The Hivernant

With the return of Louis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery, news of the vast Rocky Mountains and their abundant wildlife enticed American traders and trappers. Their goal, to obtain the riches offered there in beaver fur. These men, seasoned by years of hunting in the eastern forests of the young United States, ventured out braving not only the hazards of nature, but the enmity of the Blackfeet Nation and the hostility of competitors such as Canada’s North West Company. Men like Obadiah Cash went west to trap and harvest the “Furry Bank Notes”, as beaver hides were called.Within a few years, the instability of the American fur trade and hostility of the Blackfeet drove the majority of American trappers to abandon the upper Missouri territory for safer trade downstream with tribes like the Lakota, Mandan, and Osage. But a few, like Obadiah Cash and his companions, not only stayed, but survive the long, brutal winters, and trapped in the territory of the friendly Crow Indians. Like his fellow trappers, Cash proved to be a survivor of the mountains, earning the title, HIVERNANT.Follow Obadiah Cash, and his fellow mountain men, as they fight their competitors and the powerful Blackfeet, during the uncertain time when the conflict was not only in the Rocky Mountains but growing between nations.Read more