Basil Clement (Claymore), The Mountain Trappers

“Basil Clement (Claymore), after 60 years, tried hard to recall under the cross-examination of Charles Edmund DeLand, his affiliation with Henry Fraeb and James Bridger, beginning with the spring of 1841.” –Jim Bridger (2013)

“His intimate acquaintance with both whites and Indians for some sixty years of our territorial and state history give a special value to his recollections of the early days.” – Historical Society of North Dakota, 1906

“Volume XI of the South Historical Collections…contains…such articles as…a fine monograph by Charles Edmund DeLand on ‘Basil Clement (Claymore) The Mountain Trappers.'” –Argus-Leader (Sioux Fall, S.D.), Jan. 2, 1923

“Charles Edmund DeLand…probably the most ablest South Dakota writers.” – Argus-Leader (Sioux Fall, S.D.), May 22, 1914

The first trappers to penetrate the great hunting grounds beyond the Missouri River were the French, and the ease with which they conformed to Indian customs tended in no small degree to mitigate the perils and privations of the wilderness. Scarcely a region that may be breathed upon by the western winds but what has been visited by these adventureloving characters, and a great proportion of the mountains, lakes and rivers still retain the pleasing and poetic names bestowed upon them in their rude geography.

The early Government exploring parties regularly employed the French voyageurs and trappers as guides, scouts and interpreters, their knowledge of the country and their fluency in both the English and Indian tongues rendering their services and products indispensable.

A prominent specimen of this class is Basil Clement, an old ex-guide, scout and interpreter, hunter and trapper, who in 1906 lived in an old-fashioned double log cabin on the upper Missouri River in Dakota. Clement’s wife was once half Sioux, a descendent from the famous Lewis & Clarke expedition, which years ago explored the country in the vicinity of the Yellowstone. The knowledge of the geographical features of the interior wilderness beyond the Missouri which old Basil possessed amounted to an instinct, and placed him in the foremost rank as a guide and scout in military expeditions.

In 1922, South Dakota historian Charles Edmund DeLand published the 130-page biographical sketch “Basil Clement, The Mountain Trappers” in Vol. of the South Dakota Historical Collections.

In introducing Basil’s biography, Deland writes:

“The subject of this biographical sketch suggests at once to any thoughtful student of American history, the fur-trading era of the Upper Missouri River and the Rocky Mountain region. No adequate picture of his unique environments, with Old Fort Pierre Chouteau as the point of departure and trails thence westward-some of which joined the famous Oregon Trail on the Upper Platte-as the real theatre of the quest, may also be drawn without presenting some outline of that trade. In turn, it would be futile to are looking for to convey intelligence of the fur-traffic without revealing some at least of the picturesque yet hazardous realities of the trapper’s life. Due to this fact, we will bring forward, largely through quotations from more than a few writers contemporaneous with that era, some side-lights illustrative of the common lot of the ‘free’ and other trappers.”