HHiiSSTORTORYY— PaSt aNd PerspeCtive John Colter encountering some Indians The First Mountain Man Clymer Museum of Art It has been said that it took rugged, practically fearless individuals to explore and settle America’s West. Surely few would live up to such a characterization as well as John Colter. by Charles Scaliger ran, and sharp stones gouged the soles of wether Lewis traveled down the Ohio his feet, but he paid the pain no mind; any River recruiting men for his Corps of Dis- he sinewy, bearded man raced up torment was preferable to what the Black- covery, which was about to strike out on the brushy hillside, blood stream- foot warriors would inflict on him if they its fabled journey across the continent to ing from his nose from the terrific captured him again. map and explore. The qualifications for re- Texertion. He did not consider himself a cruits were very specific; enlistees in what In 1808, the year John Colter ran his fast runner, but on this occasion the terror race with the Blackfeet, Western Mon- became known as the Lewis and Clark of sudden and agonizing death lent wings tana had been seen by only a handful of expedition had to be “good hunter[s], to his feet. Somewhere not far behind, his white men. The better-known era of the stout, healthy, unmarried, accustomed to pursuers, their lean bodies more accus- Old West, with its gunfighters, cattlemen, the woods, and capable of bearing bodily tomed than his to the severe terrain, were and mining towns, lay decades in the fu- fatigue in a pretty considerable degree.” closing in, determined to avenge the death ture. The frontier as most Americans then Colter, who was then living in Kentucky, of one of their own. They carried weap- conceived it was many hundreds of miles met all of these qualifications. He stood ons, though they were unlikely to grant further east, on the lower reaches of the five feet ten inches — tall for his day their quarry a quick and easy death if they Missouri and the Mississippi rivers. The — and was well-muscled and an expert caught him. High Plains, Rocky Mountains, Great hunter. He may also have had experience All of these thoughts coursed through Basin, and Pacific Coast ranges were as a ranger under legendary frontiersman frontiersman John Colter’s mind as he still the domain of native tribes and a few Simon Kenton. ran for his life. Although an able shot and doughty fur trappers. Lewis was obviously impressed with capable fighter, Colter’s only assets at the Colter and offered him a position as a pri- moment were the muscles in his already- Headed West vate with a salary of five dollars a month. exhausted legs. His pursuers had taken his John Colter was born to be a frontiersman. The military lifestyle does not seem to gun and knife, and had stripped him of A native of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, where have agreed with Colter at first. Before de- every last stitch of clothing. The sagebrush he was born in about 1775, Colter grew parting on the expedition, Lewis left camp and scrub oak tore at Colter’s thighs as he up a woodsman. In October 1803, Meri- to look for last-minute supplies, leaving www.TheNewAmerican.com 35 HH iiSSTORTORYY— PaSt aNd PerspeCtive Colter, perhaps eager to headed northwest to trap in the bounte- John Colter was an exemplary member strike out on his own into the ous mountains of Montana, and he man- vast wilderness, requested aged to persuade Colter to postpone re- of the Lewis and Clark expedition. He permission to go with the turning to civilization and join his group. was assigned to be one of the hunters, a two trappers. Lewis and Colter alone knew the wilderness where Clark granted him an early they were headed, and he was doubtless testament of his abilities as a tracker and but honorable discharge, and offered handsome inducements to act as shooter. Colter parted with the ex- their guide. pedition on friendly terms. The journey back up the Missouri at- Through the ensuing winter, tracted trouble. Mandans, Arikaras, and Sergeant John Ordway in charge of his the three men trapped beaver in the Mon- Assiniboines, alarmed by the large group men. Colter and several others disobeyed tana wilderness, but the following spring, of white intruders, attacked and threat- one of Ordway’s orders and were confined Colter, for reasons that are not clear, part- ened the expedition several times. In to base camp for 10 days as punishment. ed ways with Hancock and Dixon, built November 1807, at the confluence of the Furious, Colter threatened to shoot Ord- a canoe, and headed