For the Sake of discussion, if Jim Bridger were to come back and see the technology we have in the mountains and wilderness today, what would his reaction be?
For those of you unfamiliar with the man:
For those of you unfamiliar with the man:
- in 1822 Bridger signed on with other legendary 'Mountain Men' Hugh Glass, Jedediah Smith, and Thomas Fitzpatrick to be a member of General William Henry Ashley's Upper Missouri expedition. At the age of 17, he was the youngest member of the expedition.
- To settle a bet in the winter camp of his trapping party of 1824, Bridger set out to find the exact course of the Bear River from the Cache Valley. On his return he told that it emptied into a vast lake of salt water. People were convinced he had found an arm of the Pacific Ocean, but we now know that he was the first white man to view The Great Salt Lake.
- in 1850. Captain Howard Stanbury stopped at Fort Bridger and inquired about the possibility of a shorter route across the Rockies than the South Pass. Bridger guided him through a pass that ran south from the Great Basin. This pass would soon be rightfully called Bridger's Pass and would be the route for overland mail, the Union Pacific Railroad, and finally Interstate 80.
- In the summer of 1842, aware that the market for beaver was waning and anticipating America's westward migration, he and fellow trapper Louis Vasquez founded a trading post on Black's Fork of the Green River, in what is now southwest Wyoming. Fort Bridger quickly evolved into an important way station on the Oregon Trail.
- There was a First Day of Issue 29 cent US Postal Service stamp on 18 October 1994. Beer, a hat, and even a power generating plant have been named after Bridger. More than 20 places, including a wilderness area, carry Bridger's name
