IT’S ALL ABOUT

The character, Grizzly Adams, was the first real mountain man that I adored, followed religiously and recognized. He lived in the woods, wrangled critters and was a rough unkept looking dude. Actually, “Grizzly” was a fictional frontier woodsman on a TV series that was wrongly accused of murder and fled into the woods and mountains to get away from the law and the phony charges. While he was trying to survive, he adopted an orphaned grizzly bear cub and named him Ben. We all thought the real mountain man was surely Grizzly Adams, as he charmed us all weekly on television.

Much to my surprise our last move turned out to be a move into the middle of nowhere…woods. Getting somewhat situated, we decided it was time to introduce ourselves to the neighbors and find out who was living within our close proximity and actually on the same street...there weren’t many! As we met our neighbors, the very last one we encountered was … really a true mountain man. I’ll never forget his name as he introduced himself…Kraig, with a “K” (and his very special wife, Patty).

To me, Kraig was an extremely interesting looking individual who seemed to march to his own drummer. He had a very long pony-tail and an even longer beard. With all the hair growth, one really couldn’t discern his age, however, he turned out to be in his 60’s. He was a retired welder, army veteran and appeared to be a totally self-sufficient individual. As we got to know Kraig and Patty over the last couple of years Kraig began to open up about the organization called the “American Mountain Men (AMM)” to which he has been a member since the 80’s along with only about 660 “brothers” living world-wide.

As we continued our friendship, we found ourselves asking lots of questions. What in the world is a mountain man doing living in Texas and why would you want to be part of that group? His quick answer was, it was his preferred way of life, and his passion. (And that’s no lie!) Plus, it really doesn’t matter where you live, just as long as you practice the way of life.

To continue satisfying the questions of my fascination, Kraig explained that an American mountain man is an individual who has the ability to survive alone, under any circumstances, utilizing only what nature offers. The AMM is a group of MEN only who know each other as true “brothers”. They emulate the early explorers, the skills and arts of the original mountain men, and preserve and follow their way of life from the 1820’s to 1830’s and the AMM organization doesn’t really go beyond the 1840’s. They practice being historically accurate with clothing, implements and guns. The brothers study the original mountain men, mirror their equipment and learn how they survived. Then, they go into the woods, set up camp and apply the knowledge they gained and do their best to survive. Kraig said what the AMM brothers do is very real and could cost them their lives if they slip up. He emphatically stated, “This is NO ACT.”

I wanted to learn more about the original mountain men as they were such an important part of the settling of the United States. The first mountain men were originally driven by the lucrative profit and potential of the fur trade business and were most frequently found in the North American Rocky Mountains during the early 1800’s through about the mid 1800’s. Their horseback trails opened up emigrant trails and later widened into wagon wheel roads which opened up settlements from the east to those wanting to go westward by wagon train. The trails were improved by the mountain men and the fur companies which served the inland fur trade. However, the fur business vanished about the 1840’s as the beaver fur trade died. The English (across the “pond”) no longer found wearing beaver hats fashionable and stopped buying skins.

This is where Kraig’s conversation got very interesting. He is known as a “Master Trapper” in the AMM but had to earn that title. Let’s take him back to an imaginary time frame and follow his adventurous dangerous life westward. Had he lived in the first several decades of the 1800’s he probably would have come from back east and would more than likely have been a blacksmith or farm hand dressed in hard-wearing work trousers from woven course fabric and a woven wool shirt. (Probably both scratchy and stinky!) Remember, cotton didn’t exist at that time. The lure of a new life, westward, would more than likely have led Kraig to assemble a small group of mountain men to head out in search of a better life.

They would ready for the trip with each man riding a horse and a group of 4 men

would take 3 pack animals. Kraig would have saddled his horse “Spirit”, a Tennessee walker saddle bred cross, and packed “Amigo” an American Peruvian Paso…Spirit’s best friend! They, as a small group of 4 men, would travel as light as possible, taking only between themselves, 1 axe, 1 large kettle, copper or tin cooking pot, coffee, nuts, raisins, dried fruits, parched corn, jerky, pemmican (a mixture of fat and protein), gun for each with ammo and fire-starting items, knives, traps and blankets. Don’t forget the musical instruments…fiddles, guitars, dulcimer and Jew’s harp. They traveled long distances each day consequently the lighter they were, the easier it was on the animals. They stopped to hunt and trap when the food was becoming scarce and in need of replenishing, and animals would be trapped and skins readied for trading as they traveled.

