National Park After Dark - Beyond the Bear: Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Hugh Glass is best known for his incredible survival story. After being mauled by a grizzly, being left for dead and dragging himself nearly 250 miles across the country - his story, or at least a version of it, has been immortalized in the film The Revenant. But Hugh’s life goes beyond his encounter with the bear - what came before and after are just as wild as a ride, and are worth movies of their own.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Naked Wines: Follow our link and use code and password NPAD to get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99 plus free shipping.BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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When imagining the American West Especially in a historical context Images of indigenous peoples Seas of Buffalo Untamed Wilderness Cowboys straddling their mighty steeds And pioneers navigating the rugged landscapes on wobbly wagons are often what comes to mind, or perhaps, hastily constructed wild west

and mining towns filled with gunslingers and saloons comes up. There's a reason for this. This imagery is everywhere, in movies, television, paintings, and photographs. But there's a group that is often cast aside, or excluded altogether in popular literature, the mountain men. More specifically the trappers of the Rocky Mountain West. Half a century before cowboys galloped onto the scene and pioneers set their sights westward, these men, typically young, curious, and rebellious, left their homes and families to be part of the first commercial enterprise of the American West. They were among the first non-indigenous people to lay eyes on this place.

They were the first Europeans to learn the ways of the West. They traveled further, encountered food. people, languages, wildlife, and landscapes that most in their wildest of dreams could never have imagined. Many did not survive what lay ahead of them, but those that did usually came back and brought with them the stories of the dead, and with tales too tall to believe. Much of the legends that came out of the Rockies and plains of the West were exaggerated, embellished and inflated, a result of a long and twisted game of telephone as sagas made their way from mouth to ear around campfires.

But as the old saying goes, where there is smoke, there is fire. And when one day, a legend himself came back from the grave to set the record straight, it changed everything. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I'm so excited for this episode. I know what it's about. So I have been waiting patiently for this day to come. Eagerly anticipating.

Yeah. So without giving it away, just. just yet. This is going to be like a really historical based story, just so everyone is aware. Okay. And there is kind of like a big disclaimer that I've never had to put on a story before, but much of the details of this man's story, because we're going to be focusing on a single person for most of this, his story, both before, during and after, his most infamous encounter is based largely on oral histories from multiple people and multiple sources, throughout time. And in many of the resources that I utilized for research, I mean, the words

reportedly and allegedly were all over the place, like before every single statement. Like, I'm sure if this happened this way or not. Right. So with that in mind, I want to make it clear that few concrete factual details are available about certain parts of this man's life and the events that we're going to talk about throughout the episode. And there's often a amount of speculation regarding his life amongst different historians and different schools of thought and things like that. So with this in mind, instead of saying, I don't want to have to say allegedly, supposedly, purportedly, depending on who you ask throughout this entire episode. So this is like your first blanket wide episode long heads up that I have gathered the most widely accepted and most

verifiable information that's available out there. But even still, just take it with a grain of salt because I'm not kidding with like every single detail of information that this story has to offer has at least two to four different versions of it, whether it's like a big difference or just a small tweak. I don't want to have to go through every version for everything. We'd be here all year. So just so you're aware. Just so you're aware this story might be made up. Correct. Yeah. This might be fission. Just so you know, I try to give you a heads up like around a campfire, things morph. So that's kind of what we're going with today. But regardless, of all of that, this man had quite the life and I think you'll enjoy hearing of his adventures

of his life before his fateful encounter with a brown bear. This is the story of Hugh Glass the real life revenant. Uh, Leonardo DiCaprio, getting mauled by a bear, but the real story. The true story. I, for research purposes, had to rewatch. Just the bear mulling scene in particular, because I didn't want to cloud, like, what I was reading. That's the only scene that you watched. Yeah. The most horrific scene of the entire movie. You're like, I'm just going to fast forward to this part. Yeah, I just looked it up on YouTube and watch it. And I forgot because I've seen the movie obviously when it came out. And then I think only one other time. And that scene is so long. It's long and it's traumatizing. But it's so accurate. Like I remember I forget which podcast Wes went on. Like he was a guest, Wes from Tooth and Claw, went on another podcast to talk about that. scene in particular and how like true to real life that attack scene really was. And he was basically saying like it was pretty right on the money, you know, as far as that makes it so much scary. I know. I know. All right. So yes, we're talking about Hugh Glass today. And I'm so

