James P. Beckwourth, mountain man, explorer, fur trader, circa 1856

Description: James Beckwourth, of mixed-race, and was born into slavery in Virginia. His father was the plantation master, and his mother was an enslaved African American. Beckwourth became a trapper and explorer in California, where he lived with the Crow Nation for several years and married Crow women. He guided migrants to California and discovered the “Beckwourth Pass” through the mountains between Reno, Nevada and Portola, California.
Illustration showing James P. Beckwourth dressed as a frontiersman in a fur jacket with breeches and high boots and holding the barrel of a rifle. The illustration appeared in the book buy T. D. Bonner, "The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth: Mountaineer, Scout and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians" (1856).