Who in the world is Manuel Lisa?

Who in the world was Manuel Lisa?

If the mountain men did what they did solely for the money they are to be pitied. Most of the famous men of the fur trapping years were in debt or flat broke when they died. John Colter, who I have talked about often in this blog died of jaundice on his meager farm in 1813. Bill Williams was shot and killed by unknown assailants in the Rocky Mountains at the ripe old age of sixty-two when most of us would be contemplating retirement. Jed Smith was killed by Comanches on the plains of what is now Texas at the age of thirty. Jim Bridger, possibly the most famous of all the mountain men died on his son-in-law's farm in Missouri. Not one of these great men ever amassed a great deal of wealth, so if they went west looking for riches, they were disappointed.

Then, as now, the men who made the money were the traders, brokers, and organizers. Men like Manuel Lisa and John Astor gained a great deal of monetary wealth through their own brand of hard work. Each man has his own gifts, and the entrepreneurs during the fur trapping years were no exception. Some men were gifted with great ability as woodsmen, trappers and explorers, while others were gifted in market speculation and finance.

Should we therefore pity the men who spent their youth laboring under dangerous conditions and saw little monetary reward for their trouble? Should we vilify those who made a great deal of profit from the enterprise? Neither I think. By working together, the two groups were able to accomplish great things. The bosses (or Booshway) need the working man as much as the working man needs someone who knows how to make the labor pay.

Let us not forget however, the value of a life lived to the fullest. Men like Manuel Lisa and John Astor may have made great fortunes in their time, but how many young boys have taken up a pencil and played at being a financier? How many of us as grownups spend their idle moments dreaming of what it would be like to be a bureaucrat? Most of us (myself included) do not have to imagine what life would be like as an apparatchik or functionary, we know those realities all to well.

So do not mourn for the mighty mountain man who saw little if any financial gain for his trouble. For, in his life spent roaming the wilderness lining the pockets of others, he lived as a man should, and found riches all his own.

A.D.

9-22-2014