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Mountain Man: John Colter, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and the Call of the American West
In 1804, John Colter set out with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the first U.S. expedition to traverse the North American continent. During the twenty-eight month ordeal, Colter served as a hunter and scout, and honed his survival skills on the western frontier. But when the journey was over, Colter stayed behind, spending two more years trekking alone through dangerous and unfamiliar territory. Along the way, he charted some of the West’s most treasured landmarks.
Historian David W. Marshall crafts this captivating history from Colter’s primary sources, and has retraced Colter’s steps—seeing what he saw, hearing what he heard, and experiencing firsthand how he and his contemporaries survived in the wilderness (how they pitched a shelter, built a fire, followed a trail, and forded a stream)—adding a powerful layer of authority and detail.
The American Grit series brings you true tales of endurance, survival, and ingenuity from the annals of American history. These books focus on the trials of remarkable individuals with an emphasis on rich primary source material and artwork.
Historian David W. Marshall crafts this captivating history from Colter’s primary sources, and has retraced Colter’s steps—seeing what he saw, hearing what he heard, and experiencing firsthand how he and his contemporaries survived in the wilderness (how they pitched a shelter, built a fire, followed a trail, and forded a stream)—adding a powerful layer of authority and detail.
The American Grit series brings you true tales of endurance, survival, and ingenuity from the annals of American history. These books focus on the trials of remarkable individuals with an emphasis on rich primary source material and artwork.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published May 9, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
June 17, 2017
MOUNTAIN MAN by David W. Marshall brings the 1800s in America alive through a detailed account of John Colter’s life as a frontiersman. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was just one of his many accomplishments. A must read for American history lovers.
I’m not sure why I expected more of a fictional retelling of Colter’s life, but this isn’t that type of book. The historical references and detail is fascinating, but it takes me longer to read this style. It’s an excellent compilation of historical background on Native Americans as well as the trappers and scouts who moved through the frontier. I found the particulars about several famous people a highlight, making John Colter a captivating personality.
One of the fun things about being a NetGalley reviewer is their wish list. This book wasn’t available for review but I wished for it and I was thrilled when the publisher granted my wish. Trappers and mountain men are somewhat of a fascination for me. I’m not sure where it started, maybe because I could imagine my dad as one of these men if he was born in a different time. He loves to hunt, fish and hike, and tried to teach all of us his backwoods knowledge, so I imagine if given the opportunity, he would have jumped at the chance to join these expeditions.
My favorite books about this time in our history are FRONTIERSMEN by Allan W. Eckert and UNDAUNTED COURAGE by Stephen E. Ambrose. Both of these books read more like a fictional story based on fact, so that’s one of my disappointments with MOUNTAIN MAN by David W. Marshall. Not that the author is not talented, because I was mesmerized by the detail in his book, but it wasn’t as easy to read as my favorite two books. Maybe it is because John Colter didn’t write down anything about himself so the information had to come from other sources. Those details sometimes overshadowed John Colter’s journey.
John Colter hunted and scouted for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which could be thought of as a major lifetime achievement. But, he didn’t stop with that, nor did he seem to rest much at all before his death. He was like a cat with nine lives. So much so that I really started to wonder if he was more legend than real. The strength of his inner spirit of adventure and his will to live is fully evident in everything he did.
I’m betting that several types of readers will enjoy this book. Survivalists will be riveted. I’m amazed anyone lived through these challenges, let alone prospered. There is so much detail on wilderness survival that I could easily imagine the setting. You’d have to be very comfortable with your own company because it seems like John Colter spent a lot of time by himself, fighting nature for his survival. Those who love early American history will be especially thrilled with this book. Following John Colter and others like him is enthralling enough, but the list of references and further reading can keep a history buff busy for years.
MOUNTAIN MAN is a treasure trove of historical tales and tidbits. Even though I’ve read volumes during this time in history, I still found bits of information I had never read before. These men were a rare, captivating group of brave explorers who weren’t afraid to take chances and then go back for more.
Not a book to rush through but to savor for its epic content, I’m sure I’ll read this again to learn what I missed the first time. Author David W. Marshall has done his homework and then some. There is some repetition in some chapters and places where the copy could have been tightened for easier reading, but I sure wouldn’t want the job of deciding which parts to leave out. I’m so glad I took a chance on this new-to-me author and I look forward to whatever he writes next.
Review by Dorine, courtesy of The Zest Quest. Digital copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.
I’m not sure why I expected more of a fictional retelling of Colter’s life, but this isn’t that type of book. The historical references and detail is fascinating, but it takes me longer to read this style. It’s an excellent compilation of historical background on Native Americans as well as the trappers and scouts who moved through the frontier. I found the particulars about several famous people a highlight, making John Colter a captivating personality.
