This was an excellent book! It is a vivid, comprehensive and sweeping biography of a most important and influential man of the early American West. At the age of twenty four, Thomas Fitzpatrick started out with Ashley's expedition of 1823 as a fur trapper going up the Missouri River. The following year he discovered South Pass, then was part owner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. After the fur trade declined, he guided the first wagon train west over the Oregon Trail, then acted as guide to Fremont, Kearny and Abert on their expeditions. Later,he was appointed as an Indian Agent for the government and in this position he was most significant in facilitating relations with the Plains Indians. Leroy Hafen's writing is to be commended. He was an excellent author/historian. This is an easy book to read, and there is so much history to this remarkable man, Thomas Fitzpatrick.

This book is the result of a historian's dissertation on this little known now, but once well-known figure in the expansion of the west. Fitzpatrick discovered the Southern Pass, mentored Kit Carson, and is buried in the Congressional Cemetary in Washington DC. I'm not a fan of historical novels, or much of a student of history. But, this book described the way of life of the great western explorers of the 19th century in fascinating detail. Chock full of facts that I never learned in school history, this book sheds light on a poorly represented but important part of US history by tracing Fitzpatrick's life as reconstructed from historical documents and interviews with surviving ancestors. I highly recommend this book.

I have come to the conclusion that anything written by or edited by Leroy Hafen is a must read. Add to that, a fine introduction by Janet Lecompte. The book itself describes 22 meaningful, condensed biographies of well known and not so well known French fur traders and trappers of the early 1800's. Each chapter conveys the
hardships, lifestyles, pressures and strategies of opposing fur companies and adventures of these early pioneers. The reader will no doubt have a few favorite chapters and from these chapters, one can look at the bibliographies to select further readings. A good book.

Hafen's sketches have been favorites. This new compilation has made it easier and more enjoyable to learn about the trappers and traders of the Southwest. Despain has done a masterful job of selecting the best of the collection. Definitely worth your time.

A very good, concise history of some of the mountain men and fur trapper/traders of the early American West. It is along the same line of thought as Robert Utley's "A Life Wild and Perilious". Whereas Utley's book is more of a chronological history of the fur trappers, this one is based more on geographical location. Each chapter is devoted to an individual character and the life of that person. Many of these early trapper/traders' lives interweave with each other and therefore you have more of a tendency to remember who knew who and who did what with who, etc. After reading chapter after chapter, it humbles one when looking back at these mens' lives and how much they accomplished, whether it be in how many places they traveled, what sort of trade they were involved in, their relationships with the Indians and each other, how some were involved with the initial founding of the west, etc. It is simply amazing what went on so long ago. I have much respect and admiration for these men.

When we think of people migrating westward in the 19th century, we tend to think of covered wagons rolling along the Oregon trail. What many of us don't realize is that many people made the trek by handcart--small, wooden carts that they themselves pulled all the way west. These carts, though they had to be pulled by hand, were often able to make the trip in substantially less time than were covered wagons--and at a fraction of the cost.

Under the direction of the Mormon church, ten caravans of these carts crossed the plains into Utah. Two of them met with disaster as a result of poor planning among the companies' leadership, but for the most part this form of migration was a successful one.

In this book, Hafen gives details about each of the ten companies, including charts showing mileage and number of immigrants. Though the book is tailored to an LDS audience, it's scope is broad, and it should be of interest to anyone wanting to study the colonization of the American West.