Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West

In Short

William F. Drannan’s autobiography records a lifetime spent navigating the untamed West during its most tumultuous decades. Runaway orphan Drannan falls under the wing of famed scout Kit Carson, learning the trades of trapping, hunting, and fighting indigenous tribes. Over thirty-one years, he serves as a chief army scout under prominent generals, guides emigrant wagon trains across dangerous mountain passes, and tracks outlaws alongside regional vigilantes. The narrative spans from early fur-trading expeditions to the rapid arrival of towns, mining rushes, and established military posts. Preserved for its unvarnished first-person perspective, the book endures as a vivid, direct chronicle of the perilous passage from an untamed wilderness to a settled nation.

The Story

The narrative opens with young William Drannan executing a mischievous revenge on a harsh caretaker by tossing a hornets' nest under her feet. Fleeing his home, he travels on foot toward St. Louis, where a chance encounter changes his destiny: he meets the renowned frontiersman Kit Carson. Carson adopts the boy as a protégé, buying him his first pony and rifle while initiating him into the ways of the wilderness. Drannan adapts quickly, learning the complex intertribal languages like Chinook, surviving early skirmishes against Ute warriors, and devouring strange frontier meals such as roasted dog in Indian encampments.

As Drannan matures into his late teens, Carson entrusts him with high-stakes missions. Drannan and a Mexican companion named Juan undertake a grueling, eleven-hundred-mile journey through hostile terrain to the City of Mexico to deliver funds, narrowly dodging Mexican guerrillas and bandit factions along the trail. Returning north, Drannan embeds himself deeply in the fur-trapping economy, bringing furs to trading hubs like Santa Fe and Bent's Fort while forming lifelong bonds with figures like Jim Bridger and James Beckwith.

With the onset of widespread westward emigration and escalating conflicts on the plains, Drannan transitions from trapper to scout. He witnesses the arrival of massive wagon trains, often finding emigrants dangerously unprepared for the realities of the wilderness. Drannan lends his sharp eye and marksmanship to military commanders including Generals Crook, Connor, and Wheaton. He leads dangerous scouting sorties through rugged terrain like Black Canyon, tracks hostile Apache and Pima bands, and defends vulnerable settlers from raids. During the Modoc War, his endurance is tested in high-speed courier races across mountain trails to deliver critical dispatches regarding Captain Jack's surrender.

Beyond Indian warfare, Drannan records the volatile rise of frontier boomtowns. He describes raw gold-rush hysteria during the "Pike's Peak or Bust" era and documents the swift, harsh justice of Virginia City's Vigilantes, who execute infamous outlaws like Slade. Throughout these adventures, Drannan faces grave perils: he survives close-range firefights, extracts bullets from his own flesh, and loses close comrades like his fellow scout Savage to frontier violence.

As the years pass, the wild West undergoes a permanent transformation. Trapping grounds yield to ranches, native tribes are forced into submission, and railroads supplant the old trails. Carson retires to his sheep ranch, and Drannan’s longtime scouting partner George Jones returns east to guide family emigrants to Oregon. Left behind in a rapidly modernizing West where the days of elk, buffalo, and beaver trapping have drawn to a close, an aging Drannan picks up his pen to record his life story, closing his chronicle with an elegiac lament for a lost wilderness.

How It Unfolds

The boy escapes After taking revenge on an abusive caretaker with a live hornets' nest, young Drannan flees hundreds of miles on foot to St. Louis, where Kit Carson takes him in like a son.

First blood on the trail While travelling with John Charles Fremont's expedition, Drannan defends his pony from a Ute raiding party, taking careful aim off his horse's back to score his first Indian kill.

Danger to Mexico City At eighteen, Drannan carries secret cash eleven hundred miles to Mexico, avoiding lethal guerrillas who murder and rob travelers across the roadless wilderness.

Carson's duel In camp, Carson calmly accepts a duel challenge from a drunken adversary named Shewman, riding out without a rifle and shooting his opponent dead with a single pistol shot.

Rescuing the captive Drannan successfully tracks down and liberates Olive Oatman, a young white girl held for seven years by natives after her family was massacred along the trail.

