In the years that followed, demand for furs declined. In any case, the Native Americans and mountainmen had all but exterminated beaver and other fur animals in the Rockies in their attempt to get wealthy.
Now the mountainmen looked for something else to do. Stories of the land to the west were already in the papers, spurred on by some politicians who wanted to get the whole country settled. It was called 'Manifest Destiny'.
Mountainmen now found they had a new skill: to guide people west.
