THIS RECKLESS BREED OF MEN

From contemporary accounts, and with a regional as well as indigenously historical value, this is the often dramatic story of the American fur traders, trappers and mountain men of the Southwest. A peculiar product of the American frontier, these men started where more cautious pioneers were glad to stop, faced the constant menace of the Indian and the grizly, made a far-reaching contribution to national expansion. The focus here is primarily on three men; Jedediah Smith, pathfinder beyond the Rockies, a resourceful explorer and a Christian gentleman to boot, who was eventually killed by the Comanches; Ewing Young, who left no records of his own, but who trapped, traded and explored in the wild border provinces of Mexico and was ""symbolic of the settler in the clearing""; and Joseph Reddeford Walker who reached the shores of the Pacific- in his own words -- ""the extreme end of the Great West"". And the expeditions to Santa Fe and beyond, the caravan routes which were opened between New Mexico and California amplify this account of forgotten figures and an adventurous pursuit.