Some of My Favorite Wyoming People

Today I thought that I might write a piece on famous people from Wyoming. Looks like I may need to put that off. Why? Too much research. I looked at famous writers, but many of the famous writers from Wyoming were not born here or did not live here for any significant time. I don’t care if they were not born here for my list of famous people from Wyoming but am not sure, as I read in other sources, that claiming a town in Wyoming is a favorite place or vacation living, part time, in a Wyoming Yurt qualifies as Wyoming.

Guess I was not sure what I was looking for. Jim Bridger is near the top of many lists for famous Wyomingites but was not born here. He did spend many years here, and that’s enough for me. Fourteen years ago, maybe it was 15, I ran for a statewide political office (if you have never tried this I would not recommend it) several times I was put down by an opponent because I was not born here. Living here for nearly two decades didn’t count in his book – I thought that should be enough. Now I have spent more than three decades in Wyoming and might qualify. I am, of course, speaking with tongue in cheek but I do believe that to be a famous Wyoming person that a few years in the state should be a qualifier.

If I listed my favorites most would be Mountainmen or Native Indians

Here are ten people that I researched for posts in the past year, all famous and very interesting.  Not my top 10, just 10 people that everyone in Wyoming should know more about.

Note – I purposely did not say anything about them, take the time to Google – fun stuff. Sorry, it must be the old teacher in me.

Enjoy!

Maxwell Struthers Burt

Nellie Tayloe Ross

Edgar Wilson Nye

Annie Proulx

Chris LeDoux

Curt Gowdy

Jackson Pollock

Velma Linford

Robert LeRoy Parker – Butch Cassidy

John B. Kendrick

In other news, I am happy to say I, at last, got out my second book in the Blade Holmes western mysteries published. This one entitled, The Ghost Dance, follows Marshall Holmes from Fort Robinson, Nebraska to Nevada and back to the Sioux Reservations of Southern South Dakota.  The book centers on the famous circle dance of the white shirted dancers, the Ghost Dance. This one has lots of authentic western history and is a very nice follow up to, Commitment, the first Blade Holmes historic novel.

Spring and Bluebirds in Wyoming

Markers Along the Oregon Trail

Traveling the Oregon Trail must have been quite an ordeal. Along with the lack of food, lack of good water, lack of fuel and the constant fear of attack from Indians, travelers had to put up with walking most of the way. They experienced freezing cold mornings and often scorching afternoons. But finding the way west was, after the first few years, not as difficult as many novels and stories seem to make it. Many good scouts, or pilots as they were sometimes called, worked the trail, many had earlier trapped and traded in the west and knew much of life on the trail.

Wagons followed the Platte River across present-day Nebraska and looked forward to their first view of the west, Chimney Rock and soon after if the days were clear Laramie Peak.

Chimney Rock – Near Bridgeport Nebraska and along Highway - 26, was a towering marker letting travelers know they were leaving the flat and easy part of the journey west. Chimney Rock stood more than 400 feet above the North Platte River and could be seen for days from the wagon trains. Today Chimney Rock is still striking but stands about 100 feet less than it once did.

Chimney Rock

Laramie Peak – Often Laramie Peak could be seen before the wagons reached Chimney Rock. The highest point of the Laramie Range, the peak stands 10,276 feet high. By most standards a mountain a bit over 10,000 feet high is not much, but when viewed from the prairie, after weeks of traveling the flat land, it was most impressive. The peak, as it is referred to by locals now, also meant the wagons would soon be turning north with the river toward present-day Casper, Wyoming. As a side note, famed mountain man Jim Bridger* often claimed he’d been in the mountains so long that when he came west, Laramie Peak was, “nothin’ but a hole in the ground.”

 *Bridger came into this country on his first trip west 195 years ago.

