The James P. Beckwourth Mountain Club

Colorado
• Colorado Historical Society, 1300 Broadway, Denver, CO 80203 (303) 866-3682
• El Pueblo Museum, 119 Central Plaza, Pueblo, CO 81003 (719) 583-0453

Books and Articles:

1. The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth
as told to Thomas D. Bonner
1856, Harper & Brothers Publishers. Reprint in 1972 with introduction, notes, and epilogue by Delmont R. Oswald. NOTE: This is the book that started it all, from the lips of Jim Beckwourth himself! As dictated to Thomas D. Bonner in Plumas County, California. Mr. Oswald's research in the 1972 reprint validates many of Beckwourth's accounts, and provides evidence that contradicts many of the false statements and controversies surrounding Bonner's book.

2. James Pierson Beckwourth, An Enigmatic Figure of the West, 1856-1866
by Nolie Mumey
Copyright 1957 by Fred A. Rosenstock, The Old West Publishing Company, Denver Colorado. Edition limited to 500 numbered and signed copies. NOTE: This book follows Beckwourth's life during his later years. It also documents Jim Beckwourth's son, Alvin Draper, by his first love "Amy," a slave belonging to the Draper family. Alvin Draper lived and died in Quincy, Illinois, and had a large family in that city. This information came from a document by C.A. Peterson, in the Missouri Historical Society Library, dated March 15, 1907.

3. Reproduction of Fariss & Smith's History of Plumas County, California 1882 Howell-North Books, Burbank, CA 1971. NOTE: This book documents Jim Beckwourth's life in California's Sierra Valley, and Beckwourth Village, Plumas County, where the "Old Beckwourth Hotel" still exists as a museum.

4. Jim Beckwourth - Black Mountain Man, War Chief of the Crows, Trader, Trapper, Explorer, Frontiersman, Guide, Scout, Interpreter, Adventurer and Gaudy Liar
by Elinor Wilson
Copyright 1972, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. NOTE: This is an excellent reference book on Jim Beckwourth's life and early family roots. It also details his life in Beckwourth Valley in California, and the writing of his book with T.D. Bonner.

5. Pueblo-Hardscrabble-Greenhorn, The Upper Arkansas, 1832-1856
by Janet LeCompte
Copyright 1978, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. NOTE: This book documents Beckwourth's life in southern Colorado, at Bent's Fort and Pueblo. It also discusses Beckwourth's wife, Luisa Sandoval, and their daughter Matilda.

6. The Medicine Calf
by Bill Hotchkiss
Copyright 1981, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY. NOTE: This is an excellent historical fiction novel on the life and adventures of Jim Beckwourth. Bill Hotchkiss is a professor at Shasta College in California.

7. Ammahabas
by Bill Hotchkiss
Copyright 1983, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY. NOTE: This is the second novel on the life and adventures of Jim Beckwourth. Bill Hotchkiss is currently working on the much-anticipated third novel in the series, which is expected in 2001.

8. The Last Years of James P. Beckwourth
Colorado Magazine #5 (August, 1928): pp. 134-137, by Leroy R. Hafen, Colorado Historical Society.

9. James P. Beckwourth, A Mountain Man's Mountain Man
Colorado History Now (Newsletter of the Colorado Historical Society), February 1998 issue: page 3, by David Fridtjof Halaas, Chief Historian of the Colorado Historical Society. NOTE: This issue features Beckwourth on the cover, along with the article on page 3, in connection with the celebration of Jim Beckwourth's 200th Birthday.

*Reference Books and other resources compiled by Hilliard Moore, Historian for the James P. Beckwourth Mountain Club.