Site Updates and Changes:  For easy viewing, significant updates to the Big Hole are documented on this page.

March 9, 2008.  Added the following section to Myths:  Cheating Indians of Their Valuable Furs in Exchange for Worthless Trinkets.

January 16, 2008.  Added Alexander Harvey to The Men.  

January 8, 2008.  Added Fort Davey Crockett to Forts.  

December 17, 2007.  Added Joe Meek Stands Guard Duty, Fitzpatrick's Blackfoot Adventure and Jim Bridger Leads by Example to Wild Tales.  

December 5, 2007.  Added the term "Judy Fitzsimmons"  and "Fall to the Kettle" to Glossary.  Added Cooking and Cookware to Everyday Living; Disputing Courage and A Church Service For Mountain Men to Wild Tales.   

November 21, 2007.  Added James Kipp to The Men and Lucifers as a subcategory to Trade Goods.   

October 27, 2007.  Added John Hatcher to The Men, Celebrity Guns to Everyday Life.

October 21, 2007.  Added Joe Meek Rescues His Woman to Wild Tales and Lies and Black Powder Production Through Time to Black Powder.  Supplemented Accidents and Mishaps and Funerals. Added William McGaa to The Men.   

October 11, 2007.  Added "Big Jim" Hunts Sandhill Crane; "Big Jim" Hunts Antelope; "Big Jim" Kills a Venomous Serpent; "Big Jim" First Adventure on Guard Duty;  "Big Jim" Challenges a Buffalo Bull;  "Big Jim" 2nd Adventure on Guard Duty; to Greenhorn Mountaineer.

September 25, 2007.  Added Doc Newell Takes a Scalp and Blackfoot Attack Against the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company to Wild Tales and Lies, Drinker Hunts Porcupine to Greenhorn Mountaineer and additional quotes to Quotes.

September 16, 2007.  Added Marie's Grizz Encounter and The Death of Drouillard to Wild Tales and Lies.  

September 1, 2007.  Added "Blackfoot" John Smith and Counting Pawnee to Wild Tales.  Added Robert Campbell's description of the Battle of Pierre's Hole.

August 12, 2007.  Added Attack on the Yellowstone to Wild Tales, added Accidents & Mishaps and The Greenhorn Mountaineer to Everyday Living, added additional phrases to Quotes in Everyday Living.  Added subsections Osborne Russell and His First Buffalo Hunt, and Osborne Russell Encounters His First Grizzly to The Greenhorn Mountaineer.  

July 28, 2007.  Added Pack Train Life-Mess; Camp Set Up; Guard Duty,  Celebrations, Food and Starving Times to Everyday Life and added the Battle of Pierre's Hole.  

July 15, 2007.  Added How to Make a Powder Horn to Plans, Designs and How-To's

June 1, 2007.  Added Crucified by Prickly Pears and Beating Off a Griz to Wild Tales; Sir William Drummond Stewart to The Men; Warm Weather Sleeping to Everyday Life;  and 1851 Thoughts about Indian versus White styles of Clothing to Clothing.  

May 27, 2007.  Added Dining Formalities at Forts and Posts to Everyday Life.  

May 12, 2007.  Added Lucien Fontenelle to The Men. 

March 23, 2007.  Added a description of the Whitman Massacre.  

March 10, 2007.  Major edits and improvements to Clothing.  

March 2, 2007.  Added Softening Leather by Chewing and Green River Knife to Myths of the Mountain Man and J.Russell & Co. and the Green River Knife to Knives.   

January 28, 2007.  Added Evading Liquor Laws to Trade Alcohol and Nathaniel Wyeth to The Men.  Added Fort Union Smallpox Epidemic as a sub topic under S.S. St. Peters Smallpox Epidemic.  Added a description of use of snow shelters to Cold Weather Sleeping.  

January 5 2007.  Added winter encampment descriptions by Warren Ferris and Osborne Russell to Winter Camp, Everyday Life and added a description of Christmas 1839.   Added a more complete discussion of Trade Alcohol to Food and Drink.  Added a short biography of William Craig and Antonio Montero to The Men, and a description of the Death of Vanderburgh.  

December 20, 2005.  Added the term "Fleece" to Glossary.  Added Preserving Meat and Holiday Celebrations to Everyday Life.  

December 9, 2006.  Added Calvin T. Briggs, and Marcelino Baca to The Men.   Added Trade Whiskey to Myths, and Pack Train Life & Routine to Everyday Life.    

November 23, 2006.  Added Prairie Travel  and Wages & Benefits 1842 to Everyday Life.  

November 18, 2006.  The References section was redone to better reflect standard bibliographical methods, and was further broken down into Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Living History/Reenacting, and Historical Fiction.  Alfred Jacob Miller was added to The Men.    

November 11, 2006.  Added Turkey Hunting by Moonlight, Butchering a Buffalo, and Cooking & Eating Buffalo to Everyday Life, and Medicine Wolf to Glossary.  

November 3, 2006.  Added Making Coffee to Everyday Life and added Solitary Loner and Hawken Rifle to the Myths subsection.  

October 28, 2006.  Added Wages & Benefits-Fort Union 1851 and Dog-A Culinary Delight to Everyday Life.