Laramie Peak as it looked from the wagon trains

The Diet of a Mountain Man

We read and watch daily opinions about our overweight society, “Americans are too fat,” we are continually told. Maybe so, today anyway, but not always. I smile each time I remember the story of Jim Bridger making his own supper. He skinned and gutted a jack rabbit and a nice sized trout, skewered them and propped both over the fire for roasting. Once they were cooked to his taste, likely not long, he ate both quietly and drank an entire pot of boiled coffee to wash down the meat. No seasoning of any kind, maybe smoke flavor from the fire, but that’s it. This was not uncommon for early hunters/trappers in the American West. Meat and coffee. Surprising to some, that many of these men also drank a lot of tea, it was as popular as coffee for many of the early explorers.

Cooking in a Mountain Man Camp

It took several years before the diet in the west changed much. Changed, but it still remained monotonous, with western Americas often eating the same few things for days or weeks at a time.  Wild game, fruits, and wild onions, in season, and washed down with copious amounts of coffee and tea with little else. Meat could be preserved by smoking and drying and often was.

Wild fruits and berries were always a treat

Not until the Oregon Trail got busy and the railroad ran through the state did the variety of foods available start to change. With places like Fort Laramie, and a quarter of a century later railroad stops, getting regular shipments of foodstuffs it helped. Flour and cornmeal were generally available along with dried fruits (usually apples), sugar, rice, dried beans and peas. Not much but much better than it was.

Early food, including meats, were often boiled, unlike today’s diet, heavy with fried foods. There was not a lot of fried meats until bacon became a staple along the trail west, soup, and roasted meats were much more an everyday part of the diet than today.  

So there you have it roasted meats and a few boiled dried vegetables, day after day after day, guaranteed to keep one’s weight under control. But, be careful with the gravy, cornbread, and biscuits, all favorites when flour and cornmeal were readily available in the west.

Buffalo - Staple of the diet in the west for many years

The Ashley-Henry Party Opening the West

In 1822,  General William H.Ashley organized the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Of all the famous mountain men that books and movies were made about, it seems most of them were part of this first group of mountain men. Ashley along with his partner Andrew Henry put together this group of hardy, explorers, trappers and traders. The group included Jim Bridger, William Sublette, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Robert Campbell, Jim Beckwourth, Mosses (Black) Harris, Hugh Glass, Jedediah Smith, Etienne Provost and David E. Jackson.

Off to the mountains, they headed to make a fortune and some did,
 but about half never made it back

Bridger became one of the greatest of all mountain men and, without a doubt, the best story teller. He along with Fitzpatrick, Provost, and The Stuart party are given the credit for discovering South Pass. I have always enjoyed the stories of Jim Bridger and enjoyed re-telling his tall tales to my students. I blog about him every few months, one of my favorites can be found here.

http://wyoming-fact-and-fiction.blogspot.com/2014/04/jim-bridger-rest-of-his-story.html

William Sublette established Fort Laramie, first named Fort William and later was credited with creating an 80-mile cut-off which was then named after him, the Sublette Cut-off.

On the grounds of Fort Laramie, looking north

Fitzpatrick, the famed, Broken-Hand of the Rockies, had a long and distinguished career as an explorer, trailblazer, guide and Indian agent, instrumental in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851.

Robert Campbell made enough money from the fur trade to become successful businessmen, outfitting John C. Fremont for his western expedition.

Jim Beckwourth was born a slave in Virgina. After he was freed, he soon found his way west. In 1856 a book was published about his life in the mountains, the book, The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth: Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians. The book sold well enough to be printed in Europe as well as the United States.

Mosses (Black) Harris after his initial time as a trader/trapper became one of the most famous of all wagon guides on the trails west.

Jedediah Smith is commonly referred to as the greatest mountain man that ever lived.

Etienne Provost became an important figure in the fur trade of the American southwest, headquartering out of Taos New Mexico.

The city of Jackson Wyoming and the area, Jackson Hole were named after David E. Jackson. Jackson started as a clerk with the Ashley-Henry party but later became a full partner.