excited to revisit this because I did read a book about him many years ago. And I actually re-bought it and used it as a source for today. One of the many sources from my research. And in case anyone is curious, it is called the saga of Hugh Glass, pirate, ponny, and mountain man. So that's the book. There are several out there, just so you know. But we are going to be talking about Hugh Glass was born somewhere around Philadelphia, sometime around 1783. And he was starting off strong with the facts. We think we're not sure. He was of Irish or of Scottish descent. And very little is known about his early life. So we're just going to glaze right on over that. We're unsure what he was up to. Just make it up. But sometime between the years of 1817 and

1820, when he was in his mid-30s, Hugh was a sailor, possibly even a commander. of an American ship that ran into some trouble. And that trouble was a notorious pirate. We will surely do an episode on this man in the future because surprise, there's an entire national historic park and preserve dedicated to this pirate in Louisiana. Okay, so let's do a little intro to this pirate. Jean Lafitte is one of history's most infamous pirates, but like Hugh Glass, much of the details of his life are murky. Born in France or a French colony in the Caribbean in the 1880s, he and his brother Pierre made it to Louisiana in the early 1800s and became independent privateers before becoming associated with the smuggling network operating in the waterways of

Barataria, which included swamps and bayous, which stretched from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico. Lafitte smuggled goods as well as enslaved people throughout southern Louisiana and captured ships with both on board. By 1812, he was the leader of about a thousand men and had warehouses and holdout. to hold both captured people and stolen and illegal goods and held private auctions to sell both secretly to avoid the law. He was wanted by the law, but he managed to escape many different times due to his knowledge of the area, the swamps and the bayous, but he was actually approached by the British for his help during the war of 1812, partially because of that intimate knowledge of the landscape. He agreed, but ultimately decided to warn the American authorities about

the British plans of attack in exchange for a pardon for him and his men. He's like, I have some insider info. You're about to get messed up. And I can tell you that information for a price. And it worked. General Andrew Jackson actually accepted his help and President James Madison pardon him and his men for any crimes committed against the U.S. Oh, smart. However, he ultimately returned to a life of smuggling around the Galveston Island area in Texas. He has also also thought to have buried a large cache of treasure somewhere in the bios of Louisiana, and he is thought to have faked his own death. But that's, like I said, a story for another day.

And the National Historic Park that is dedicated to him is in Louisiana, and it bears his name. So that's another story for another day. Interesting. There's always a tie-in. Always the tie-in. The National Parks are everybody. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more.

Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. So this is the man, this infamous pirate, is the one that seized the ship that Hugh was either in command of or was at least working on, right around the time that he returned to his life of crime after he did that deal with the government. When Jean and his crew boarded and took over the ship, rather than killing the entire crew, they extended an offer to them. Either you can die, will kill you or you can join our crew. So for the next year, Hugh sailed under the skull and crossbones as he elected for life as a pirate rather than death. Fair. However, his decision wasn't an easy one.

He lived in a small pirate colony named Campici on the Bay side of Galveston Island. Around this time, this shanty-like town, which was constructed by Jean Lafitte for his men, their families and a number of enslaved captives, numbered around 800 people. It was a really rough and tumble place to be, and Hugh didn't take well to it. Not only was the settlement itself rough, but it was surrounded by swamps, alligators, venomous snakes, making escape pretty difficult to do. And he very much disliked the life of a pirate or a privateer, depending on who you ask, how they actually thought of themselves. And he had a really difficult time disguising this complete uninterest in this line of work, which, caused him some problems. Well, he was forced to be there. That is true. Yes, that's true. While the ship Hugh was on was hiding in one of the secluded bays off the coast of