October 18, 2006.  Added Notable Quotes , Pitching a Tent (Tipi), Preparing Robes and Hides, Mosquitoes, Securing Horses, and Indian Blanket Coat, to Everyday Life.  Added the term Dropsy, Paletot, and Osnaburgh to the Glossary.

October 7, 2006.  Added a section describing Indian Sign Language.  Added a description of a "Winter Camp" by Rufus Sage from his book, "Rocky Mountain Life".  Added the following terms to Glossary: Vara, Dearborn, Beeves, Specie.  Added a section, Everyday Living with subsections for Dogs, Law and Justice,  Kitchen & Tableware; and Funerals, Buffalo Hunting, Cold Weather Sleeping, Ice House, Making Lead Shot, Sign Language.  Finally added a section for Myths, with subsections for Beards. 

May 14, 2006.  Added the following terms to Glossary:  Bois de Bache; Medicine Dog; Carcajou; Nimrod; Gill; and added the following sub-topics to Food & Drink: pomme blanc (white apple); Dog; Prairie Dog; Prairie Potato; Red Root; Bear; Mountain Sheep; Bitters; High Wine; Also added "Sound Sleepers" to Wild Tales.  Cleaning Leather Clothing and Buckskin was added to Clothing.  

April 27, 2006.  Added a description of Fort Uncompahgre and Map to Forts & Posts.  

April 17, 2006.  Added a Map showing the west bound route taken by Wilson Price Hunt and the Overland Astorians, 1810-1813.

April 15, 2006.  Added the subsection How to Cast Small Lead Bars to Plans and Designs, added a biography of Ramsey Crooks and a Map showing his eastbound route from Astoria to St. Louis.    

March 11, 2006.  Reorganized Transportation; added material to Horses and made it a separate subsection.  

February 18, 2006.  Added Walker's Plunge to Wild Tales.

February 11, 2006.  Major update and reorganization of Guns.  Added new subsections for Gauge-Caliber Conversion, Lancaster Rifle (American Rifle), English Rifle, the New English Rifle, J&S Hawken Rifles, Also added short biographies of Jacob and Samuel Hawken, and a description of their St. Louis gun shop business.  

January 22, 2006.  Added a short biography about David Thompson.

January 7, 2006.  Added a description of the use and types of Dog Sleds to Transportation.  Added additional information to Keelboats and to Pirogues.  Additional sources added to References.  

December 18, 2005.  Added a section about Steamboats to Transportation and added a subsection describing the S.S. Yellow Stone, the first steamboat to reach Fort Union.  Added a description of Small Pox to Mountain Medicines and a section about the devastating Small Pox epidemic spread by the S.S. St. Peter's.February 19, 2005 added Dick Wootten Biography  

December 8, 2005.  Added the term Cavendish Tobacco to the Glossary.  Added Hunting Antelope by Smell to Wild Tales, and reorganized the Wild Tales section

November 26, 2005.  Made a major reorganization to The Women and added Thanadelthur, Isabel Gunn, and Marie-Anne Gaboury. Added the term: a la facon du pays to Glossary.

November 17, 2005.  Added Ram Rods and Gun Flints to the Guns section. 

November 3, 2005.  Major Upgrade to the Trade Goods section with the following subsections added: Blankets, Clothing, Fabrics and Sewing, Foods and Consumables, Guns & Firearms Supplies, Iron & Steel Tools, Personal Adornment, Personal Hygiene, Writing and Records, Horse Gear, Cooking, Miscellaneous.

November 3, 2005, added the following terms to Mountain Medicine, Alum, and Glauber Salts, and made minor additions to Glossary.

October 8, 2005, added descriptions of Powder Horns and Black Powder to the section on Guns

October 1, 2005, Louis Vasquez, Biography

September 2, 2005, added the following terms to Glossary:  Chintz;  Cochineal;  Foolscap;  Locofoco;  Lucifer Match;  Martingales;  Melton;  Pantaloons;  Pongie;  Quires;  Snaffle;  Sursingles;  Riband;  Water Crackers. 

September 2, 2005, Francis Ziba Branch, Biography

August 26, 2005, added a search function to this site to the Home Page

August 24, 2005, description of Buffalo Robes added to Clothing

August 15, 2005, Johnson Gardner, Biography

August 6, 2005, Antoine Godin, Biography

August 6, 2005, Five Forts, the history of the inter-related Forts Lupton, Fort Vasquez, Fort Jackson, Fort St. Vrain, and Fort Platte.  Includes a map showing the Forts on an 1840's Geopolitical Map.

May 18, 2005 Added “Colter’s Escape” to Wild Tales and Lies

May 15, 2005 Milton G Sublette, Biography  

May 15, 2005 Wild Tales and Lies, hair-raising adventures, humorous tales and out-right lies told by the mountain men  

May 7, 2005 Alexander Sinclair, Biography  

May 7, 2005 Peter Sarpy Biography  

May 1, 2005 Description and History of Fort Union

April 28, 2005 Description and History of Fort Hall

April 26, 2005 Map and Description of North American Geopolitical Divisions - 1803  

April 22, 2005 , Description and History of Fort William ( Fort Laramie )  

April 12, 2005 added Map showing locations of Rendezvous and important forts  

April 12, 2005 added Rendezvous Descriptions for each year from 1825-1840  

April 12, 2005 added Site Map  

March 24, 2005 added James Clyman Biography  

March 5, 2005 added major subsection Mountain Medicine

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