Mountain Man Clothing

The Fur Trapper era was only a short period in American history, but it remains a favorite. Every  weekend somewhere in the United States there is a Rendezvous taking place where re-enactors can live out this period in history. We are excited about offering the Varsity Scouts the opportunity to learn about this period in history, and we want to do all that we can to encourage them to take part in the fun. Included here are a few basic ideas and descriptions of period clothing to help them dress as mountain men.

“His dress and appearance are equally singular. His skin, from constant exposure,  assumes a hue almost as dark as that of the Aborigine, and his features and  physical structure attain a rough and hardy cast. His hair, through inattention, becomes long, coarse and bushy, and loosely dangles upon his shoulders. His head is surmounted by a low crowned wool-hat, or a rude substitute of his own manufacture. His clothes are of buckskin, gaily fringed at the seams with strings of the same material, cut and made in a fashion peculiar to himself and associates. The deer and buffalo furnish him the required covering for his feet, which he fabricates at the impulse of want. His waist is encircled with a belt of leather, holding encased his butcher- knife and pistols- while from his neck is suspended a bullet pouch securely fastened to the belt in front, and beneath the right arm hangs a powder horn transversely from his shoulder...The mountaineer is his own manufacturer, tailor. shoemaker and butcher; and fully accoutred and supplied with ammunition in a good game country, he can always feed and clothe himself, and enjoy all the comfort the situation affords. No wonder, then, his proud spirit, expanding with the intuitive knowledge of noble independence, becomes devotedly attached to those regions and habits that permit him to stalk forth, a sovereign amid natureʼs loveliest works.”