what is now Texas, superiors took notice of Hugh. He was essentially on strike and was like, I can't do this anymore. I don't want to do this. So they essentially said, all right, well, this behavior is unacceptable. And we are going to arrange a meeting with you and Jean Lafitte when we returned to Campici the following day. Knowing that this was likely going to end very poorly for him, he didn't think that this notorious pirate was going to be like, oh, you don't like it. It's okay. It's okay. You find something else to do. Yeah, Hugh and another comrade whose name has been lost to time entirely, who felt very much the same as Hugh, decided to make a break for it. When other crew members were distracted, the two men

grabbed what they could carry and they jumped ship. They swam for nearly two miles before reaching the mainland, exhausted and scared that they'd be found, the pair hid out for some time and lived off of the land. However, their fears of retribution were quickly trumped by fears of the Karankawa peoples, who they had heard had cannibalistic tendencies. Of course, these were rumors, and they were spread among settlers like wildfire. And this was also used by many Europeans as the just justification to annihilate this group of indigenous peoples in later years. And I wanted to give a brief but more complete look at who the Karankawas were instead of just a blurb passed along by settlers and hearsay. The Karankawas are an American Indian cultural group who traditionally

lived along this area in Texas's Gulf Coast. And their name is meant to mean dog lovers or dog raisers as they reportedly kept coyote-like fox-like breeds of animals. animals as companions, which is really cool. I like them so far. They also kept their own herds of horses after they were introduced by the Spanish, but primarily got around by use of dugout canoes just because of the extensive waterway networks that were in that area. They often tattooed their bodies, donned piercings, and wore a mixture of alligator and shark

grease to protect themselves against the relentless mosquitoes. They were nomadic and they used a well-developed smoke signal system to notify other groups of various things, like if there was a war going on or different social events, and that was a primary way of communication. And they participated in friendly competitive games, ceremonial dances, and yes, they did participate in cannibalism. Prior to the 1700s, this custom traditionally involved eating flesh of their enemies as a means of capturing the enemy's courage. Despite seeming to have completely ceased this practice sometime in the 1700s, the rumors persisted for another century as Hugh and his friend were terrified when they made landfall.

So this is rumors that have persisted for many, many years even after the practice was reportedly finished. So it was just stuff that was being spread across settlers for an excuse versus actual real-time fact. During this time, many bands and tribes among the native nations were warring with European settlers and traveling throughout the country was risky for anyone, especially to men without any backup and very little supplies. The pair managed to make it nearly a thousand miles without any trouble evading conflicts with the Comanche, the Osage, and Kiowa who reigned over areas they were traveling through. It's unclear how long it took them to cover that ground, but it was a thousand miles, so you know it took a good chunk of time. That's a lot of a lot of miles.

But they were stopped when they encountered a ban of Pawnee known as the Skiri, or the wolf ponny as they were somewhere in the central plains and they were captured. Hugh's friend was selected first. He was stripped, restrained, and tied to a stake. He was then impaled by dozens of slivers of pitch pine, which were then set a blaze. Oh my God. Creative. Creative. Creative. Creative. If nothing else. So Hugh was standing there, watching stoically as his friend or at the very least his traveling partner's companion is burned alive, essentially. And somehow he's able to keep it together enough to show very little emotion. And when it was his turn for the same fate, he reached into his chest pocket and retrieved

a large packet of powdered cinnabar, which was used to make vermilion, a highly coveted, prized item at the time because it was widely used to make red war paint. bowing his head and offering the packet to the chief impressed him. Perhaps the chief thought that this was a sign from the gods, or maybe he just respected Hugh for his composure and his gesture, regardless of the reason his life was spared because of this. Although what Hugh described does match some of the ritualistic nature, some murders have encompassed throughout native and indigenous histories, according to some of the research, their capture and Hughes account of what followed insinuated that they were meant to be some part of like a human sacrificial ritual in which

the Skiri Pani historically did annually. Like a lot of the sources I read said this type of human sacrifice was this particular ritual that this group of indigenous peoples were known to do. And so I looked a little bit more into that because it seemed pretty random. to be like, I'm just going to capture two random Europeans and do a whole ritual around them. I don't know. It just seemed like. Unless it like happened to be the right time or something.