down the Missouri Yellowstone and Bighorn Rivers, in what way, whereupon he was court-martialed River toward far-off St. Louis. is now south central Montana, they built by Meriwether Lewis. The incident fi- He never reached civilization. At the a fort-cum-fur trading post, which Lisa nally was put to rest when Colter, seeing mouth of the Platte River, Colter dis- named Fort Raymond (after his son), the folly of insubordination, tendered an covered a group of 50 trappers, led by but which came to be almost universally apology and was reinstated. the legendary fur trader Manuel Lisa. known as Fort Lisa or Manuel’s Fort. It During the more than two years that Lisa, an ambitious man, was one of the was from this lonely outpost, hundreds of followed, John Colter was an exemplary founders of the Missouri Fur Company, miles from any other settlement of white member of the expedition. He was as- and was the preeminent fur trader on the men, that John Colter and the other trap- signed to be one of the hunters, a tes- Missouri. He may have met Colter be- pers began sallying forth into the trackless tament of his abilities as a tracker and fore; Lisa had helped to supply the Lewis mountains in search of the furs that could shooter. He helped the group find a way and Clark expedition before its departure make them wealthy men. through the Rocky Mountains, and he from St. Louis, where Lisa based his op- Lisa wanted as clear an understanding is believed to have been the first white erations. Now, Lisa and his men were as possible of the surrounding country, so man to cross Wyoming’s for- midable Wind River Range. Lewis and Clark He also became experienced expedition at dealing with the natives, on at least one occasion per- suading members of the Nez Perce to help him find a way through a portion of the Pacific Northwest. When the expedi- tion reached the mouth of the Columbia River, Colter was among a select group of men picked to proceed on to the Pacific coast and explore the coastline northwards. By August 1806, the return- ing expedition had reached the upper Missouri in what is now western North Dakota. They found villages of Sioux-speak- ing Mandans — one of the few groups of Plains Indians who were not nomadic — and there encountered two westbound trappers, Forrest Hancock and Joseph Dixon, who wanted a guide to take them into the Montana wilderness to find furs. 36 THE NEW AMERICAN • JANUARy 18, 2010 John Colter running for his life from the Blackfeet Indians National Parks Services he sent John Colter off the first winter to when a party of more than 1,000 hostile “Can you run fast?” he reportedly asked scout, explore, and make contact with the Blackfeet attacked. Colter was shot in the their captive. native tribes and invite them to bring their leg but managed to survive the battle and Colter, certain that his life was about furs to the fort to trade. then hike several hundred miles back to to end, told the chief that he was a slow Colter set off on foot with only his the fort. runner. Undeterred, the Indians stripped gun, ammunition, and a pack full of sup- him of all his clothes and possessions and plies and gifts for the Indians. The route A Race Run ordered him to run as fast as he could. of his first solo journey of exploration is It was John Colter’s first improbable es- Colter took off like an arrow, expecting to not known with any certainty, but he must cape from death in the Montana wilds, be shot down from behind at any moment. have traveled west and south, becoming but not his last. The following autumn, Instead, a group of braves ran after him, the first white man to see the magnificent Colter headed west into Blackfoot terri- whooping and brandishing weapons, their Teton Range, Jackson Hole, and Yellow- tory along the Madison Fork River with intentions unmistakable. stone Valley with its geological wonders. a trapper named John Potts. The two tried At the start of the foot race, Colter was He covered roughly 500 miles on foot that to keep a low profile, hiding by day and about five miles from the Madison Fork winter of 1807-1808, traversing modern- running their trap lines at night, but their River, and managed to run three miles be- day Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, and luck ran out one chilly morning as they fore blood began gushing from his nose, became acquainted with many of the raced to take up their traps before daylight probably from the combined effects of the tribes who inhabited the region. He traded revealed their activities. A large party of cold and pure exertion.