Not a bad place to have named after you

Huge Glass’s greatest claim to fame may be that he was attacked by a grizzly bear and lived to tell the story. Several documentaries and movies have been made about Glass and the incident. The newest, Revenant, has just been released to theaters.

Bison covered the plains and foothills when the first trapper/traders came west

The Jim Bridger Trail

In 1862, gold was discovered in Virginia City, Montana Territory. Gold seekers, businessmen, thieves and get rich schemers quickly followed. The fastest and most efficient way to reach the fields from the east was to travel along the Bozeman Trail. To do so, travelers would follow the Oregon Trail to present-day Douglas, Wyoming where the trail turned north and went into present day Montana then turned west. Today a driver could take I-25 north to I-90 then turn west. From my little village of Guernsey, it is a drive of 603 miles and can be made in about 9 hours, in today’s world.

The road may have been fast, but there was trouble, Indians along the way did not want people traveling it. The entire Powder River Basin had been long held by local tribes, and they were not about to give it up for a white man’s road to gold. Bozeman was a great promoter of his road, and many lives were lost because of it, but there was another way.

The Jim Bridger Road, or Bridger Trail, was much less known, but it was safe and as fast to Virginia City as the Bozeman Trail.

Old Gabe - Jim Bridger

This trail, instead of turning north at Douglas, continued another 100, or so, miles along what is today Highway 20/26, then turned north at the Waltman crossing and worked its way north and west through Thermopolis and up into Montana. Not a difficult area to traverse and safe all the way to the gold.

Sign at the Waltman Wyoming Reststop

So why was it never use? Difficult to say other than the fact the government did not attempt to sell this better way. If settlers and miners would have used Bridger’s road Western history would have been forever changed. Battles like the Hayfield fight, Wagon Box fight, and the Fetterman Massacre may well never have happened. It is also possible that Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh may have never been sent to Montana if not for the Bozeman Trail and the trouble it caused.

Still a desolate area - this shot from a few miles east of the crossing

5 Periods of Wyoming History

Wyoming historians divide the history of the state into five periods. Thought it might be fun to take those five periods and try to list my favorite broad fact about each. So, here goes.

These are my favorites, please let me know what yours are.

1.    Exploration - trappers and traders

Without a doubt, Jim Bridger is the most famous early Wyomingite as all three, explorer, trapper, and trader. He also could be listed as one of the all-time great storytellers in Wyoming history.

2.    Emigration -  Oregon Trail

Many things could fall into place here, but the sheer numbers alone seem to be my favorite trail fact. Travel started about, 1843, peaked in 1846-1869, and by the early 1880s, it ended. During that period of time, 400,000 travelers used this main thoroughfare west. On average 10% died before reaching their western dreams.

3.    Indian Campaigns/Wars

Remember – this has to be something in Wyoming, thereby ruling out Custer on the Greasy Grass River.

 My top fact, The Gratton Massacre in 1854. Considered the first battle of the Sioux War, which by many, including myself, consider to be the beginning of the Indian Wars in the west.

Camp on the Laramie River not far from the site of the Gratton fight

4.    Territorial days

For me this is an easy one – Giving the vote to women happened when Wyoming was a territory in 1869, twenty-one years before statehood. Interesting that it may have been more for the publicity than for the rights of women.

Esther Morris - leader of the Women's Rights movement in Wyoming

5.    After Statehood

Many things could belong here, but I decided not to list people. Instead my favorite, after statehood fact about Wyoming is the wide open spaces, a state with only a half million people. Giving citizens and visitors incredible views in every county in the state.

Oh, if I were to list people they would be, Nellie Tayloe Ross, and Buffalo Bill Cody. Ross because she was the first women governor in the United States and Cody because of his legend, much bigger than his real accomplishments, but never the less important in making the old west into the movie, novel, and television wild west.

