Joe Meek: The Merry Mountain Man, A Biography

This is an interesting book.Joe Meek is probably one of the mountain men you never heard of but he was a contemporary of William and Milton Sublette, Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith, Tom FitzPatrick and Jim Bridger. Hunter, trapper and wanderer, he was with Sublette and Carson for their first trapping effort into the Texas Panhandle, was with Joseph Walker during his first push over the Sierra Nevada Mountains and on into California and was with Kit Carson on many of his journeys throughout New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana Rocky Mountains.Meek attended most of the famed Rocky Mountain "rendezvous," fur trading fairs which were held in a different locations each year until 1841. When the bottom dropped out of the beaver trade he escorted one of the first wagon trains to Oregon. Settling there he tried his hand at a variety of trades finding success as sheriff and was subsequently appointed first U.S. Marshall for the Oregon Territory by President James Polk. He was in Washington and participated in the process of Oregon being granted Territorial status and, as the Civil War approached, this Virginia born semi-literate would help organize the Republican Party in Oregon.You will like Stanley Vestal's Joe Meek. He was an amazing man, a fun loving, loyal person, one who enjoyed a good fight whether against grizzly bears and Indians or those who opposed territorial status for Oregon.For its time, this is a very well written and organized book. It was a pleasure to read.

If one likes the subject then the book will prove interesting. However, the author's style is often cumbersome and this subject matter could have been much better written no matter how many books the author may have written. The best part of the book is that it gives one an insight into what it was like to live a long lost life style that was unique to the formative, developing years of the U.S. more so than a great insight into Joe Meek. I enjoyed and learned from the book. I am glad I bought it a "used" price.

I enjoyed the book. It is a history book and led me to several other Oregon histories. The writer has somewhat of a "folksy" tone in the story. I learned a lot I should have known about this Oregon pioneer. The book is about 60 years old but still worth reading

It was a gift to a son of my that enjoys reading outdoors men biographies.

Well written, a great insight into the life of an amazing mountain man !

Great book! Well written. Took me back in time.

This is a wonderfully written book. They don't seem to "make" story-tellers like Vestal, anymore.

Took me back in time and presented a piece of American history. Great read.