History Main / MountainMan

* ''Literature/BlueMoose'': Dave the Mountain man befriends both Mr. Brenton and the Blue Moose himself.

* Diesel Buchanon, from Joan Hess's Maggody mysteries, is a non-period parody of this. He lives in a cave in the Ozarks, scares backpackers, and subsists on squirrels and roadkill.

* The kidnappers of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Peggy_Ann_Bradnick Peggy Ann Bradnick]] has been described as a mountain man, however Bradnick herself objects to this and points out they knew little about surviving in the wilderness.

A man who makes his solitary living in the wilderness of Canada or the northern US, most often as trapper or hunter. One of the most recognizable characters in TheWestern, the Mountain Man is always presented as a large man, covered from head to toe in [[NemeanSkinning fur and skins]], even in seasons and areas where these would not be needed. When they want to get fancy, they'll wear fringes as well. The whole ensemble is often topped with a [[NiceHat coonskin cap]].

* Singer/songwriter Music/JonathanCoulton (who wrote "[[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Still Alive]]") bases his image around one of these. He has a [[NiceHat coonskin cap]] and everything.

* In the ''Series/KungFu'' two-part episode "Besieged", we meet Tamo, a Chinese mountain man who lives on Cold Mountain. He's in his mid-70s and can still kick most people's asses.

* Film/TheMagnificentSeven2016 features Jack Horne, the [[TheBigGuy big]], [[MadeOfIron tough]] mountain man of the group.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} has elements of this trope; he's more TheDrifter in most of his appearances in the "present day" of canon, but he grew up in the backwoods of [[CanadaEh northern Alberta]], which isn't literally mountainous but ''is'' rugged and inhospitable as anything.

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': Tim comes across an odd long-haired leather-wearing old man in UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} who lives off the land and avoids all but the outskirts of civilization while Tim is trying to track a gun smuggler to his source. He quickly learns that "Stephan" gets away with this due to his ill-defined powers that can make the forests into an ExtraDimensionalShortcut.

They also usually sport a very large beard and rather [[WildHair long hair]], though if one is the main character he will often have no beard, or a much smaller, scruffier one.

* Joe Crane from ''Series/TheSagaOfAndyBurnett'' from ''[[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]]'' (who also appeared in a few episodes of Disney's ''Series/{{Zorro|1957}}'' TV series).

* The villain of the week in the ''{{Series/Highlander}}'' episode "Mountain Man" was one. There were two, actually, Caleb Cole and the guy he killed, Carl the Hermit, who taught Duncan how to track. Caleb then got out-tracked,out-fought and beheaded by Macleod after kidnapping Tessa-instant BerserkButton for Duncan.
* ''Series/HellOnWheels'' features Jimmy Two-Squaws, a mountain man with good relations with the Cheyenne whose territory Union Pacific is building through. He's fluent in Cheyenne and, as you might guess from the name, has two Cheyenne wives. Main characters Cullen Bohannon and Elam Ferguson approach him to help negotiate on Union Pacific's behalf.
* In the ''Series/FrontierCircus'' episode "The Shaggy Kings", Ben and Tony team up with a group of buffalo hunters. This includes an old mountain man named Tiber who laments how the West has changed since he first arrived.
* ''Series/GhostsUS'': The Viking ghost Thorfinn fits this trope. After being abandoned by his fellow Vikings, he spent years living alone in the untamed wilderness wearing fur pelts soaked in wolf urine as a natural bear repellent.
* In the ''Series/KungFu'' two-part episode "Besieged", we meet Tamo, a Chinese mountain man who lives on Cold Mountain. He's in his mid-70s and can still kick most people's asses.

* Wynonna has to fight an undead Mountain Man in the ''Series/WynonnaEarp'' episode "When You Call My Name".
* ''Series/FortBoyard'': A new character introduced in 2021 is Gary Boo (Jean-Marc Généreux), a crazy Quebecois trapper who was attracted to Fort Boyard by the numerous exotic animals to hunt. He built his hut inside a cell with plenty of obstacles for the contestants, and welcome them there at the end of his rifle.
* Sully of ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'' is a Mountain Man very friendly with the local Indians. Later, he's revealed to have deserted the US Army during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar because war profiteers ordered him to assassinate the concurrence.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} has elements of this trope; he's more TheDrifter in most of his appearance in the "present day" of canon, but he grew up in the backwoods of [[CanadaEh northern Alberta]], which isn't literally mountainous but ''is'' rugged and inhospitable as anything.