One of the fun things about being a NetGalley reviewer is their wish list. This book wasn’t available for review but I wished for it and I was thrilled when the publisher granted my wish. Trappers and mountain men are somewhat of a fascination for me. I’m not sure where it started, maybe because I could imagine my dad as one of these men if he was born in a different time. He loves to hunt, fish and hike, and tried to teach all of us his backwoods knowledge, so I imagine if given the opportunity, he would have jumped at the chance to join these expeditions.
My favorite books about this time in our history are FRONTIERSMEN by Allan W. Eckert and UNDAUNTED COURAGE by Stephen E. Ambrose. Both of these books read more like a fictional story based on fact, so that’s one of my disappointments with MOUNTAIN MAN by David W. Marshall. Not that the author is not talented, because I was mesmerized by the detail in his book, but it wasn’t as easy to read as my favorite two books. Maybe it is because John Colter didn’t write down anything about himself so the information had to come from other sources. Those details sometimes overshadowed John Colter’s journey.
John Colter hunted and scouted for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which could be thought of as a major lifetime achievement. But, he didn’t stop with that, nor did he seem to rest much at all before his death. He was like a cat with nine lives. So much so that I really started to wonder if he was more legend than real. The strength of his inner spirit of adventure and his will to live is fully evident in everything he did.
I’m betting that several types of readers will enjoy this book. Survivalists will be riveted. I’m amazed anyone lived through these challenges, let alone prospered. There is so much detail on wilderness survival that I could easily imagine the setting. You’d have to be very comfortable with your own company because it seems like John Colter spent a lot of time by himself, fighting nature for his survival. Those who love early American history will be especially thrilled with this book. Following John Colter and others like him is enthralling enough, but the list of references and further reading can keep a history buff busy for years.
MOUNTAIN MAN is a treasure trove of historical tales and tidbits. Even though I’ve read volumes during this time in history, I still found bits of information I had never read before. These men were a rare, captivating group of brave explorers who weren’t afraid to take chances and then go back for more.
Not a book to rush through but to savor for its epic content, I’m sure I’ll read this again to learn what I missed the first time. Author David W. Marshall has done his homework and then some. There is some repetition in some chapters and places where the copy could have been tightened for easier reading, but I sure wouldn’t want the job of deciding which parts to leave out. I’m so glad I took a chance on this new-to-me author and I look forward to whatever he writes next.
Review by Dorine, courtesy of The Zest Quest. Digital copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.
February 9, 2018
Not a lot of new info is presented in this book. Still, we haven't had a comprehensive biography on Colter in at least 50 years. This book does a good job detailing Colter's exact route during the winter of 1807-8, and it does an excellent job telling you about fur trapping, getting upriver, and what the mountain men ate and wore and such.
I wasn't a big fan of how it skipped about, mentioning something from the 1830s before getting back to what was happening in the early- to late-1800s/1810s. It was still an entertaining book, and short enough that you can finish it pretty fast.
I wasn't a big fan of how it skipped about, mentioning something from the 1830s before getting back to what was happening in the early- to late-1800s/1810s. It was still an entertaining book, and short enough that you can finish it pretty fast.
July 1, 2019
Pleasantly surprised by the amount of information contained in this slender book.
November 24, 2023
This book sets out by stating that it is a work of speculative history. There are just not that many sources for John Colter. The author avers that that is okay, that he is free to make stuff up based off educated guesses and call that history.
It is not okay.
I thought it was interesting that Marshall humped through the exact same journey that Coulter took, which did bring an interesting perspective, but this should not have been a book. Rather it should have been a magazine article.
If Marshall insisted upon making this a book, a better strategy would have been to make it not about Colter, but rather about Colter’s world. Start out by acknowledging there is not much documentary evidence on Colter. Rather than producing speculative history, tell the reader that you are going to document the world of Colter. In the end, this is what Marshall does anyways; much of the book is spent not talking about Colter himself, the ostensible subject of the book, but instead about people similar to Colter, going out into the deep West and trapping.
It is not okay.
I thought it was interesting that Marshall humped through the exact same journey that Coulter took, which did bring an interesting perspective, but this should not have been a book. Rather it should have been a magazine article.
If Marshall insisted upon making this a book, a better strategy would have been to make it not about Colter, but rather about Colter’s world. Start out by acknowledging there is not much documentary evidence on Colter. Rather than producing speculative history, tell the reader that you are going to document the world of Colter. In the end, this is what Marshall does anyways; much of the book is spent not talking about Colter himself, the ostensible subject of the book, but instead about people similar to Colter, going out into the deep West and trapping.
