Journal of a Trapper

This is by far one of the best books that a fur trade re-enactor can read. It is also a must read for the modern beaver trapper as well. Osborne describes the everyday events of the fur brigades in their heyday. If you are a buckskinner, living historian, trapper or just an old west history buff then this is a MUST have!

Those are bold words for the title of a review, but they are aptly deserved here with Mr. Russell's gift to our American Heritage. A first-person account of experiences in a era long gone, a time in our history seeking to fathom a new land, a time of growing clash between fundamentally different cultures... and Mr. Russell puts you right there on the frontline. You join him at the beginning of his new livelihood in the unknown, and you stay with him, growing in experience and weathering within the raw western realm. The writing is often crude, but his thoughts are hardly so and the total package bursts forth as a true rarity in literature. I consider this journal to be an equal to the recordings of Lewis and Clark, and practically moreso given the fact that it is really the efforts of a lone individual. He was not paid to keep this record, and although he always hoped to see it published, it did not go to print until long after his death, and then only first released in a limit of 100 copies. Aubrey Haines does great tribute to this admirable man by undertaking the task of retracing Mr. Russell's journies and providing us with the maps needed to help us follow him. Working from the original handwritten manuscript housed in The William Robertson Coe Collection of Western Americana at Yale University, Mr. Haines' efforts represent the single most important element in getting this work to the people, and he has done us a great service here in preventing this journal from drifting into obscurity. If you are curious as to what a life was like in a land before McDonalds, MTV, shopping malls, and SuperBowl Sundays, then I suggest you pick up a copy of this jewel and park yourself along with Mr. Russell next to that campfire with its golden sparks wafting up toward that diamond-studded yonder. You will be all the better for it.

I was in high school growing up on the Snake river Plain in Idaho when I read this book. I had to take a summer school course on Idaho history and this was our text, we spent the summer reading this book and then traveling to many of the locations in it and experiencing first hand the sights and sounds of the story. It was a great experiance and it has stayed with me ever since. If you live in this area or are just interested in this kind of story I highly reccomend this book.

I am a wildlife biologist working in part of the area where Osborne Russell traveled. I have visited many of the sites writen about and I'm constantly comparing Russel's world with what is here today. His discritptions and comments of the lands and wildlife provide a unique window to what Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming were like before white settlement.His journal also documents the hardships faced by the first whites into these country and the Native Americans already there. This work is a truthful account of the life and history of the mountain men in the Rockies.

This is one of the my favorite books. The writer was not only a tough grizzled mountain man but a pretty good writer considering he kept a 12 year journal while travelling around the West fighting indians and trapping beaver.We took the book and went to Yellowstone and retraced the route of 1 year of the dairy. The writing is so discriptive, we could actually follow his route by landmarks. It was the best vacation we ever took.This book is a must for western history buffs!