The west, Wyoming style

Jim Bridger and his Uncle the President

So much about Jim Bridger remains a mystery. He was orphaned at age 13 and apprenticed by a relative to a blacksmith. Early historians often noted the relative as a well-meaning one. More recently some believe that there was some money coming to the well-meaning, relative and that may have been what made him so well-meaning.
Not much is known of Bridger’s parents other than their dying young and the fact that throughout his life Bridger insisted his mother was President Tyler’s sister. He went on to say that she was disowned after marrying his uneducated father.

Bridger hated the labor in the blacksmith shop but worked hard at it anyway. He had enjoyed his previous job working with riverboats on the wharf. Of course, that gave him a chance to jaw with river men and trappers. Those were the rugged men he liked and were all about what he would become.

A man we think we know so much about, but maybe we really only know but what he wanted us to know.

Afraid I don't look much like a Mountain Man - trapper, but my friends look good

Fort Laramie, Fur Trade Days and the CCC

Anyone who follows my posts, and this is number 601, from all of my blogs, knows that I have two great interests in American history. They are the opening of the American west and the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s. Today I would like to make a mention of both.

First my book on the CCC, The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Building of Guernsey State Park, should be available next week. When I started this book I thought it would take six months. That was more than I wanted, but I felt it would be worth it. Well, next month will be month 23 of the six I planned. Yes, it was a bit harder than I expected. I will put a link up as soon as it goes live. If nothing else you can download the free sample.

Second, I have already marked my calendar for June, 20 at Fort Laramie. That weekend, June 21 is Father’s Day, and the annual, “Fur Trade Days.”

This features a nice trapper’s camp and talks and demonstrations by reenactors. Here are a few photos from last years, Fur Trade Days. Can’t wait!

The 1835 Rendezvous - Times are Changing

Twelve of the famous Mountain Man Rendezvous were held in what today is Wyoming’s south pass country. The 1835 Rendezvous may very well be the one that opened up the west for settlers. A doctor, Dr. Marcus Whitman and a minister, Reverend Samuel Parker were present, representing occupations not before seen in the mountains. Whitman handed out various medicines, did some surgeries and generally helped trappers and Indians alike. Parker made friends with the tribes and preached from his, white man’s book of God.

Five years later the fur trade was ending, and less than a decade after that 49ers were racing across Wyoming on their way to the gold fields of California

Of Jim Bridger, Shakespeare and Laramie Peak

Jim Bridger was, by definition, illiterate.  He went through his entire life unable to read and write. The man who discovered or co-discovered south pass in1823, and was the first white man to view the Great Salt Lake in 1824. Yet his fame rests as much, or more, in his famous story telling and his ability as a guide than it does in his great discoveries.

Despite the fact he was uneducated he loved the works of Shakespeare, who he liked to quote, often at great length. He once traded a, $125.00 yoke of oxen for copies of Shakespeare’s books. Later he was renowned in the west for paying a young man, the then princely sum of $40.00 a month, to read Shakespeare to him.

Bridger was fond of telling his listeners that he came to Wyoming when Laramie Peak was but a hole in the ground. Thought I would end this post with a photo of Laramie Peak. The Peak, as us locals call it, is nearby, I see it every day, not old enough to have seen it when it was a hole in the ground like ol' Gabe though.

Sunset Over Laramie Peak -Photo From Six miles North of Town

Wyoming Super Moon

Read a story about a super moon and had to check it out. Here is what I learned.
 All photos from Guernsey State Park, August 10, 2014.

While I was waiting for the moon, yes, I know, sounds a bit odd. I caught a mighty fine sunset.

And I couldn't resist a sunset in black and white, strange, but it just seems to work.

Wyoming Forts

Wyoming has some of the best known forts in the west. Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger were busy Oregon Trail stops and both still support active tourist’s trade. Today most westward expansion forts are but footnotes in history books, or even less. I found four Wyoming Forts that have great names, but seem lost to all but a very few locals, too bad they didn’t last.

