However, military discipline doesn’t seem to have suited him at first. Colter was enlisted as a private at $5 a month. Wikimedia Commons Native American guide Sacagawea directs Lewis and Clark during their journey.Ĭolter must have had some experience with surviving in the wilderness - or at least been able to lie convincingly if not - because Lewis and Clark decided to take him on their expedition. Now, Lewis and Clark were tasked with finding out what exactly the U.S. The United States had just finalized the Lousiana Purchase, buying enough land west of the Mississippi from the French to effectively double the size of the country. The men organizing the expedition were none other than Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark. He really only enters the historical record with any certainty around 1803 in Maysville, Kentucky.Ĭolter was there responding to an advertisement recruiting, “good hunters, stout, healthy, unmarried men, accustomed to the woods and capable of bearing bodily fatigue in a pretty considerable degree,” for an expedition into the West. But, ultimately, almost nothing is known about his early life. John Colter was most likely born in Virginia sometime around 1775. But what we do know of this 19th-century mountain man’s story makes for a breathtaking tale of survival in the deep wilderness at the heart of the American West. Like any other legendary figure, John Colter’s story remains somewhat shrouded in mystery and uncertainty.
Wikimedia Commons Illustration of a 19th-century mountain man.
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