Jim Bridger

Jim Bridger ran away from a St. Louis blacksmith shop at eighteen and walked into the wilderness, never really walking out. He became one of the last and greatest of the mountain men, a fraternity of fur trappers who lived by wits and endurance. Bridger’s true legacy was his mind—a living atlas of the Rockies. He was likely the first European American to see the Great Salt Lake, and he discovered the geothermal wonders of what would become Yellowstone, though his tales of geysers were dismissed as tall tales for years. He survived countless skirmishes, learned numerous Native languages, and in his later years guided railroad surveyors and the U.S. Army, his knowledge literally paving the way for westward expansion. He died on his Missouri farm, but his spirit remained in the passes and rivers that still bear his name.