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Show L He Discovered The Great Salt Lake ITCHY FOOTED JIM BRIDGER CHARMED INDIAN HIRED PIONEERS MAIDENS, By LaPreal Wight ganized fur company advertised vey this country proclaiming in a local paper for 100 men to it to be rich in furs; a trappers As far as Jim Bridger was into the vast unknown as paradise. concerned there never was any go Jim Bridger was 18 When the covered wagons trappers. out need to map this country; of age at this time. He came along over his trappers years he had it all In his mind. Every couldnt read nor write, but he trail, with their picks and pans stream he crossed, every moun- was tall and broad and lean and shovels, Jim was known to tain he climbed, every tree 'he and felt like a young colt shak- say: Where in the name of rested under was engraved like off the dullness of winter. common sense do all these peoa blue print behind his keen, ing Men gathered in the blacksmith ple come from? He said it eager eyes. shop and read the advertise- wistfully, for it was to change That is why he was the best ment. Jim dropped his ham- his mode of living. Furs were scout, trapper, guide the West mer on the anvil, took off his "out, gold was "in, and Jim has ever had. That is why the leather apron, and applied for was the only man who knew great and those in distress beat a job. He got it, just ahead of how to get through to the f.ch a path to his door; Bonneville, Jeddiah Smith, who had to wait deposits. So the gold rushers Buffalo until the following year. Fremont, Kit Carson, hired him as a guide. Bill, Majestic Chief Washakie, Trip after trip he made, spinJames the Conner party, President Bridger fought every ning his yarns, guiding men and of the way into the Rocky women Brigham Young. High or low inch -- Hardy Old Jim Bridger . . . explorer who discovered the - Great Salt Lake and thought it was an am of the Pacific ocean. He made his home in this area. Do You Know Do You Know The background trt . the, hundreds of mulberry trees - growing at St Geonge and other Washington county towns? In 1868 Octavius tJraenbeek Imported silkworms from France and Brgham Young urged the people to plant mulberry? trees. The industry eventually failed because the railroads brought competition from the, orient. -- see the oldest cabin IWhere to in Utah? . The Miles Goodyear cabin now stands in the Tabernacle Park at Ogden.- This crude structure was built of cottonwood logs in 1844 or 1845. The cabin was originally part of a group o 1 buildings known as Goodyears - Fort Bueneventura on the banks of the Weber river. away, from hazardous alike, his great spirit reached Mountain region, through routes. He was the most imporinto its vast storehouse of streams, up mountains, shoot- tant and colorful person in the knowledge and helped human ing wild animals and Indians wagon train. As soon as they at every bend in the trail. But were beings along their way. safely over the trail, in James Bridger was born In when he beheld the breathless California, he returned to his of this new world he beloved Richmond, Virginia, March 17, beauty country. He wasnt pan1804. His father had a tough filled his lungs with it and ning for gold. The only wealth come knew home to he had stay. he wanted was to be found la time making a living for his For 28 years Bridger remained the wide wife and three children, and open spaces of the fahere. By agreement he broke miliar ever a restless soul, he moved in the Rockies, country the Ashley company and where he had freedom to the then thriving to follow trading with post of St. Louis. It was a town went on his own." He became a str.eam to its source, and where a mountain like of the man, of 1500 citizens and in addition a man could get his teeth Into it was teaming with trappers, which there has been no other; exciting mountain passes. Calihills no the held and valleys and traders, settler caravans fornia could keep its gold, Jim secrets from him. freighters. A person could make Bridger had everything he want a living in a place like St. Louis He spoke eleven different In ed right here. But James Bridger, Sr., never dian languages. He knew from Jim Bridger died in 1881. He had much of a chance to try, for a moccasin print or the shaft had purchased a farm in Missix years later he died, followed of an arrow which tribe had souri, but only afteT his eyes by his wife and two children. passed that way. He lived with failed and he could no longer That left young Jim, 14 years the Indians, married their see the smoke curl from an Inof age with his fathers restlessdaughters, but never lost his dian village. At his death he ness in his feet and his eyes identity among them. He was was placed in a grave that was forever soaking up the dark always the white man who car- soon forgotten. Later, friends bulks of wagons as they disap- ried a gun and was on to every had him removed to a cemetery between Kansas City. and Indepeared into the yellow fringes trick of their savage ways. of the landscape. pendence, Missouri-- , and now he He - The next four years Bridger had charm, our Jim Brid- rests under a granite slab dediapprenticed himself to a black- ger, for he was a favorite among cated to his memory. smith. He hammered and weld- the dusky maidens. He married ed and . . . listened. Above the at least three. One was the Do You Know beat of the anvil he heard the daughter of the Flathead tribe, That in 1945 Utah produced tales of the west and some of another a Ute maiden, and the them were fall ones. It was a third. was a princess of a Snake more iron ort-- - than all other vast country, they said, wild chief. These" women protected western states combined? . and treacherous, but fortunes him, risked their lives to rescue Wyoming produced 602,000 could be made, ships would him from danger, and bore his tons; California 211,000 tons; come sailing in. children. miscellaneous western 302,000 Years later, Mary Ann Bridger, tons; fo ra total of 1,115,000 Henry and Ashley, a newly or his granddaughter, then eleven tons. Utah produced nearly years of age, attended a school twice this total, or 1,987,000 tons. conducted by some Presbyterian ministers. At least two of his Do You Know children were educated in Kansas City, - Mo., and Virginia The story of Lake Bonneville? If this fresh water lake were Bridger, his daughter was well known and living on a farm in now restored tl its maximum 1924. original development more than Bridger Is considered our 100 cities and towns would be "first citizen." He was the first submerked and 90 per cent of white man to reach Yellowstane; Utahs population would be renthe first to taste the waters of dered homeless. The- - Temple he great Salt Lake. And legend Square in Salt Lake City would has it that he was the first to toe buried under 850 feet of wa- stand on Willard Peak and sur- - ter. VACATION TIME IS PICTURE TIME! A vacation just isnt a vacation without pictures to show folks back home. ONE DAY TOURIST SERVICE Clothes Cleaned The Sanitone Way Are Really Clean! Photo ART Service DEPENDABLE 39 NORTH MAIN 19 East Forest Street I it VBt Nff At n ti the SEE US FOR ALL YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC NEEDS PHONE 86 t ,U some Wt jft Irt Phone 945 O It a tt tut rt J; wtr i |