Mountain Man Survival Guide: Essential Qualities and Attitudes

1. Self Start • What personal qualities or attitudes would a person need in order to survive as a Mountain Man? Explain.

2. Read the following and then respond to the prompt at the end • “Yarning was partly mountain man journalism. When mountain men would meet on the trail, or come into a fort, they would exchange news: who had raised hair, who had gone under, where good doings had been found, what new valleys, passes, lakes, and streams had been learned, what strange and wondrous places had been turned up, and what deeds had been done. A grapevine for news.

3. Continued… • At these annual rendezvous, and during the long winter, the news grew into a yarn and the tall tale. What was wanted here was not wanted fact but entertainment. The mountain men exaggerated, embellished, added color, and eventually invented a whole hog. Passing on a story just as you heard it was a sign of a poor imagination. The mountain man learned to take pride in his skill at spinning a yarn. Somewhere in this process, as news passed into entertainment and beyond, the yarn became kind of an art.

4. Writing Prompt • Now it’s your turn to write a yarn! You must choose an actual event that happened to you. However, instead of writing it the way it actually happened, tell it so that the story is very entertaining. Don’t be concentrated about getting all the facts straight, a good yarn is not very accurate! • Have fun with this! • 8 or more sentences in length! • Needs to be on a separate sheet of paper.Name and Period on them please!