According to Marshall Trimble of True West magazine, Jim Bridger started out his career in goods hands. At the age of 19, he answered the call “to all enterprising young men” and signed up for William Ashley’s expedition to explore the Missouri river (Trimble, 2017).
While apart of this expedition, Jim Bridger demonstrated brilliant survival skills and at such a young age, explains Mathew Despain of historytogo.utah.gov. After being apart of this expedition, Bridger would then go on to join Andrew Henry’s brigade to explore the Yellowstone River. During this brigade, Bridger was introduced to trapping. Jim Bridger then joined up with John Weber’s brigade to trap the Wasatch area in 1824. Through the next four years, Jim Bridger would trap the Utah and Wyoming areas and gain a lot of trapping experience (Despain, 2017).
However, what made Jim Bridger one of the most successful mountain man to ever live was his desire to explore. In 1830, Jim Bridger and four other men formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. This company lasted four years and by 1840, the fur trade itself was over (Despain, 2017).
Figure 1. An early Cherokee trail through the Rocky Mountains. Image retrieved from Google Images
After the Rocky Mountain Fur Company disbanded, Jim Bridger needed a new source of income and employment. In 1841, Bridger and Henry Fraeb constructed a crude structure on the west bank of the Green River. Later that summer the building named Fort Bridger. According to xroads.virginia.edu, Jim Bridger described, “I have established a small store, with a blacksmith shop, and a supply of iron on the road of the emigrants on Black’s fork Green River, which promises fairly, they in coming out are generally well supplied with money, but by the time they get there they are in want of all kinds of supplies. Horses, provisions, and smith work (Zimmerman, 2009).
Figure 2. A drawing of Fort Bridger. Reprinted from The Mountain Men: Pathfinders of the West. Retrieved fromhttp://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/mtmen/jimbrid.html
In 1853, the nearby Mormons resented the competition from Fort Bridger and tried to arrest him as an outlaw. Jim Bridger escaped into the mountains. History.com reports while he was gone, a band of Mormons burned and gutted his fort, destroying his supplies. Bridger and the Mormons would continue their feud until 1858 when Jim was forced to sell the fort. He would then spend the next decade as a guide and an army scout for the early Indian wars (History.com, 2009). As Jim Bridger got older, he enjoyed storytelling, especially to inexperienced greenhorns. Marshall Trimble and True West Magazine claims, “Old Gabe” is what they called him. He was one of the first white men to see the geysers and natural wonders located in present day Yellowstone National Park. When he would recall seeing these amazing sights, people would just laugh and call them “Bridger’s Lies” (Trimble, 2017). He died at the age of 76 in 1881 (History.com, 2009).