From 1810, when a newspaper published the first account of "Colter's Run," to 2012, when one hundred and fourscore participants in Montana's annual John Colter Run charged up and down rugged trails-even across the waist-deep Gallatin River-interest in Colter, the alleged discoverer of Yellowstone Park, has never waned. Drawing on this endless fascination with an individual often called the first American mountain man, this book offers an innovative, comprehensive study of a unique figure in American history. Despite his prominent role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the early exploration of the West, Colter is distinctly different from Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and the other legends of the era because they all left documents behind that allow access to the men themselves. Colter, by contrast, left nothing, not a single letter, diary, or reminiscence, so that second-, third-, or fourth-hand accounts of his adventures are all we have. Guiding readers through this labyrinth of hearsay, rumor, and myth, this is the first book to tell the whole story of Colter and his legend, examining everything that is known-or supposedly known-about Colter and showing how historians and history buffs alike have tried in vain to get back to Colter the man, know what he said and feel what he felt, but have ended up never seeing him clearly, finding instead an enigma they cannot unravel.
Autorentext
Ronald M. Anglin is the author of Forgotten Trails: Historical Sources of
the Columbia's Big Bend Country. He is retired from the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, where he spent thirty years in land management in the
National Wildlife Refuge System. He feels strongly that to be a good steward
of an area, one must first understand its history, so that one's mark on the
land will be with love and respect, not cruelty or disdain. He and his wife,
Kathy, live in Fallon, Nevada, and have two sons who are happily married
with six children between them.
Larry E. Morris is the author of The Fate of the Corps: What Became of
the Lewis and Clark Explorers After the Expedition and The Perilous West:
Seven Amazing Explorers and the Founding of the Oregon Trail. He is a
curator with the Historic Sites Division of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. He was born and raised in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in the Snake
River country roamed by the likes of Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, and Kit
Carson in the 1820s and 1830s. Larry and his wife, Deborah, are the parents
of four children and have six grandchildren.