The time of the American Mountain Man... What images are conjured up in your head when you hear this phrase? You are just as likely to picture the rugged, knife edged peaks of the Rocky Mountains as you are to imagine the dreary landscape and the remote, never-ending isolation faced by the great explorers of old. In search of fuzzy gold, in the form of beaver pelts, trappers headed out west to risk their lives for fortunes untold. What they never imagined was the memory that their lives would carry forward, and the impacts that their actions would have on our Nation, these very United States of America... America the Beautiful.
In order to understand our nation, our love for all things wild and remote (aka, the wilderness), and ever your own cultural bias, we need to look at the impacts that Jim Bridger had on the development of the West. He lived with, fought, and married Native Americans, he served the US Government, he discovered the wonders of Yellowstone National Park and the Great Salt Lake, and he influenced religion.
I invite you to join our wagon train as Jim Bridger once again serves as a trailblazer and a guide to the American Frontier.
Social Media:
Important Links:
California Trail Interpretive Center
Mountain Men and Life in the Rocky Mountain West
An Unforgettable Man, Hugh Glass
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851: Treaty of Horse Creek
From Pelt to Felt: The Making of a Beaver Top Hat
The Battle of Hundred in the Hands