Right. Yeah. It's a weird coincidence. So I was just kind of like, especially after doing the research for, I know it's a totally different area of the world and totally different group of peoples. But in South America, when I did the Yuya Yoko National Park about the child sacrifices that they would do, like there's a very specific. reason behind that that they had and like it was a very regimented and it just wasn't very

willy nilly. It wasn't like an opportunistic sacrifice. It was planned. Right. Right. So I was just like, hmm, let's look into this. So based on what I found, the ceremony that it seemed like a lot of these sources were referring to was an actual ceremony and it's called the Morning Star ritual. And without getting into too much brutal detail, because it is pretty brutal, essentially a sacrificial victim, usually a young woman, was captured from a neighboring village, treated very well for a period of time, until they were killed, disemboweled, or dismembered. And then they had pieces of their body or certain amounts of their blood spread amongst fields and on crop seeds in an effort to obtain a plentiful crop yield and or provide for success in war or fertility reasons. So it's like, that's a complete

departure of... And he's not a... This wasn't woman either. Right. And I don't know. So it's just... seemed far fetch to you. Right. And just as a little like side note, the last known morning star ceremony was documented in April of 1838 with the sacrifice of a 15 year old Lakota girl named Kakstey. The U.S. government banned the ceremony after this time. However, it's really important to note that many Skiri themselves wanted to see an end to this practice. It wasn't like they were all for it anymore. But it was historically done and it was part of their historical. So yeah, I mean, we all have weird history.

That's true. It is unclear whether he was initially taken as a prisoner after his life was spared, or if he just stayed on his own volition. But for nearly four years after this incident, he lived with the Pawnee. He embraced his new life fully, learning from the tribe, how to live off of the land, how to skillfully hunt, track, and discern between poisonous and edible plants and insects. He was taught the language, learned invaluable. wilderness survival tactics, how to move across the landscape, engaged in tribal warfare,

and some sources even suggest that he took a Pawnee wife. In 1822, the band visited St. Louis, and Hughes Life took yet another turn. Krispy Chicken Sandwich from 7-Eleven. People always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm crispy. Did you expect me to whisper? If you want quiet, go eat some soup and reflect. Like, I know I'm a handful. I'm bold, I'm juicy. Throw some pickles and barbecue sauce on me, And baby, I'm a whole meal. And with seven rewards, I'm just $4. Quiet.

No. Krispy, saucy, and $4? Very. Only at 711. Valley 3-6-2236 participating stores only well supplies last see out for full terms. While he was in St. Louis, a new chapter began for Hugh when he saw an advertisement in the local paper which read, quote, To Enterprising Young Men, the subscriber wishes to engage 100 men to ascend the River Missouri to its source. there to be employed for one, two, or three years for particulars inquire of major Andrew Henry

near the lead mines in the county of Washington. Hugh, who was roughly 40 years old at this time, was one of roughly 100 men to respond, and he was selected for the expedition as a hunter and trapper for two men named William Ashley and Andrew Henry, and they were in charge of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company that had hopes of reaching Montana. And I just love the the ad. It's like one, two or three years. Do you want the job or not? Like, those are very varying and very different. One year is much shorter than three, but okay. Yeah, but I'm here for it. The expedition was going to be a dangerous one. The region known as the Upper Missouri, tucked amongst the northern Rockies and the Great Plains, was thought to hold a fortune in beaver peltz. But reaching it was riddled with peril. From the journey itself, full of harsh landscape and brutal elements, to disease, hunger, third, potential encounters with hostile indigenous groups, and of course, the wildlife.