* In 1966, another one of these kidnapped [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Peggy_Ann_Bradnick Peggy Ann Bradnick]] as she walked home from school, for the same purpose. After 8 days, she was finally rescued and her abductor shot dead.

They also usually sport a very large beard and rather [[WildHair long hair]], though if they are the main character they will often have no beard, or a much smaller, scruffier one.

In newer media, they are often portrayed having native wives. This was quite common historically but didn't appear in many older works due to stronger interracial marriage taboos than now.

** UsefulNotes/FidelCastro and his guerrillas deliberately cultivated this image, when fighting the Cuban government forces from their mountain hideouts.

** In Sweden a mountain man was a person who worked in the mountain iron mines, most famously in Berslagen and Dalarna. They were nearly always armed (since the Swedish Yeomen -- much like the English -- were required by law to own a certain set of weapons during the middle ages.) And occasionally used them against the King, the Sherriff, or anyone else they felt threatened their interests. Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson is the most famous example of a Swedish mountain man rebel. Sometimes, however, they fought ''for'' the king, like in the case of Gustav Vasa and his Dalecarlians (men from Dalarna.) In a similar vein, people who had committed crimes would ''always'' receive amnesty, if they took up work in a mountain mine (except if they had done murder or high treason.) Where they were guarded by "mountain soldiers" who most likely were serving a sentence themselves. Needless to say, they were not nice people.

* Sully of ''Series/DoctorQuinnMedicineWoman'' is a Mountain Man very friendly with the local Indians. Later, he's revealed to have deserted the US Army during the AmericanCivilWar because war profiteers ordered him to assassinate the concurrence.

A man who makes his solitary living in wilderness of Canada or the northern US, most often as trapper or hunter. One of the most recognizable characters in TheWestern, the Mountain Man is always presented as a large man, covered from head to toe in [[NemeanSkinning fur and skins]], even in seasons and areas where these would not be needed. When they want to get fancy, they'll wear fringes as well. The whole ensemble is often topped with a [[NiceHat coonskin cap]].

In newer media they are often portrayed having native wives. This was quite common historically but didn't appear in many older works due to stronger interracial marriage taboos than now.

%%* Bear Fart Johnson, 200 year-old patriarch of the Johnson clan in ''ComicBook/OutlawNation''%%How is he a mountain man?
* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': Tim comes across an odd long haired leather wearing old man in UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} who lives off the land and avoids all but the outskirts of civilization while Tim is trying to track a gun smuggler to his source. He quickly learns that "Stephan" gets away with this due to his ill defined powers that can make the forests into an ExtraDimensionalShortcut.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Marya is a rugged solitary young woman who lives in the wilderness and is straight up called a mountain woman. She comes from farther south than most examples as she's from Mexico, and she did, mostly, clean up for her stint as a student at Holliday College, but even then she pretty much refuses to wear shoes if the terrain doesn't require it and mostly keeps her own council and doesn't interact with the other students if she can help it.

* ''Film/JeremiahJohnson'' from the movie of the same name is probably one of the most famous examples of this character, he in turn is based of the real life John Johnson, or Liver Eatin' Johnson.

* In ''Film/TheShadowOfChikara'', the party encounters a trio of mountain men as they make they make their way into the mountain. However, these three are also {{Dangerous Deserter}}s who plan to rob and murder them, and rape Drusilla.

* Creator/AlanDeanFoster wrote a series of short stories about [[NamesToRunAwayFrom Mad Amos]] Malone, a GeniusBruiser mountain man who wandered the west from Colorado to ''Hawaii'' and had a variety of supernatural adventures (fighting a Chinese dragon that was robbing stagecoaches, challenging an malevolent spirit to an insult contest, protecting an IndianBurialGround from railroad developers, etc) with his CoolHorse, Worthless (1/4 Clydesdale, 1/4 Arabian, 1/4 Mustang, 1/4 Unicorn).

* Earthquake from the ''Series/MacGyver1985'' episode "The Spoilers" is a modern day mountain man.

* In the ''Series/KungFu'' two part episode "Besieged" we meet Tamo, a Chinese mountain man who lives on Cold Mountain. He's in his mid-70s and can still kick most people's ass.

* ''Series/FortBoyard'': A new character introduced in 2021 is Gary Boo (Jean-Marc Généreux), a crazy Quebecois trapper who was attracted to Fort Boyard by the numerous exotic animals to hunt. He built his hut inside a cell with plenty obstacles for the contestants, and welcome them there at the end of his rifle.