February 3, 2021
This book is well written, by a man who is passionate about its subject matter, and it is very evocative of the enormity and the grandeur of the America west. But this book is not for everyone; in fact, it is for very few, which is the reason for my middling three-star rating. The title focuses on the story of mountain man John Colter, but it is really a more general examination of the lives of the mountain men, which is an incredibly narrowly focused, esoteric subject matter. If one has visited the Rockies, especially Yellowstone country (three times for me), or has always had a romantic identification with the original American mountain men (my elementary school reading was primarily young American history books), then this book will resonate. But bear in mind, it is not really about Colter. He could not write very well, and he spent most of his adult life on his own in the wilderness, so he did not leave much of a written record. The details of his life come from the writings of others who knew him and heard his stories (including his compatriots on the Lewis and Clark expedition). Thus the book, by necessity, is full of "speculative" language: "may have," "probably," "possibly." But the segments about the various components of mountain man life in the west are quite interesting. There are sections about their diet, what they carried in their packs, the animals that threatened them, etc. The most detailed story about Colter, about his harrowing escape from the Blackfeet, running for miles wearing nothing but a smile, was provided by a fellow mountain man who heard Colter tell the tale. The passages about his travels in the Rockies brought back my thoughts, sometimes while stuck in traffic in Yellowstone National Park, of what it must have been like to have been in that part of the nation two hundred years ago. And I found something to put on my (very short) "bucket list": the carving on a cliff in Montana of William Clark's name, which he made during the famous expedition.
September 7, 2019
There are other biographies of John Colter, like Burton Harris “John Colter: HIs Years in the Rockies” and “The Mystery of John Colter: The Man Who Discovered Yellowstone” by Ronald M. Anglin and Larry E. Morris, which have more details but they all work with the same paucity of historical documents related to his life and journeys in the Northern Rockies. This book can be added to other important biographies but makes a unique contribution by trying to understand Colter’s travels by recreating the materials and tools he would have had available in his day. Chapter 2 is mostly devoted to that. My favorite footnote of that chapter is 63 which describes the weight of the pack he might have carried during the Winter 1807-08 when he became one of the first Europeans to explore what is today the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Interesting enough its about the same weight that a modern backpacker would use, about 30 pounds.
April 28, 2024
I bought this book years ago on a trip to Wyoming and Montana. The map in the front of the book tracks trips that John Colter made to the Yellowstone NP area, where we were visiting. Recently I came upon the book in my overcrowded bookcase and began reading. I was entranced by the story of John Colter, who first traveled up the Missouri River with the Lewis and Clark expedition. He served as a hunter and scout for the company and was renowned for his marksmanship. When Lewis and Clark completed the twenty-eight month trip, Colter returned to the wilderness. Colter himself never wrote a journal but he is mentioned in the chronicles of the time by expeditions for which he served as guide. Other references come from groups who met him in remote corners of the Rocky Mountains. From fragmented records, historian David Weston Marshall has constructed a readable and fascinating study of a man who loved the wilderness.
January 14, 2020
This was OK. The writing was a bit dry and boring, except when he was quoting journal entries or retelling stories from those who experienced the time. When the author was recounting John Colter’s adventures, most of the wordage included things like “perhaps” and “he might have done” and “maybe” and “likely.” Colter never kept a journal, so the author had no choice but to speculate. Nevertheless, Colter is a legend of the frontier - even I vaguely remember hearing his name once upon a time - and after reading this book, I firmly believe the man deserves that distinction. I never could, nor would ever want to, accomplish the things he did. Escaping death more times than can be counted is not high on my list of life goals. From grizzly bears, enemy Native Americans, illness, mosquitoes, starvation to endless hiking through uncharted territory, this man did it all.
January 13, 2024
John Colter has always been a fascinating character in American history to me; going on an expedition like the Corps of Discovery, and electing not to return home to the only place you've ever known is a foreign idea to me as a philopatric individual. My initial thought while reading this book was that there simply didn't seem to be enough information about the man to write a book, but I began to appreciate that Marshall was more-so using Colter as a representative of the broader culture of frontier life. All around, this book is a nice companion piece to other works on the Corps of Discovery.
February 13, 2022
Superb account of John Colter - One of, if not the most legendary, explorer, mountain man, frontiersman, discoverer of new lands in the US - imagine reading first hand accounts of Yellowstone River/Park, Tetons, Wind River as it unfolds upon your eyes. Inspirational and motivational. Must read AFTER “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose - another 5 star adventure story - these two books give you the foundation for how beautiful (and dangerous) the Western USA was during the early 1800’s
May 8, 2022
For 8 weeks I throughly enjoyed watching Into the Wild Frontier on the INSP a channel. It led me to request several books.
John Colter was definitely the first true mountain man. He traversed the Rocky Mountains alone several times. He was the consummate frontiersman.
The book describes the methods mountain men used to Survive.
