Journal of a Trapper Author:Osborne Russell, Aubrey L. Haines (Editor) This book is edited from Osborne Russell's original manuscript spanning the years 1834-1843 while a trapper in the Rocky Mountains. — Born in a little Maine village in 1814, Osborne Russell ran away to sea at the age of sixteen, but soon gave up seafaring to serve with a trading and trapping company in Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1834 he signed u... more »p for Nathaniel Wyeth's expedition to the Rocky Mountains and the mouth of the Columbia River. Subsequently he joined Jim Bridger's brigade of old Rocky Mountain Fur Company men, continuing with them after the merger which left the American Fur Company in control of the fur trade. When the fur trader declined, he became a free trapper operating out of Fort Hall, staying in the mountains until the great westward migration began.
Osborne Russell's journal covering the years 1834 to 1843 is, in the words of the editor, Aubrey L. Haines, "perhaps the best account of the fur trapper in the Rocky Mountains when the trade was at its peak. It is a factual, unembellished narrative written by one who was not only a trapper but also a keen observer and an able writer."« less