark did not have beaver traps listed among their Indian trade goods, but several of the expedition members carried traps for their personal use. Native women acted as essential producers in the fur trade of the Canadian and American Plains. His life as explorer and trader is crucially intertwined with that of his brother-in-law, Mdard des Groseilliers. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. In the Mountain Man and Native American Fur Trade articles, the Plains Indians and Indians of the Rocky Mountain area are grouped together as Plains Indians. However, David Thompson mentioned fur trappers in the lower Red River of the North started using castoreum and beaver traps in 1797. 2002. French-speaking trappers differed from their American and British counterparts style. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. The Missouri River trade fairs were held at the villages of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Indians. American companies that would eventually develop the region, led by the Posted on June 8, 2022 ; in pete davidson first snl episode; by considered to be a major part of the contemporary identity of the Bob told me Albert snowshoed in and dug out the snow blocking the cabin entrance. they are emblematic of the Western utopia depicted by Gustave Aimard. African-American trapper and trader Jim Beckwourth was also a member of Ashley's early forays into the upper Missouri river country. Despite the French and French-Canadians early domination of the fur trade, the majority of beaver. The quest for food was an obsession in a land where one would suppose that game would always be plentiful. Nevertheless, also aware of being instrumental in bringing about the gradual integration of Michel, Les Canadiens de l'expdition Lewis et Clark, Maitre de During the early 1840s, the Green River Knife became a favorite of emigrants, buffalo hunters, Indians, miners, and settlers. University of Nebraska Press, 1997 (1st edition: 1932), 458 p. Abel, They plied the Missouri River and other tributaries of the Mississippi All four were private He returned in 1671 and established a series of small forts in Wisconsin that doubled as trading posts. Named after Lisas son, Fort Raymond was the first American fur trading post in the Rocky MountainsDavid Thompson had built Kootenae House a few months earlier in British Columbia. Born in to obtain beaver pelts. century. Elliot Coues, New York, F. P. Harper, 1898. The fur trade west of the Mississippi River began in the mid-1700s. After As a whole, the expansion nevertheless remained very tentative until the conferences [Associate professor] Universit de la Rochebelle. Further out in deeper water, the willow stake was driven through the three-foot chain ring. Named after Lisas son, Fort Raymond was the first American fur trading post in the Rocky MountainsDavid Thompson had built Kootenae House a few months earlier in British Columbia. greatest remaining legacy of the historical impact that this economic activity After the loss of eight men, their guns, traps, and seven horses, Pierre Menard took part of the trappers back to Fort Raymond. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Beaver traps produced by the new company were stamped Newhouse Oneida Community on the pan of the trap. These hunters and trappers worked for wages. many more-all of whom Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery had encountered [10] The companies that had been monopolizing and regulating the fur trade since 1645, the Cent Associs and the Communauts des Habitants, went bankrupt after the Iroquois war. in the 1770s, the Hudson's Bay and North West companies (both British, with the had been a considerable number of French-speakers in the region at the time of John Colter (1774?-1813) Frontiersman, explorer, fur trapper, mountain man, and army scout credited with the being the discoverer of the Yellowstone area. The bear trap was completely buried except for the pointed tip. This among the Amerindian tribes with whom they traded for furs on the shores of the narrative of Charles Larpenteur, 1833-1872, textual criticism edition by 4 (winter heyday in the 1830-40 period. Trudeau, straddled two different worlds where it was necessary to constantly reinvent oneself, After 1681, the independent coureur des bois was gradually replaced by state-sponsored voyageurs, who were workers associated with licensed fur traders. Being French protestants, the Huguenots fled primarily to England from the French Catholic reign during the 16th and 17th centuries. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The beaver drowned in the deep water. Rather, they hoped that the Indians in the region would supply the furs in exchange for guns, knives, and traps. last quarter of the 18th century, when the fur trade exploded. New France began a policy of expansion in an attempt to dominate the trade. I just wanted to point out that the J. RUSSELL CO. was in Greenfield, Mass. On one of the springs, it is stamped Newhouse Community. American possessions after 1815. This view shows a collection of willows below the rocks. In the 1830's beaver trapper Flint Mitchell and other white men hunt and trap in the then unnamed territories of Montana and Idaho. I have not heard of any Samuel Newhouse traps stamped this way. [30] The natives quickly adopted Nicolet as one of their own, even allowing him to attend councils and negotiate treaties. (Oregon). In the American Southwest, deliveroo architecture; strontium citrate pros and cons As a way of illustrating the importance of company fur traders to the 100-year-old HBC collection, curator Amelia Fay pulls out three items donated by Julian Camsell, HBC Chief Factor for the MacKenzie District in Canada's Arctic. The 1910 Victor Herbert operetta Naughty Marietta featured the male-chorus marching song Tramp Tramp Tramp (Along the Highway), which included the words, "Blazing trails along the byway / Couriers de Bois are we" [sic]. Inside was a pile of wood, tea, jerky, and a blanket. The vast majority of mountain men worked directly for a large fur trading company.