The era of the fur trade in the Rocky Mountains rose in the 1820s and fell off in the 1840s during a time that America became more invested in what lay beyond the Mississippi River. It was a period of time of expansion and where big-time fur traders were establishing trade posts and forts throughout the river towns, such as St. Louis. The fur trade here centered around beaver, driven by international demand for beaver pelt hats, which resulted in over-harvesting and overtrapping, which led to the near-complete extermination of beavers in the lower 48 states, which is the tale as old as time. We've heard it so many times before, especially in your Everlades episode with the

demand for feathers for fashion. Trappers worked closely and sometimes competed with many different indigenous tribes where they not only traded goods, but ideas, language, geographic knowledge, and different ways of life. The fur trade paved the way for westward expansion. By the end of the fur trade era, the American population was eager to move west. The trappers and fur traders ventured into and charted the landscape that gave the pioneers a starting point when they made their own journeys across the North American continent. There was a lot going on with the trapper and fur trade world across the west during this time, but to bring it back to the Ashley Henry expedition, the one that Hugh signed up for,

the two men were actually attempting to do things a little differently. I said the peak of the fur trading business in the Rocky Mountains was in the mid-1800s, but to be clear, fur trading between Europeans and American Indian tribes began almost immediately upon the settlers' entrance into the scene. Like that was something that was done right off the bat. Trading posts were constructed and trade goods were shipped up and down the rivers and business boomed. Big cities like New York, St. Louis, and Montreal accumulated a lot of their wealth, their early wealth on this industry and wars were fought over control of it and other countries

were heavily involved all before the 1700s even came about. So this was something that was like going on far before this kind of rise and fall of the American Rocky, the Rocky Mountain American West fur trade. That makes sense. By the 1800s, the business was global and the goods that were being traded and exchanged North America would be sent overseas and vice versa. The money was in fur industry and John Jacob Astor knew that. And all roads lead back to the National Park system and all roads lead back to the Titanic. Titanic fans know of this man, but for everyone else, not only was he the wealthiest man aboard the Titanic, he was also the richest man in the United States and among the richest people in the entire world at the time of his death, which,

spoiler alert, was on the Titanic. Yeah, he died. He was the equivalent of a modern day Jeff Bezos in terms of the extent of his wealth, much of which was made from the fur industry. He established the American fur company and gained control of the industry in large portions of America. However, he went about business in a completely different way than Henry and Ashley envisioned, because these two men wanted to send men out into the mountains to live and trap year round, sending them out with all of their supplies that they would need, and then they would arrange different rendezvous in the summers at pre-arranged locations where they would gather all the things that they collected, all their goods, kind of exchange some supplies, and then ship

off the goods and resupply the men. And it was different because the other way was like you'd go back and forth. There weren't men out there all the time. They were kind of finding a way to streamline it. Right, exactly. And this is the exact formula that they were executing when they put the ad into the Missouri paper and gathered the expedition team of 100 men known to history as Ashley's 100. And they would embark on a 1,500 mile journey up the Missouri River into present-day South Dakota. The first spring of the journey brought incidents between the fur company and the local Arikara tribe that set mounting tensions into motion. While treating with the group of Arikara's that summer, the expedition team was attacked. A dozen or so men from the team were killed,

and Hugh and several others were wounded. Retreating and regrouping over the next month, the Ashley Henry trappers, along with help from other trapping parties, a band of Sioux and members of the U.S. military, then attacked an Arikara village. Most of the people managed to escape, but their village was completely burned to the ground and forced them to relocate. Several days after, After the attack on the village, the expedition team decided to split up. Andrew Henry would lead a group up the Grand River towards Port Henry, which sat at the mouth of the Yellowstone River in the North Dakota, Montana border, while William, Ashley, and Jedediah Smith would take the rest of the group Down River to Fort Kiowa in South Dakota. Hew was part of Henry's group, which numbered about 30 people, including two men who would later become synonymous with his story.

