A Poetic Tribute to the Dauntless Explorers of the West and their Incredible Adventures
For over thirty years, from the time of Lewis and Clark into the 1840s, the mountain men explored the Great American West. As trappers in a hostile, trackless land, their exploits opened the gates of the mountains for the wagon trains of pioneers who followed them. In Give Your Heart to the Hawks, Win Blevins presents a poetic tribute to these dauntless Western explorers and their incredible adventures.
Here, among many others, are the stories of:
* John Colter, the first mountain man who, in 1808, naked and without weapons or food, escaped captivity by the Blackfeet and ran and walked 250 miles to Fort Lisa at the mouth of the Yellowstone River;
* Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a grizzly in 1823, left for dead by his trapper companions, and crawled 300 miles to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri;
* Kit Carson, who ran away from home at age 17, became a legendary mountain man in his 20s and served as scout and guide for John C. Fremont’s westward explorations of the 1840s;
* Jedediah Smith, a tall, gaunt, Bible-reading New Yorker whose trapping expeditions ranged from the Rockies to California and who was killed by Comanches on the Cimarron in 1831.
Reviews
“It was an epic time, which lasted hardly more than a third of a century before civilization swarmed west on trails the mountain men had blazed. Now Blevins sees they are paid the awed honor that is due them, in a book which has the drama and suspense of a novel.”—Los Angeles Times
“No one since the great A. B. Guthrie, Jr., has a better feel for the world of the mountain man.”—Don Coldsmith
“For the lover of the early West, it is good entertainment…with lots of color, suspense and excitement.” —The Denver Post
“Wilderness stories that will leave you agape and agog. Novelist Blevins spins robust, theatrical and mostly true tales of early-19th-century American mountain men. He comes at the stories with gusto, dramatizing to a certain extent these frontiersmen’s fantastic experiences, from the exploits of John Colter in 1808 to Kit Carson’s legendary work as John C. Fremont’s scout during the 1840s.
“Along the upper Missouri River, Colter ran afoul of some Blackfeet Indians, who stripped him of his clothes and told him to run. Stark naked, with nothing but his hands to gather food, he managed to make his way hundreds of miles to Fort Lisa on the Yellowstone.
“Blevins follows up that opening chapter with the equally mind-boggling saga of Hugh Glass, torn to shreds by a grizzly bear and left in the hands of two reluctant young caregivers who were annoyed when he didn’t die quickly. After they abandoned him, taking his rifle and supplies, he crawled and stumbled for 250 miles to Fort Kiowa.
“Blevins colorfully profiles several other hardy adventurers, including hardcore wanderer Jedediah Smith-men for whom it was natural when departing each other’s company to talk of a rendezvous two years down the line. Yet he dismisses the notion that they were vagabonding reprobates, pointing to their varied business interests. The author also unsnarls the competing agendas of the various fur-collecting agencies and ponders the sexual mores of natives and trappers.
“Most gratifyingly, he evokes the glories of the mountain men’s geography: the natural wonders they described from the Missouri River to the Sierra Nevada to the sere Southwest. Wilderness stories that will leave you agape and agog.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Blevins tells some of the most thrilling tales of the era, like John Colter’s desperate naked run from Indian braves pursuing him for sport, Hugh Glass’ amazing solo trek through 300 miles of wilderness without weapons or any tools for survival after being left for dead when mauled by a grizzly, or Jed Smith’s daring crossings of the desert and mountains to find a land route to California.
“‘Any man who survived for several years as a trapper, taking responsibility for his own survival alone in the wilds, had been schooled thoroughly by the Rocky Mountains.’ Trapping, yarning, rendezvous, buffalo-cuisine,, mountain crafts, mountain courting, and trappers and Indians together are a few of the subjects of mountain life dealt with. Blevins also includes a few colorful accounts written by the rare, literate mountain man detailing their unique life.
“He succeeds admirably in breathing life into this too often neglected period of amazing individuals who blazed the way for the westward expansion of the American nation.” — The Alumni of Rocky Mountain College Group