Animal Legends and Lore

[brotherbear]

Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears by Matthew P. Mayo. 
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the rich history of the American West. Among the many stories are those of Hugh Glass ( Unstoppable Man ) and Jedediah Smith ( The Toughest of Men ). 
In April of 1823, having been left for dead by his party after a sow grizzly severely mauled him, mountain man Hugh Glass dragged his savaged body 350 miles to Fort Brazeau. Barely recovered, he set out for revenge, not on the bear but on the men who had abandoned him in the wild. Revenge, he felt, was a dish worth serving. 
The saga of Hugh Glass has been recorded in many forms including films, books, songs, stories, and poems. And it endures because his unbelievable trek is a prime example of the power of human endurance and blind will to live. That Glass's motivation was revenge speaks highly of the man, for he went on to forgive those who wronged him - though it's doubtful he ever forgot. 
Young Jim Bridger, one of the forgiven, went on to establish his own great fame as a legendary mountain man, guide, explorer, hunter, and businessman. It's probable that his early dose of humility and forgiveness at the hands of the mighty Hugh Glass helped shape the respected man he became. 
In 1824, on Captain Jedediah Smith's second westward expedition, a massive, bawling grizzly bear emerged from a thicket, bypassed the entire line of men and horses, and made straight for the young leader. 
"Old Jed" Smith took to wearing his hair long in an attempt to conceal the welted braids of scarring that encircled his head, dipped above his left eye, and ringed his drooping and misshapen ear. 
Despite a string of such close calls in his eight years of roaming the West, Captain Jedediah Smith was not the average hard-living, devil-may-care man of the mountains. He was quiet, not boastful, and preferred his Bible to liquor, tobacco, and swearing. His thirst for exploration was unquenchable and unmatched. Among many notable experiences in his short life - he died alone, overwhelmed by Comanches in 1831 at age thirty-two - he was the first white man to blaze a land route to California. Reply