The book did offer one surprise- colter married and had a son before his untimely demise in 1812.
John Colter was definitely the first true mountain man. He traversed the Rocky Mountains alone several times. He was the consummate frontiersman.
The book describes the methods mountain men used to Survive.
The book did offer one surprise- colter married and had a son before his untimely demise in 1812.
March 12, 2024
A great book on some of the less known but important history of discovery in the American West. It was completely accurate to call high jagged mountains, dangerous in waterfalls, deadly thermal features, and score magpies waiting for that bear over there to fix them a meal: Coltor's Hell. I think they should have kept that names.
I went for a hike in -31 one afternoon, with -62 windchill. I had Gortex and chemical reaction warmers. It did it with furs and otter skins.
I went for a hike in -31 one afternoon, with -62 windchill. I had Gortex and chemical reaction warmers. It did it with furs and otter skins.
January 30, 2025
Avery interesting read.
I liked that it spoke of many different Mountain Men and Indians. Several of the Indian tribes that I never heard of. Its exciting reading but difficult to imagine so many drawn to that type of dangerous life. I would love to have a good map with old and new names of the mountains, rivers and prairies.There was so much description in the chapters on routes taken. I wish I had a map to follow it.
I liked that it spoke of many different Mountain Men and Indians. Several of the Indian tribes that I never heard of. Its exciting reading but difficult to imagine so many drawn to that type of dangerous life. I would love to have a good map with old and new names of the mountains, rivers and prairies.There was so much description in the chapters on routes taken. I wish I had a map to follow it.
June 16, 2018
Great novel about one of the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's guide/members that wen on to become nearly as famous as Daniel Boone. Really enjoyed the history and research that went into this. There are so many people that rank with Crockett and Boone and he is one of them. Had he written or journaled he would be as well known as well.
September 22, 2019
John Colter's story is simply incredible. Instead of returning to St. Louis with the Corps of Discovery (Louis & Clark), he headed back West and through the winter of 1807-08 trekked solo through the Teton basin and the Yellowstone plateau. This book was captivating, very well-researched and well-written, and helps you understand not just what Colter did, but how he did it.
April 21, 2021
Although the narrative of the trek Colter took isn't as linear and as much of a story as I would have liked, the details of similar adventures and first hand accounts from similar men are vivid and in some ways beyond belieft. Really makes you think how easy we have life now and how little we have to complain about.
July 17, 2025
I found this book pretty interesting. The author didn't have much to work with, Colter was on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and had one really famous and fascinating incident later in life. I thought he did a good job filling in the gaps with general information about frontiersmen, and what might have happened, though at times it did drag a bit.
April 3, 2023
John Colter's story is amazing! Marshall's detailed research and inclusions of journal entries brings a story that could easily be swept under the rug to new life. If you ever dream of leaving this computer age-overly civilized world behind, this is the story for you.
January 29, 2024
⭐️ Didnt like it.
⭐️⭐️ finished but didn't really like it. Just ok.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ it was fine. No strong feelings for or against.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ good and continue thinking about it even when done.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ life altering. Just amazing book. Can't put it down.
⭐️⭐️ finished but didn't really like it. Just ok.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ it was fine. No strong feelings for or against.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ good and continue thinking about it even when done.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ life altering. Just amazing book. Can't put it down.
October 12, 2024
Because I love the topic here, I will stop short of calling this garbage, but it is the poorest work on Colter and ignores most of the other scholarly work. Check out Burton Harris' work on Colter if you want a more solid academic work.
June 19, 2025
An incredible adventure! It’s hard to imagine the courage to explore unknown territory and people. The best part was the utter awe and wonder they had when discovering what is now Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks!
August 18, 2025
Really enjoy listening to the audio book. Learned a lot. A lot of how I feel about nature and many other things was really validated by listening to this book and seeing how the men of this different time felt the same as I do.
February 27, 2018
Truth be told, there's really not much about John Colter in this book. But it's a delightful read with vivid descriptions of the life of Mountain Men.
March 9, 2018
Interesting, but not really about John Colter. Most of the book is conjecture or quotes from other mountain men or authors. So, not really that great or enlightening.
May 30, 2018
Good story - the author just uses WAY too much weird dialect for the mountain men. It just got on my nerves.
May 14, 2020
Good read. Not overly laden with facts. Contained a lot of first hand accounts which I really liked. If you're at all interested in the pre gold rush West definitely read this book.
January 26, 2022
Every so often I have to dip my toes into the stories of these wild adventurous men. It might not be new information, but that's not the point. Enjoyed it
April 19, 2023
Too many words like probably, maybe, likely, etc. Lots of speculation.
August 15, 2023
Very good.
October 7, 2023
It is very interesting history of the western culture in the 1800s
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews