Depicts the death throes of the harsh and beautiful life of the early trappers in the Rocky Mountains.

"Luke Ransom was just eighteen years old when he answered an ad in a St. Louis newspaper that would change his life forever. The American Fur Company needed one hundred enterprising men to travel up the Missouri River--the longest in North America--all the way to its source. They would hunt and trap furs for one, two, or three years. Along the way, they would face unimaginable hardships: grueling weather, wild animals, hunger, exhaustion, and hostile...

Discusses the influence the craze for beaver had on the development and exploration of North America and describes the men attracted by the opportunity for profit and adventure.

Four years after the Revolutionary War, America's independence was still in doubt. The new nation needed money and a vital surge in trade. In 1787, a group of Boston merchants decided to send two ships on a desperate mission around Cape Horn and into the Pacific Ocean, to establish new trade with China, settle an outpost on territory claimed by the Spanish, and find the legendary Northwest Passage. The seven-year adventure, known as the Columbia Expedition,...