Lesson 14 Mountain Men/Folklore - Paul Bunyan

Mountain men had an even harder life than the frontiersmen. They lived alone with only the animals and Indians for company. Some traveled on horses while other used small rafts along the rivers. Mountain men lived off the land, eating what they could find. They were in constant danger. Wild animals and Indians were their enemies. They had to fight the cold and snow. Some mountain men became explorers and guides.

Jim Bridger was the first white man to see Utah's Great Salt Lake. Bridger told stories that were half-true and half-fiction. One favorite story he told was that a lake near the Grand Canyon was freezing cold at the bottom and boiling hot at the top. He told the tenderfeet that a person could catch a fresh fish at the bottom, but by the time he got it out of the water it was cooked by the boiling water at the top.

Davy Crockett was another famous frontiersman. He told this story. "I'm that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle. I can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, slip without a scratch down a honey locust. I can whip my weight in wild cats, and if any gentleman pleases, for a ten dollar bill, he may throw in a panther. I can hug a bear too close for comfort, and beat any man oppose to President Andy Jackson."

Stories about a giant north woodsman who was helped by a giant blue ox named Babe were told. This mountain man was named Paul Bunyan.