Jim Bridger: Opening the West, 17 March 1804-17 July 1881: 3rd Edition (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798338613030)

This revised edition combines previously published volumes I and II into a single 3rd edition encompassing the entire life of Jim Bridger from his birth on 17 March 1804 to his death on 17 July 1881. This history provides the reader with not only the documented life's experiences of this famous mountain man, trapper, explorer, and scout or guide, but also an extensive description of events in the West that directly impacted on his adventurous life. From the day young Jim embarked up the Missouri River from St. Louis in 1822 until his final return to his Missouri farm in 1868 the West had changed dramatically. Where earlier the fur traders had questioned if wagons could travel across the American continent and messages took many months, the intercontinental railroad and telegraph lines now spanned the continent. The reader is introduced to early expeditions by fur traders; men who were heroes to a young Jim Bridger. This work further traces Bridger's hardscrabble youth, his early years as a trapper and explorer, and introduces the historical personalities he came to know and work with. His native American wives and mixed-blood children are described, as well as famous US pioneers such as John Fremont, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, Kit Carson, and many others. Further described are Jim Bridger's efforts to establish a successful trading post at Fort Bridger and the early days at Fort Laramie on the Overland Trail, including his interpreting for the Shoshones at the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1851. By the 1850s Bridger became ever more engaged as a US Army scout on topographical explorations of the Yellowstone and the Great Salt Lake. By 1862 and continuing to 1868, his final year of scouting, Bridger was fully engaged in military efforts to secure the Overland Road from attacks by hostile Indians, the Powder River campaign, and the fight for the Montana Road aka the Bozeman Trail. Advanced in years and, at times, plagued with rheumatism, he was Chief Scout at Fort Phil Kearney during the massacre of an entire army command of over eighty men (Fetterman massacre), as well as nearby army victories at the Hayfield and Wagon Box fights. In 1868 he retired to his Missouri farm and in 1881, defying all odds, died a peaceful death.

Author: Ronald V. Rockwell
ISBN-13: 9798338613030
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 10/02/2018
Pages: 440
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.89d