History has held a fascination for me from a very young age. I remember being told stories of my family’s history and wanting to know more about that earlier time. I may have been one of the youngest visitors to local historical societies as I researched both my family’s place in time and the various branches of my family tree. For a long time I only understood history as a written record, held in dusty archives and compiled into books.
In 1976 the United States celebrated “the Bicentennial”, an unbroken 200 years of freedom. I saw men and women dressed in colonial-era clothing and watched as a number of them reenacted battles and campaigns of the Revolutionary War. This was not a movie production, this was everyday people studying the past and sharing that study in a living context. History came alive before my eyes. In time I was able to visit major “living history” sites such as Colonial Williamsburg and Old Sturbridge Village. I saw first hand how historical research could be further developed into a daily context. I was really hooked now.
My interest in the post-colonial period grew stronger as I read the first person accounts of western continental exploration written by Merriwether Lewis and William Clark as well as other members of the Corps of Discovery. While a major objective was to note the potential for economic expansion, the primary purpose was mapping and surveying the land. But as the Corps of Discovery was approaching their return to St. Louis, MO, one of the members (John Colter) asked to be released to enter into a purely financial venture, fur trapping and trading with a party ascending the Missouri River. In joining this new group, Colter paved the way for other adventurers and entrepreneurs – the mountain men (or “mountaineers”) of 1820 to 1840.
These mountaineers, perhaps numbering fewer than 15,000 total over the 20 years, explored the Rocky Mountain region from Canada to Mexico in search of beavers to trap. Beavers were the prime component of fashionable hat making. These large rodents provided a way for young men to potentially earn more in a year spent in the mountains than they could in 3 or 4 years at conventional jobs of the day. This period of time pulled me into the living history world and has given me a focus for reenacting over many years.
I became involved with other like-minded reenactors and have spent considerable time building and gathering my gear appropriate to the time period. Additionally, as a group we have worked on building our knowledge of the period and have given of our time for public education and events. Living history has served as an adjunct to my classroom teaching over the years, giving me additional insights to share with my students, and now continues as a rewarding pursuit.
At various times throughout the year, and at the invitation of a civic or historical organization, a number of the fur trade reenactors in my local group will present a public demonstration of the history we love. Ranging in duration from a couple of hours to several days, we are able to give people a flavor of what life was like in the 18020’s in the Rocky Mountains. The mountaineers established a precedent of global trade and furthered the continental expansionist ideas of the United States. This is an important piece of national history and one that is not often taught in schools. As historians and reenactors, we can fill in some of the details that may have been missed and perhaps bring a slice of history to life for the next generation.
