Life in the Rocky Mountains: A Diary of Wanderings on the Sources of the Rivers Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado, 1830-1835

This memoir by adventurer Warren Angus Ferris offers an in-depth and first-hand tale of the Rocky Mountains and its neighboring rivers, as they were during the 1830s. Beginning with an enthusiastic cry of "Westward, Ho!", we are taken on a journey by Ferris, who proves a lively and thoroughly readable commentator. His adventures with the groups of hunters and traders are varied and numerous, and the tone of his writing does a fine job capturing the spirit of risk taking and excitement of venturing to the unknown which characterized the era. We receive descriptions of the rugged and sometimes breathtaking wilderness, the Native American tribes and their warriors and their leadership, and the trade of furs which drove a great part of the westward expansion. The many perils of the frontier wilderness, from fierce animals and bears, to thieves and bandits, to hostile groups of Native Americans, were all encountered by Ferris in his years navigating the great mountain ranges.