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John Colter, The Original Mountain Man

John Colter was born in the Shenandoah Valley near Staunton, Virginia, around 1774-75. Growing up on the Virginia and Kentucky frontiers along the Ohio River, Colter quickly mastered hunting and wilderness skills at a young age. As a skilled frontiersman hardened by a rough life in the wilderness, he eagerly signed on in 1803 as the fourth member in the "greatest adventure of his generation," the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Colter proved his worth as a lone hunter and scout with the famed Corps of Discovery. More than three years later, when Colter was returning to St. Louis via the Missouri River with other members of the successful expedition, he was enticed to turn back and return to the Western wilderness and rugged way of life he knew so well. During the next four years, Colter's daring adventures and solitary explorations in the Northern plains and Rocky Mountains would make him a legendary figure in the annals of the American West.

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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

John Colter, The Original Mountain Man

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