3602 UNUSUAL & UNIQUE ATTRIBUTED "PEG LEG" OF MOUNTAIN

Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 250.00 USD
Estimated at 500.00 - 1,000.00 USD
MAN. From the Milton von Damm collection. 24" overall. Described by Milton von Damm: "Thomas L. "Peg leg" Smith was a mountain man (b1801, d1866) who served as a guide in early Southwest beaver trapping expeditions. He was known as a trapper, prospector and horse thief. He traveled and trapped with such notables as Antoine Robidoux, Ceran St. Vrain, Ewing Young, Milton Sublette and Sylvester Pratte. He was involved with several conflicts with Indians including Aeapahoes, Mojave, Apaches and Papagos. His trapping days started about 1820 and ended in 1832. In the Fall of 1827 his trapping party was ambushed and he was shot above the ankle. Breaking both bones. He and Milton Sublette cut off the leg in the field and somehow he survived. By 1836 Smith and Jim Beckworth were stealing horses in Southern California and selling them at Bent's Fort. He tried a little gold prospecting in 1854 from his home in Sacramento, California and died in 1866 in a hospital in San Francisco. His friends made his peg leg during his recovery, and according to his biography in Hafen's Fur Trade Biography series, the peg leg was made from either oak or hickory. This leg is made from oak and has T.L. SMITH carve on one side. The bottom is covered with old rawhide and the L shaped appendage's flat top is cushioned with wool covered with rotten pieces of cloth covered with a piece of buffalo hide. Leather belts were used to strap it on the leg, which was bent at the knee to rest on the top of the inverted L." CONDITION: good to very good. PROVENANCE: Lifelong Collection of author Milton Von Damm. (02-22234/JS). $500-1,000.