figurines & knick knacks
jim bridger mountain man
jim bridger mountain man a biography by stanley vestal . contents include preface ix part 1 trapper i enterprising young man 1 ii . set poles for the mountains 8 hi . hivernan 21 iv . the missouri legion 28 v. hugh glass and the grizzly 40 part 3 booshway vi . blanket chief 57 vil the battle of pierre s hole 69 vhi . shot in the back 86 ix . devil take the hindmost 95 x. arrow butchered out 105 xl old gabe to the rescue 112 xii . injun scrapes 119 xiii . the last rendezvous 132 vii mil contents part 3 trader xtv . fort bridger 142 xv . milk river . 154 xvi . the overland trail 162 xvh . the treaty at laramie 168 xvm . the saints raid fort bridger 182 part 4 guide xix . sir george gore 192 xx . the march south 199 xxi . tall tales 206 part 5 chief of scouts xxii . the powder river expedition 220 xxhi . red cloud s defiance 241 xxiv . the cheyennes warning 249 xxv . bloody junket 258 xxvi . fort phil kearney 268 xxvel ambush 278 xxvttl massacre 284 xxix . the end of the trail 295 appendix 301 index preface ever since tlie days when as a boy i raced indian ponies and swam in a western river with the cheyenne lads i have felt the lack of a satisfying portrait of jim bridger . the intervening years permitted much research but somehow the books about bridger never seemed to do him justice . in his own time he was a legend and since his death historians have been content for the most part merely to pile up facts around these retold incidents . there has been no adequate biog raphy to bring the man to life . quot few men have beenjso misrepresented . on the one hand he was represented in fiction and on the screen as a drunken loutish polygamist and liar in a carica ture so monstrous that his outraged relatives brought suit to recover damages . the court ruled that no one could confuse this caricature with the real jim bridger and denied the suit . on the other hand jim bridger s real achievements have been ignored or neglected by writers who have tried to rep resent him as an injun fighter with ae the dash and daring of kit carson as a wag with all the wit and love of fun of joe meek or as a crusty ignorant hillbilly unable to hold his own in the society of civilized men ...