You Tell ’em Jim!

One of the West’s bigger than life characters was Jim Bridger—mountain man, trapper, scout, guide, storyteller. Bridger married three times—all native women—and was twice widowed. He was son-in-law to Chief Washakie and had five children. Mountains in both Wyoming and Montana are named for him, as is Fort Bridger. A favorite story: He was wounded by an arrow at the Battle of Pierre’s Hole in 1832 and carried the arrowhead in his back for nearly three years. Finally a surgeon removed it and was surprised to find the old wound had not been infected. Bridger wasn’t surprised: “Meat don’t spoil in the Rockies,” he told the good doctor.