Along the way they would encounter Indians and occasionally small settlements. They had no money because money per se did not exist nor buy anything. Everything was done by bartering. When Kraig’s party, “Bear Lodge” would encounter a “rendezvous”, normally initiated by the fur buyers from England, they would come in contact with other mountain men, pioneers, trappers, Indians, and wagon trains. The Buyers would set up an area where they would take in the trapper’s skins; weigh and grade them for quality and the “Clerk” would keep a tally of how much worth would be coming back to the seller. Kraig said since money was worthless, they were paid in coffee, liquor, food, beads, little mirrors etc. “Why beads and mirrors?” He said you might have encountered an Indian along the way or might run into one and NEED something of value, to GAIN something of value! The Indians used the beads and mirrors as decorations on their clothing. He said the rendezvous was a completely wild event as there was so much liquor. They would carouse, party, drink, fight and horse race. An interesting fact came out here… Frequently the Buyers would pay the furriers with liquor that at times would be watered down. The Indians would get their payoff, take a big swig and spit into the open fire. If it blazed up and burned, it was GOOD stuff. Watered down liquor put out the fire! That’s where the term “fire-water” originated! The whole event was such an unbelievably spectacular time and got them off the trail for a couple of days! They looked forward to the next one each year.

Kraig said each man had to take care of himself and would hope to be able to return a year later, however, there was never any guarantee as disease was rampant as well as being mauled by an animal and or war. Medicine was nonexistent.

Unfortunately, death came fairly easily to the mountain men due to all the perils of the trails. As his party was leaving the rendezvous and going through the southern Rocky Mountains in Colorado the trails were narrow and as hazardous as he had ever seen. In fact, he watched the pack mules being led before him, go through single file, on a skinny pathway (mountain on left and drop off canyon on right) and thought to himself that it looked dangerous but if that was the way they were going, so be it! As he cautiously let Spirit navigate the trail, Spirit’s back right foot stepped on loose gravel and they both went

off the mountain. There was one man behind Kraig that immediately got off his horse and looked down to see what they were going to have to do to get his dead body off that mountain. After about five minutes, although it seemed instantly to Kraig, the man saw Kraig’s foot move and knew he wasn’t dead. When Kraig opened his eyes, Spirit was standing over him, looking at his face with a puzzled look almost as if to say, “what just happened, are you trying to kill us??” Kraig moved slightly and realized he was just banged up but didn’t break anything and Spirit had a few scrapes on her legs, but they were both alive! Eventually Kraig stood up and got back on Spirit and navigated a way back to the main trail further down the mountain.

Now, back to the story…By this time the farm hand clothes had long worn out and they were usually dressed in skins. Sometimes they would be able to get jackets, pants or shirts at the rendezvous and generally always needed moccasins as they wore out quickly. Kraig said they were constantly making moccasins with skins. They would put the skin down, put their foot in the middle, cut to appropriate size and fold over where they could sew one seam on the outside. At times the mountain men would take Indian wives who would tan skins and sew clothes for them. The wives would take an animal skin and tan the hide with the brains of the animal. He said it was common knowledge that God had given each animal enough brains to tan one hide.

Another interesting topic was how did they wash their clothes? Kraig said they didn’t! Their “skins” would be covered with blood from trapping and hunting animals, grease, mud, dirt, black power residue from the guns, horse sweat and anything else you ran into during the day. I often wondered how they could wait until they got into a settlement on a Saturday night to take a bath! Hopefully they occasionally jumped into a river! OMG! It was the way of life and everybody was in the same boat! “PU!”

The AMM organization is alive and well today. They meet several times a year and practice just as Kraig imaginarily lived several centuries ago! This organization is obviously not for everyone. First of all, you just can’t hold up your hand and ask to join. You have to be invited and go through a series of steps, requirements and tasks to qualify. You have to learn at least 50 Indian words in sign language and be able to communicate. It really is a difficult process, but for some men, it’s a dream to travel back in time and live like their exploring ancestors, the mountain men; who survived and lived a hard life off the land. God Bless them for keeping our history alive and teaching the art to younger men so we don’t forget.

Honestly, I feel unbelievably safe with Kraig on the street as a neighbor, as there is no way we will ever starve nor hopefully as a team, ever perish. We will all survive with his skills and his teachings. He can fish, hunt, trap, skin, cook and make clothes from the hides, start a fire with a flint and steel or a fire bow, and use a flint lock rifle for which he gathers flint by streams, and makes his own bullets with a bullet mold. Kraig may slightly resemble that ole fictional Grizzly Adams, but you can believe he’s the real deal, an official mountain man, who we are blessed to know and have as an incredible friend.

Thanks to Kraig for sharing his experiences and knowledge with us. For more information on how you can join the American Mountain Men organization check out: americanmountainmen.org on the internet.