Fort Nonsense - Built in 1832 by Captain Bonneville, six miles west of present day town of Daniel. It was the first fort built in Wyoming specifically for the fur trade. Before it was finished Bonneville realized it was a bad location, too high and too hard to reach. Bonneville and his company abandoned the fort soon after it was completed. The fort was actually named Fort Bonneville, but it was usually referred to as Fort Nonsense or even Bonneville’s Folly. The fort was a stockade, described as 100-foot square and built of 12-inch cottonwood logs, 15 feet high with blockhouses on opposite diagonal corners. The location was close to several of the famous mountain man rendezvous held in the 1820s and 1830s. But they were held in the summer and Wyoming has great mountain summer weather.

Fort Stand Off - Obscure even to citizens of Wyoming and not found in many history books. That is unless a Teton County history book is checked then one might find something about Fort Stand Off. Some believe it to be more legend than fact. It wasn’t really a fort, nothing like a fort in the military sense. Fort Sand Off was an area surrounded by rocks where outlaws held off U.S. Marshalls. Outlaw Cal Thompson was the most famous of those who used this hideout. Maybe it could have been as famous as Hole-In-The Wall if Butch Cassidy would have used it, instead of Cal Thomas, an outlaw lost in history.

Fort Yellowstone – The Military ran Yellowstone Park from 1886-1918. It was the first National Park and congress had not yet set up a way to manage national parks. The headquarters were at Mammoth Hot springs and were called Fort Sheridan, after the Civil War general, but it was soon changed to the more appropriate Fort Yellowstone.

Fort Davy Crockett – Located in Sweetwater County and named by a man who had a friend killed at the Alamo. Like many obscure forts, in the mountain west, it was a fur trading station. And also like other of these forts, it was short lived, opening in 1836 but reportedly abandoned and falling apart by 1844. Must not have been much of a carpenter who built this one.

Trail Ruts a half mile south of our house and 13 miles out of Fort Laramie

 

Wyoming Top 10

Last week I posted numbers 1-5 of my famous Wyoming people top ten, today numbers 6-10 will complete my list. Like my five of a week ago these are in no particular order, only random.

Edgar Wilson (Bill) Nye (1850-1896) - Founded a Wyoming newspaper with one of the most unusual paper names in all of America, the, Laramie Boomerang. Nye was also a, worldwide know, humorist who traveled widely with both James Whitcomb Riley and Mark Twain. His column was so widely read that the Boomerang was sent to every state in the union and to several foreign countries. Nye wrote several political or historical humor books that sold very well. I have read all that I could of him and his writings over the years and posted quite a few times about him. Mostly forgotten now, too bad.

Chief Washakie (1804/1808-1900) - Shoshone chief who was convinced that peace with the whites would be the only sensible thing to do. So well respected by the American government that he was the last Indian leader to be able to pick the land for his people’s reservation. Famous for keeping peace among the Wyoming tribes by fighting and killing Crow Chief Big Robber at Crowheart Butte Wyoming. The two chiefs fought over tribal hunting grounds instead of letting the tribes fight it out.

Curt Gowdy (1919-2006) – Famous sports announcer and personality, possible best known in later years as the voice of the Boston Red Sox. Gowdy spend decades announcing, football, baseball and several Olympics. But what I remember was his job of host of the long running, American Sportsman. Being an avid outdoorsman I loved this fishing and hunting themed show.

Buffalo Bill Cody (1846-1917) – His life and time spanned the end of the old west but his promotion of the old west let it live on for several more decades. His life story has been well documented, from Pony Express rider, to scout and Indian fighter and Medal of Honor winner and Wild West show promoter. A remarkable man in real-life and in fiction. The wonderful Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming is a must see for everyone that yearns for the good old days.

Chris LeDoux (1948-2005) – Some might wonder about this cowboy singer and his place on my list, but none should. He was a world champion bareback rider and wrote songs about life and cowboys and rodeo. Garth Brooks describes his music as a combination of western soul, sagebrush blues, cowboy folk and rock ‘n’ roll. LeDoux sold over five million records and was also an accomplished artist working mostly in bronze.

