The text authors assert that traders and trappers were “more important

The text authors assert that traders and trappers were “more important than government explorers in opening the West to white settlement.” Illustrate this view by describing the specific contributions these Mountain Men made to western settleme

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER
Mountain Men blazed the trails through the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas, stirred the imagination of easterners, broke down Indian resistance to white advancement, and built the fur trading economy.