Today In Western History: Jim Bridger Sees The Great Salt Lake

May 12, 1825

 

Legendary mountain man, Jim Felix Bridger, becomes the first white to lay eyes on the Great Salt Lake in Utah Territory.  But when he goes back to his fellow mountain men, he tells them he has been all the way to the west coast because he thought it was a straight channel to the ocean. 

Jim Felix Bridger, a legendary Mountain Man, explorer, trapper, trader and peacemaker.
Jim Felix Bridger, a legendary Mountain Man, explorer, trapper, trader and peacemaker.

Jim was of English ancestry, and his family had been living in North America since the early colonial period.   He would come to know many of the major American explorers of the early west, including Kit Carson, George Armstrong CusterHugh Glass (a recent movie, “The Revenant” 

Gen. George Armstrong Custer, hero in the Civil War and failure in the Indian Wars
Gen. George Armstrong Custer, hero in the Civil War and failure in the Indian Wars

is based on Hugh Glass’s reported experiences), John FrémontWilliam Sublette. and John Sutter. Bridger was a young contemporary of British and American pathfinders including Peter Skene OgdenJedediah Smith, and  Joseph Meek

Joseph Lafayette Meek, trapper and explorer
Joseph Lafayette Meek, trapper and explorer

Jim Bridger was one of the most famous and successful of the mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped throughout the western United States during the time of the mountain man and discovery of the fullness of the land west of the Mississippi between 1820–1850.  Jim also served as an interpreter and peacemaker between the native tribes and the encroaching whites.  It was often said by many that no one knew as much or had covered as many miles as Jim. 

 

 

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 Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com