 “Sleeping on the ground and takin’ a bath in the creek. That’s the stuff that really made it worthwhile, anybody can stay in a motel.” (Chris LeDoux)

 Can’t be any more Wyoming-like than that.

James (Jim) Bridger (1804-1881) - The legendary mountain man spent much of his adult life in Wyoming, and some of it not far from where I sit writing at this moment. Here is a man who never learned to read or write but quoted widely from the Bible and Shakespeare. Couldn’t read a real map but drew maps that helped build the Oregon Trail, find South Pass and the lay-out the Trans-Continental Railroad. Wyoming has a fort, a mountain, mountain range, river, plains, buildings and many more things named after this mountain man, affectionately known as old Gabe.

I know what you are thinking, this is six not five. Never was good at math and it was too difficult to list only ten – this may be the only top eleven ever written.

If only I would have written a top 12, I could have listed myself. Neil Waring - “He wrote the most well-known top-11 in Wyoming history, I could have been famous!

 

 

37 Years at Fort Laramie

Fort Laramie today

Fort Laramie, like many western forts, was often staffed with European immigrants. Many times these men were ill-equipped for army life in the west. But they were fast learners and on most occasions survived and many thrived as soldiers during the Indian wars. But maybe none so well or as long as Leodegar Schneider. Schneider spent the first 15 years of his life in Switzerland but by his 23ed birthday was in the United States Army.

Schneider fought in the Seminole wars in Florida and several other east coast Indian campaigns. In 1849 when Fort Laramie became a military post, after more than a decade in the army, Schneider along with the rest of his company was sent to the famous Wyoming fort. And he stayed, stayed at Fort Laramie for the next 37 years. The 37 years made him the longest serving soldier at Fort Laramie.

Schneider started as the post’s assistant librarian, later became the first sergeant, and ended as the ordinance sergeant, a highly sought after position. When Schneider came to the fort it was a handful of adobe buildings, it grew to the largest Indian wars fort in the west.  When he left, he along with the fort had seen it all.  He fought in battles along the Bozeman and tried to keep the peace on the Oregon and Mormon Trail. 

 

 

 He watched the beginning and end of the Indian wars in the west, the Great War between the states in the east, the passing of tens of thousands on the Oregon Trail. Schneider witnessed the signing of two of the most famous treaties of the west, the treaties of 1851 and 1868, both signed at Fort Laramie. He met mountain men lie Jim Bridger and saw the beginning and the end of the Pony Express. He watched bits of the pushing of the trans-continental railroad through southern Wyoming and  walked along tracks being built to the north. He watched progress, the taming of the west, millions of buffalo changed to cattle inside fences. If anyone ever witnessed the passing of the frontier it was Leodegar Schneider and his 37 years of service at Fort Laramie.

Not a life of novels and movies, but to this old history guy, pretty darned interesting.

Jim Bridger - The Rest of His Story

Jim Bridger may well be the most celebrated of all the mountain men who lived and worked in the mountain west. So famous that today, roads, streets, trails, bridges, a power plant, schools, a fort, museum collections and many more things were named after the famous, hunter, and fur trader.

The inscription on his tomb stone reads (in part) – “Celebrated as a hunter, trapper, fur trader and guide. Discovered Great Salt Lake 1824, the South Pass 1827 [1823]. Visited Yellowstone Lake and Geysers 1830. Founded Fort Bridger 1843. Opened Overland Route by Bridger's Pass to Great Salt Lake. Was a guide for U. S. exploring expeditions, Albert Sidney Johnston's army in 1857, and G. M. Dodge in U. P. surveys and Indian campaigns 1865-66."

But that is not all the man was. For decades a popular American radio host, Paul Harvey, aired a program called, “The Rest of the Story,” – well here is a bit of the rest of the story of James Felix Bridger, a most remarkable man.

