Meeting the Mountain Man

A contemplative Mountain Man


Mountain men were an integral part of settling the western United States, especially the mountainous areas. They were a mysterious breed of man in that they were completely detached from the rest of humanity for many months, and in some cases years. Their primary connection with humanity was at their rendezvous, which often resulted in days of boastful activity, rowdiness and drinking. I do not claim to be an expert on mountain men, however, I did meet one and I want to tell you that story.

I often like to take hikes in the Black Hills, when time permits and my activity level is low enough. On one of these very same hikes as I was ascending Crow Peak, I looked back and from that vista I could see Spearfish Peak, Lookout Mountain, Roosevelt Mountain; the vista was unbelievable. I could even see into Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming. As I looked to the horizon, my eye caught a glimpse of what looked like a man, about three hundred yards off, hiking through the tall timber. He was an older gentleman, with very long hair. He did not use a crutch but he seemed to have something in his hands. At first I thought it might have been a rifle, but on closer look it looked like a banjo. I decided I needed a closer look at this gentleman, to determine where he was from and what he was doing here, because he looked quite out of place. As I approached him, he had a wild look in his eye, as if I were some kind of intruder penetrating his space. As I got closer he stopped fast, and erect and stared me in the eye; as if to stare me down like a wild animal. The closer I got the more I recognized this must be the reincarnation of a mountain man. I had never seen a mountain man; I’ve seen them in pictures, I’ve seen them on TV, I’ve seen them in movies, and Jeremiah Johnson was a great mountain man. But, could it be real that I was actually meeting, face-to-face, in the summer of 2009, a real, honest to goodness, mountain man? As I was about thirty feet away, I spoke and said, “Hello, how are you?” He kind of crouched a little bit and I felt certain that he was going to attack me. But, he had no weapon; all he had was a banjo. Was he going to attack me with his song? Was he going to attack me with his voice, verbally? I couldn’t figure it out. I spoke again, and this time he seemed to calm down, and he said, “Hello, how are you?” But his ‘hello, how are you’ wasn’t really like the way we talk. It was kind of chopped up, and a little foreign to me. There seemed to be gravel in his voice and he seemed to have kind of a distant sound. I looked closer into his eyes and the wildness had gone, and there was peacefulness about his eyes, as if I were looking directly into his soul. I had actually met the authentic mountain man. As I visited with him a little bit, he became more intrigued about me and what I was doing there; as I became more intrigued about him. Well as it turned out, he is more civilized then I thought. He is actually doing a one-man show at the Amphitheater two nights a week. It’s in conjunction with a prairie-style dinner. He seemed to be quite enthused about the possibility of meeting new people and telling his tales about the mountain man days.




After telling tales and singing songs

He wanted to share those tales with me and I was interested in moving along. And I said, “I’d love to hear the tales, but I’ll come down to the Black Hills Amphitheater on either a Tuesday or Thursday night and visit with you, and you can tell all of us about your tales. About the time you spent with Jim Bridger out in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, about the cold winters, about the petrified forest, petrified animals.” I though that would be a good place to visit with him, I could enjoy fine food, good friends, new friends that I would meet, and hear his whole story. He said it would take about an hour, and I thought, well that’s a good time frame. Perhaps I’ll bring my nephews and grandchildren along so that they too can see and visit with an authentic mountain man.

See you at the Amp!