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J. F. Ballard, A MOUNTAIN MAN, Once Described Himself As Follows:
"My mother was a badger, my father was a Griz... I can out shoot, out fight, out cuss and out drink any man. I have the fastest horse, the sharpest knife, and the finest rifle in the mountains. Hear my challenge echo in the valleys for any man of any nation to try to lift my top knot. I will fight to the death for my right to be a free man, to trap the beaver and to hunt the elk, to drink from cool streams, and to sleep under the stars. I have no road to follow, I make my own. I have no man to answer to except myself. I fear no creature on God's green earth, for I am a MOUNTAIN MAN !!!"
This web site is dedicated to these brave men who wandered the wilderness, for they are the few men in history that truly tasted freedom. For the spirit of the wild is in us all. May today's trappers remember we have a rich history of freedom loving men that walked alone in a wilderness to open a land which is now the Untied States.
The spirit of the Mountain Man lives on and we all can taste a small part of it by running traps and cooking fresh beaver over an open fire. The call of the wild is in us all and you only have to walk the path of a trapper to feel it course through your veins. A feeling of wonderment as the cold autumn air changes the leaves to blazing orange, yellow and red. The damp smell of earth as you walk the path and set your traps. For life is a cycle and to begin the understanding of how nature works you must see all of it with your own eyes. You must touch earth to appreciate her bounty and be a part of natures cycle. Only a trapper can see the wilderness and come to the understanding of being a part of nature.
Today Men and Women can walk the path and see the beauty and simple, but hard life once lead by the proud few. You can feel the changing of the seasons, a 6th sense almost, will come over you as autumn approaches and your blood flows faster, the excitement builds. Soon, you will walk away from the hustle, the traffic jams, the road rage, the problems of the city life. When you strap on that packbasket and set your first trap you relax and realize you have come home. May the spirit always run through you.
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Mountain Man
