Show D GREAT SALT jim bridget stands forth as the most conspicuous figure in the brief but glorious reign of the trapper and tr allmaker in the tar west the greatest fur hunter and the greatest pathfinder of them all and possess ing the most intimate knowledge of the indian nature ever vouchsafed a white man bridger will grow in stat ure as time goes on and accurate hastoy is written no part of the great rocky moun tain country held a secret from jim bridger he was the first white man after john colter to view the won ders of yellowstone park and the first to look on great salt lake seemingly bearing a charmed life he wandered through the lands of many indian tribes sometimes fighting the red men but more often living their life and finding the solace of true brotherhood at the lodge fire every mountain jim bridger climbed every stream he crossed and every game trail he followed was written down in the most marvelous memory ev er granted a plainsman As a result years later when the white men bold but blundering sought the aas iest paths over the mountains jim bridger showed them the best hails for their wagons and when the chief engineer of the union pacific had well nigh given up hope of get ting his rails across the divide it was jim bridger who showed an available pass which he had trav eased years before in his trapping days and the existence of which no other white man knew A few months ago this chief engineer gen gran valle M dodge showed his gratitude by rescuing jim bridger s body from a neglected grave and interring it at kansas city under an appropriate monument probably the first act ol 01 gratitude ever performed for the man who had put the whole empire of the west in his debt arthur chapman in outing magazine |