Today Wyoming is known as a ranching and oil producing state. Guess who was the states first cattleman and first oilman? Jim Bridger. Bridger was not the first to have cattle in Wyoming but he may, very well, have been the first to buy and sell cattle, a thriving part of his business from his fledgling trading enterprise at Fort Bridger. And along with his buddy, Kit Carson, he skimmed oil from a seep just west of present day Casper Wyoming. What did they do with it? Well, they mixed it with flour and sold it as axel grease for wagons heading west – and it worked pretty good.

 Bridger also took on special projects for the government. At the request of the army he blazed a new trail from near his Casper oil seep, up though Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin and into the gold fields of Montana. - (The Bridger Trail) - This trail allowed people a chance to avoid the bloody Bozeman Trail. If people would have listened to him and used his new trail maybe a large part of the Indian wars of the west could have been avoided.

The Astorians and the Oregon Trail

201 years ago visitors showed up at my doorstep. Or, at least, they could have.

It was in the winter of 1812-13 that Robert Stuart led the seven returning Astorians on their journey from Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River to St. Louis. After traversing South Pass they found the North Platte and followed it to the Missouri and on to St. Louis. To do this they must have passed very close to my home a quarter of a mile north of the North Platte and 13 miles upstream from Fort Laramie. It would take another 21 years before Fort Laramie (then Fort William) was founded as a trapper trading post.

With this passing of the Astorians Robert Stuart and his crew become the pathfinders of the route that later would become the Oregon Trail. Fort Laramie would go on to become one of the most looked forward to stops for travelers heading west.

http://www.nps.gov/fola/index.htm         Fort Laramie

http://wyoparks.state.wy.us/Site/SiteInfo.aspx?siteID=7             Guernsey State Park (in our town)

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

Almost a Legend

Watching a football game on television Saturday, Wyoming V. Utah State, as part of the promo they mentioned Jim Bridger and the fact that he was the first white man to visit the Great Salt Lake and the first into Yellowstone. Bridger may very well have been the first non-Indian into the Great Salt Lake Valley, at least I and many other western historians believe that. But the first into Yellowstone, I don’t think so.

John Colter, like Bridger, a Virginian was much more likely to have been the first into Yellowstone. It is most unlikely the two ever met and very possible that Colter was in Yellowstone while Bridger was but a toddler with a birth date in 1804.

Bridger became a legend in the west and Colter seems to have just slipped away into history. Colter left the west by 1810 and never returned, leaving a legend in the making, unmade.

Colter never lived long enough for people to believe any of his tales of Yellowstone. He died of Jaundice in 1813 leaving behind $124 and change. But then the story of the almost a legend in the west turns bizarre. He was buried on Tunnel Hill near present day Dundee Missouri. In 1926 his remains, along with the remains of five or six others, were dug up during a railroad excavation of the site. All were dumped somewhere nearby, buried in an unmarked embankment.

Not a very fitting finish to the first white man in to Yellowstone.

Jim Bridger Architect

In 1862, President Lincoln signed a bill that created the Union Pacific Railway Company. General Dodge and other government officials were unsure of which route through Wyoming would be the best, follow the Oregon Trail or take a more southern route. So they called in America’s foremost authority on the Rocky Mountains, Jim Bridger. Word was sent to Bridger in St. Louis that he was needed in Denver on important business.

When Bridger arrived in Denver, the engineers showed him their plans and asked the old mountain man where the best place to cross the mountains might be. Bridger asked for a piece of paper, grabbed a charcoal burned stick out of the fire and preceded to draw a map of the Rockies in Colorado and Wyoming. Never one to miss a chance to take a job at government officials, Bridger told them they should have saved their money, he could have drawn the map in St. Louis, but he was secretly grateful for this one last chance to visit his beloved Rockies.

On that little sheet of paper Bridger drew the exact rout that the transcontinental railroad followed across the state of Wyoming. The railroad still follows that same route today, through the rugged pass between Cheyenne and Laramie. Later Interstate 80 paralleled the transcontinental railroad across Wyoming. Making ol’ Gabe (Jim Bridger) not only a mountain man but a builder of railroads and interstates, Bridger may have never learned to read and write but he was one fine map maker and architect.