BBC Documentaries

Robert Campbell, Mountain Man (2018x38)

Data emisji: Lut 18, 2018

This is the epic rags-to-riches adventure story of a penniless Tyrone teenager who left Ulster in 1822 and ultimately became one of the wealthiest men in America. Robert Campbell was one of the first Ulster-Scots pioneers to open up the American west. He spent his first 10 years in the Rocky Mountain fur trade, a 'bold and dashing life' he called it, fighting native Americans, enduring the harshest of climates, suffering near starvation with he and his men forced to eat their horses and dogs. Leaving the mountains he became one of the leading citizens of St Louis with a business empire covering every aspect of commerce, property and river trade. In fact he gave Mark Twain his first job as a Missouri riverboat pilot. The film follows Campbell's great-great-great-great nephew - former tank commander and Northern Ireland politician Alan McFarland - as he travels across the American west to uncover his ancestor's life. He finds a character widely respected by both native Americans and settlers, and reveals a love story and a succession.