JIM BRIDGER

March 17, 1804 is the birthday of the most famous mountain man.

Jim Bridger was one of the most famous mountainmen.  He was born in Richmond on March 17, 1804.  When he was eight, his family moved to the gateway to the West – St. Louis.  At age 13 he was orphaned and apprenticed to a blacksmith.  He never learned to read or write.  At age 16, he left his future occupation to become an adventurer.  He joined a furtrapping expedition led by William Ashley.  A few years later, an expedition was ambushed by Arikara Indians and 15 were killed.  Later that same year, 19-year-old Bridger volunteered, with John Fitzgerald to stay with the at-death’s-door Hugh Glass until he was buried.  Glass had been mauled by a momma grizzly.  When Indians appeared in the vicinity (according to the two), they abandoned Glass and when they caught up with the expedition assured the other trappers that he was dead.  Glass survived and tracked down Bridger for revenge, but ended up forgiving the contrite young man.  (Some historians think Bridger was not involved in this incident.  The original story was of a man named “Bridges”.)  After that awkward encounter, Bridger went on to a long career of trapping, trail-blazing, and guiding.  He was among the first whites to explore Yellowstone and see the geysers.  He was the first to see Great Salt Lake.  He gave advice to wagon trains.  In 1843, he set up a trading post in Utah called Fort Bridger.  He played a role in the Donner Party by giving them the bad advice to take the supposedly shorter Hasings Cutoff.  It was not shorter.  He got a reputation for being a teller of tall tales.  Settlers who stopped at the fort to talk to the famous trapper might be told that the petrified forest had petrified birds that sang petrified songs.  He told of a lake that had boiling water at the surface, but cold water underneath.  If you caught a fish, by the time you reeled it in, it was cooked.  He liked to tell the story of once being chased by a hundred Cheyenne Indians and reaching the edge of a box canyon.  He would pause at this point and wait for the rube to ask what happened.  Bridger:  “They killed me.”  Things went south when Mormons arrived in Utah and bad blood brewed.  When Bridger was away, the Mormons burned his fort to the ground.  Bridger got along better with Indians with the Mormons.  He married a Flathead, then a Ute, and finally a Shoshone. 

https://www.cowboysindians.com/2015/05/jim-bridger/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bridger