Not many years ago a change began to take place in the view-point of many Americans. Far-sighted men and women came to feel that the history made by their fathers and mothers was worth preserving, and they began to write and talk about this. What they said fell on sympathetic ears, and interest was easily aroused, so that before long in many of the Western States historical societies were established, and earnest men gave time and effort to the work of inducing the early settlers to set down their recollections—to describe the events in which they had taken part. Later came the marking of historic spots and trails by monuments.
To-day the historical societies of many Western States issue each year a volume filled with material of great interest—matter that will be of enormous value to the historian who shall set down the story of the development of the West.
Since the accounts which appear in the following pages have to do with a country then unknown, the explorers who penetrated it faced new conditions and met new and primitive peoples. To subsist in these unknown lands they were forced to hunt its animals, and the purpose which led them so far afield was the trading for furs. The book thus deals with a number of cognate subjects, with exploration, hunting, the taking of fur, and Indians in peace and war; and in any or all of these there is excitement and interest enough.
Let us look back at some of the happenings in this forgotten West, which is now again being remembered.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| An Early Fur Trader | [1] |
| Fur Hunters of the Far West | [39] |
| When Beaver Skins were Money | [125] |
| George Frederick Ruxton, Hunter | [191] |
| A Boy in Indian Camps | [235] |
| The Solitary Hunter | [275] |
| The Council at Fort Benton | [323] |
| Index | [365] |