Mountain Men

Stumbled across some interesting information here and here about the mountain men, who roamed the Rockies doing fur-trapping in the early 19th century. The 1820s and 1830s were the halcyon days for the mountain men.

Bearded, clad in buckskin, often wearing a wool coat made from a point blanket, or even a buffalo robe... the mountain men were there, trapping and living off the land, a generation or more before the pioneers came in their covered wagons. The mountain men were living further beyond "sivilization" than I bet you could possibly get in today's world.

This is one point which has long bothered me: in today's world there are no more frontiers. Within my lifetime, the last blank spots on the map have been filled in. New Guinea, the Amazon, darkest Africa, the furthest isles of the sea: nowadays they all purner have their own zip code, so to speak. There are no more frontiers.