Lige Mounts, Free Trapper

by Frank Bird Linderman, David J. Wishart (Introduction), Sarah Waller Hatfield (Afterword)

In 1822 Elijah Mounts, barely eighteen, shoulders his rifle and walks from his uncle’s Missouri farm to Saint Louis to seek his fortune in the fur trade. Frank B. Linderman’s 1922 novel is a first-person account, based on a true story and his own trapping experience, of a young man’s coming of age among the trappers and Indians in remote Montana, on the upper reaches of the wild Missouri River. Befriended by Wash Lamkin, “Dad” to all who know him, “Lige” learns to live on the trail, trap the beaver, hunt the buffalo, speak the Cree language, and observe the customs of the country and its people. Enamored of the freedom, wildness, and beauty of the high plains and tied to the people at whose hands he has experienced kindness, welcome, and acceptance, he must ultimately decide whether he will return to civilization or choose the life of a plainsman.

339 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[D]

Good book for research, if you dig deep enough. Mr Linderman has great knowledge of the era he is writing about. The story line was well done, in so far as Mr. Linderman was well versed in some of the traditions of the Crees.

[Daniel L Snider]

A good story

I appreciate this author who doesn't get so dirty with his narrative. The story is good, written like the central character would have said it.

[Steven Law]

Classic novel about the fur trade era.