MeatEater's American History

The Mountain Men (1806-1840)

By: Steven Rinella

Narrated by: Steven Rinella

From the creators of the New York Times bestselling audio series Campfire Stories and MeatEater’s American History comes a new audiobook original that plunges listeners into the untamed world of a celebrated and misunderstood group of nineteenth-century outdoorsmen: the Mountain Men.

Steven Rinella (The MeatEater Podcast) brings to life the legendary wilderness exploits of men such as Jim Bridger, Jedidiah Smith, and Hugh Glass, who headed out to the Rocky Mountains to trap beavers in the decades following the Louisiana Purchase. Living off the land and dodging grizzly bears, these colorful characters carved out an existence defined by their relationships with Native people, their capacity to endure the most trying conditions, and their intimate knowledge of the western landscape. This small fraternity of backwoodsmen—numbering only a few hundred at any point in time, and perhaps 3,000 total over the course of the era—not only lived in dramatic fashion, they died the same way: one in ten would suffer some sort of violent death in the wilds of the Rockies.

Their extraordinary feats—some heroic, others horrifying—helped define an era when the West represented not just unmapped territory, but untapped opportunity. And when a combination of economic and ecological factors caused their world to collapse, the mountain men left behind more than just tracks in the wilderness; they established an enduring archetype of independence, resilience, and an untamed spirit that still resonates through American culture today.

©2025 Steven Rinella (P)2025 Random House Audio

Tough men in a tough world

I have been a fan of the mountain man story since childhood, and Rinella really does a good job of bringing this story to life with descriptions that put the listener in the mountains with these men. I would have given this book five stars all around except for the fact that Rinella goes into extreme detail on beaver-hat making which I found too lengthy. I also felt Rinella could have told more of the adventure stories about the mountain men. He only briefly mentions Kit Carson, doesn't mention the real Jeremiah Johnson though he references the movie inspired by this real person several times. This is a really good introduction to the mountain man and his life and times but I hope it inspires people to dig a little deeper because there is so much more to it than Rinella could include in one book.

Storytelling

Some folks just know how to spin yarns and tell tales and Rinella is one of those people. You can also tell the care that was taken in the exhaustive research. This is one you have to have in your library.

The detail is crazy

The detail of all chapters is nuts and the similarity to the long hunters book is amazing as well. Those men were awesome

Fantastic adventure to the past

As always, Steve Rinella delivered a smooth and interesting production. Factual history delivered in a way to pique curiosity and harken the listener back to an old way of living that encompasses part of the beauty and tragedy of the growing pains of our great nation, lived by some overall tough men.

History I was unaware of

Love the authors voice and his own hunting experiences. Great storytelling ability! The why , who and what of hunting

Excellent narrative

Love the story and details and the narrative. Cannot do better than MeatEater!! Always looking for more.

Narration

The pace of the book was refreshing. Easy listen. Easy learning. Another great book from the Meat Eater crew

The amount of detail!

Love it! It really brings home what these extraordinary people went through just to earn a living and explore the west!

Great book on the subject

Researched, organized, thoughtful, interesting. I enjoyed the listen. Good narration by the author. Learned a lot about the subject.

Superb

Just flat out interesting and extremely well written. Covered everything from history of the times, The types of men it attracted, the biology of beavers, trapping techniques, politics, world business trade and fashion, indigenous complexities, and survival in the Rockies.

The only thing it didn’t cover is the ethical element of trapping and killing beavers. Would’ve liked to hear his perspective on that. Including, why in the world does anybody kill beavers now?