* Lots of newer indie folk artists in general lean towards this look (the male ones, at least). See Devendra Banhart, Music/BonIver, Music/FleetFoxes and Iron and Wine for a few examples.

* The "mountain men" proper (that is, fur company-contracted American men who trapped in the West) existed for a little over one generation in the 19th century, but had antecedents in the North American colonial period going back several centuries. The voyageur was essentially the same man, but 200 years earlier and Canadian French. They, in turn, descended from the coureurs des bois, who were independent rather than being tied to a particular fur company.
* One notable real life example is the enigmatic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leatherman_%28vagabond%29 "Leatherman"]] (no, not [[{{Leatherman}} that kind]]), who toured the northeastern United States in the late 19th century.

** Italy has the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpini Alpini]], raised among the inhabitants of the Alps specifically to defend that border from Austro-Hungarian attacks in case of war. They're considered ''the'' mountain troops, and have managed to outfight the Red Army in ''winter'' (they had been sent to the Eastern Front in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII with plans to deploy them in the Caucasus, and in the meantime they were deployed in the plains. They all happened to be very good skiers, and the Alps in winter are just as cold as Russian plains...).

** In Sweden a mountain man was a person who worked in the mountain iron mines, most famously in Berslagen and Dalarna. They were nearly always armed (since the Swedish Yeomen -- much like the English -- were required by law to own a certain set of weapons during the middle ages.) And occasionally used them against the King, the Sherriff, or anyone else they felt threatened their interests. Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson is the most famous example of a Swedish mountain man rebel. Sometimes however, they fought ''for'' the king, like in the case of Gustav Vasa and his Dalecarlians (men from Dalarna.) In a similar vein, people who had committed crimes would ''always'' received amnesty, if they took up work in a mountain mine (except if they had done murder or high treason.) Where they were guarded by "mountain soldiers" who most likely were serving a sentence themselves. Needless to say, they were not nice people.

Subtrope of ClassicalHunter. See also {{Prospector}}, ThePioneer, and NatureHero.

A man that makes his solitary living in wilderness of Canada or the northern US, most often as trapper or hunter. One of the most recognizable characters in TheWestern, the Mountain Man is always presented as a large man, covered from head to toe in [[NemeanSkinning fur and skins]], even in seasons and areas where these would not be needed. When they want to get fancy, they'll wear fringes as well. The whole ensemble is often topped with a [[NiceHat coonskin cap]].

A man that makes his solitary living in wilderness of Canada or the northern US, most often as trapper or hunter. One of the most recognizable characters in Westerns, the Mountain Man is always presented as a large man, covered from head to toe in [[NemeanSkinning fur and skins]], even in seasons and areas where these would not be needed. When they want to get fancy, they'll wear fringes as well. The whole ensemble is often topped with a [[NiceHat coonskin cap]].

Common equipment includes various traps, a rifle (often anachronistic), and of course a ''really'' big knife, either a Bowie Knife or an Arkansas Toothpick.

As the heyday of mountain trappers was before that of cattle drives, he may be visibly older than the cowboys and other stock characters. His gun will often be out of date (as previously noted) and he may speak in a strange or antiquated way.

They are often shown alternating between fighting and hanging out with the local natives, sometimes doing both at the same time with two different tribes. Their other common enemy is the grizzly bear, and they are often shown killing them in hand to hand combat.

** In Sweden a mountain man was a person who worked in the mountain iron mines, most famously in Berslagen and Dalarna. They were nearly always armed (since the Swedish Yeomen - much like the English - were required by law to own a certain set of weapons during the middle ages.) And occasionally used them against the King, the Sherriff, or anyone else they felt threatened their interests. Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson is the most famous example of a Swedish mountain man rebel. Sometimes however, they fought ''for'' the king, like in the case of Gustav Vasa and his Dalecarlians (men from Dalarna.) In a similar vein, people who had committed crimes would ''always'' received amnesty, if they took up work in a mountain mine (except if they had done murder or high treason.) Where they were guarded by "mountain soldiers" who most likely were serving a sentence themselves. Needless to say, they were not nice people.

* Music/LedZeppellin's ''When The Levee Breaks'' is about a rainstorm so intense and so prolonged that ''it's got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home''.

* Music/LedZepellin's ''When The Levee Breaks'' is about a rainstorm so intense and so prolonged that ''it's got what it takes to make a mountain man leve his home''.