The wagon train boom At Fort Kearney, Drannan joins General Kearney and Jim Bridger to inspect poorly organized emigrant trains heading west, warning unprepared travelers of lurking Sioux raiding parties.

Vigilante justice In Virginia City, Drannan watches the Vigilantes arrest the notorious, crying outlaw Slade and march him straight to the scaffold despite his desperate pleas for mercy.

Scouting Black Canyon Drannan guides General Crook to the rim of the treacherous Black Canyon, scouting out strategic trails and hunting wild game to feed the military column.

Dispatches on the run Following the execution of Captain Jack, Drannan enters a high-speed seventy-mile horse race across rugged mountain trails to deliver news to waiting newspaper couriers ahead of rivals.

The final lament Reflecting on his past near the end of his life, Drannan pens a farewell poem mourning the disappearance of the buffalo, the beaver traps, and his fallen scout companions.

The People

• William F. Drannan wants to survive the harsh frontier, prove his worth as a woodsman, and earn a living through trapping and scouting. He grows from a runaway boy terrified of leaving Kit Carson's side into a fearless, self-reliant chief of scouts who routinely leads dangerous military patrols.
• Kit Carson ("Uncle Kit") seeks to guide expeditions, trap furs, and mentor young Drannan while maintaining peace or defending himself on the trail. Cool under fire and deeply versed in native dialects, he remains a steady father figure until old age and poor trapping seasons compel him to retire to a quiet sheep ranch.
• George Jones wants to perform his duties reliably as Drannan's trusted assistant scout. A fearless marksman who claims he can spot an Indian as fast as one can spot him, he survives countless skirmishes before returning home to pilot his family's wagon train to Oregon.
• Lieutenant Jackson seeks to maintain military order and eliminate hostile native bands in the region. A deadly shot from horseback, he aggressively pursues hostiles while demonstrating a soft heart for brutalized frontier settlers.
• Jim Bridger wants to hunt, trap, and guide travelers through the West, though he occasionally yields to long, disruptive drinking sprees in town before returning to the wilderness.

In Its Own Voice

"Uncle Kit had always taught me that it was not the fastest shooting in an Indian fight that did the most execution, and that it was better to fire one shot with good aim than four at random."

Drannan recalls the practical wisdom passed down by his mentor during his very first encounter with hostile Ute warriors along the trail.

"She said: 'No, I can never be a white girl,' and at the same time commenced crying, and said in broken English, 'Now I remember seeing my mother dressed all nice, and plenty more women all dressed nice.'"

Drannan describes the emotional complexity of rescuing Olive Oatman after seven years of captivity, as she struggles to recall her native tongue and past life.

"Oh, the days of elk and buffalo, / It fills my heart with pain / To know those days are passed and gone, / To never come again."

In his closing poem, the aged frontiersman expresses nostalgic grief over the rapid vanishing of the wild prairie and its wildlife.

What It's Really About

Beneath its sequence of close-calls and wilderness skirmishes, the narrative addresses the violent, irreversible transition of the American West from an unmapped frontier into a settled nation. It explores the informal mentorship and strict codes of survival that bound early frontiersmen together. The text also captures the relentless friction between encroaching white emigrants and native tribes defending their homelands—a conflict viewed entirely through the plain-spoken, unapologetic lens of a 19th-century military scout. Ultimately, it is a book about memory and loss, capturing an old man's impulse to immortalize a vanished lifestyle before the last eyewitness voices of that era are silenced forever.

Why Read It Today

This memoir will appeal to readers of historic Americana, military history enthusiasts, and anyone seeking an unvarnished first-person perspective on 19th-century frontier life. Free of literary posturing or romanticized prose, Drannan speaks directly to the reader like a grizzled veteran sitting by a campfire, offering raw details about everything from trade dialects to camp meals.

The reading experience feels immediate and unpolished. However, modern readers must navigate historical difficulties. Drannan received no formal schooling, and his narrative reflects the period’s plain, colloquial diction. More significantly, the text contains harsh 19th-century attitudes, casual violence, and explicit racial hostility toward Native Americans and Mexicans. If read with an understanding of its historical context, the book remains a valuable, vivid document of a rough-and-ready era that forever transformed the American landscape.