The Lovable Jim Bridger

Jim Bridger was quite a guy and a pretty decent scholar, despite a few shortcomings. He could use sign language as well as anyone in the early west. He spoke passable Spanish and French along with English and several Indian dialects. He could read sign and survive the toughest conditions with the best of the Mountain men. At the rendezvous he could party and tell stories, well maybe better than most. He quoted long passages from the Bible and from Shakespeare, so what shortcomings did he have? He never learned to read. A man as smart as he was could have learned, and rather quickly. Why didn’t he learn, maybe he liked learning from others and didn’t see the need to read. We will never know.

I have written other posts about Jim Bridger - see here. This post talks about Bridger's penchant for telling tall tales.

http://wyoming-fact-and-fiction.blogspot.com/2006/12/jim-bridger-story-teller.html