Jim Bridger and John Fitzgerald. The group traveled mostly on foot as horses were in really short supply, and they made their way to the fort. In late August, roughly a month after they split up, Hugh's party was once again attacked, leaving several wounded and several dead. By early September, there were roughly 15 people left in their group. Hugh, being hired as one of the expedition's hunters, was tasked with finding food. He often set out alone in search of deer, buffalo, or small game to feed the men. And that was exactly what he was doing near present day Lemon, North Dakota, when he surprised a sow grizzly with two of her cubs.

And the movie Revenant, like I said before, that attack scene is like right on the money. But a lot of the key details of Hugh's story are completely warped in the movie. It's a totally different movie based on like. It does, though, like when you know his, the full entire. of what we think his his real life story is, there are elements in it that are true. Like, remember in the movie, the reason he gets vengeance is because they killed his son who is half Pawnee. So that obviously isn't happening here. But like he did spend four years with the Pawnee and learn from them and maybe took a Ponny wife. And like, so that element is there. But

obviously there's no son involved here. So there are different things in the movie. And then they dramatized it for the movie. Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I think we can all agree that the movie has one of the most brutal and realistic animal attack scenes of all time, I would say. Yeah, I mean, knowing that it's on, like, that it reflects what an actual attack would be makes it so much scarier. I feel like when you watch that, it's like, oh, it wouldn't be like that. But when you're like, yeah. It's like, yeah, can't be right. It's like, oh, man. Yeah. It's like if West says it's, it's. It's like, if West says it's true. It's true. So what happened to Hugh in those moments was captured very well by the movie. He did attempt to shoot the charging bear, but it did nothing to stop her. She bore down on him hard,

raking at his throat, his neck, back, and scalp with her six-inch claws and biting down on his torso and legs with her teeth. He was shaken repeatedly and rendered incapacitated. The gunshot he set off and his screams at the start of the attack alerted the other men. who quickly came to his aid. And depending on which source or account you want to go with, some say that Hugh killed the bear himself during the altercation with a knife, which is reflected in the movie. Like he kills the bear himself in the movie.

While others say that the men killed the bear and both of her cubs, once they arrived on scene and saw what was unfolding. The severity of his wounds were astounding. His back was in complete shreds. His throat was so injured he couldn't speak and was actually gurgling air and blood out of the sides of his neck. He was completely unable to walk. He had slashes and gashes throughout most of his body,

and his scalp was pretty ripped apart as well. He fell in and out of consciousness, and the consensus among the men was that Hugh would likely not survive the night, and he would probably pass away in his sleep. Several days later, though, he was alive, but he was still unable to move or speak. The group did their best, to address his wounds and to stabilize his condition, and they had actually carried him on a litter

made of branches for some time. But Andrew Henry, the leader of this group, debated what to do. He couldn't leave the wounded man. Like, his conscience was like, I can't just leave this guy to die. But Winter was fast approaching, and he couldn't jeopardize the safety of the rest of his group either. It was way too arduous to continue carrying Hugh. So Henry came up with a salute. He would pay two men to stay with Hugh until he passed away. And once he did, they were tasked with burying him. And then they would catch up with the rest of the group after they had buried him and laid him to rest. So he had decided there was no way he was going to survive. Yeah. He's like, this guy isn't going to live. Obviously still alive now, but it's not looking good. So I want to give him a proper burial. Like they didn't want to kill him, you know, like put him out of his misery or anything. But it was just he was in a tough situation. So that was kind of the middle ground that he came up with. And the two men, so John Fitzgerald and allegedly Jim Bridger, who later went on to become a famous guide, trapper, and mountaineer, volunteered for that task.

One version of the story says that the men tended to him for a short period of time, bringing him water and caring for him until they noticed Hugh had developed a pretty high fever and his condition worsened. And then the other contends that they decided to leave Hugh almost immediately. the pair were convinced that they were in imminent danger by staying put, worrying that they would be discovered by different native groups that obviously were, they were in constant conflict with. But regardless of how they went about it, the important part is that they left him. Like, we all know that. They left him today. Yeah, they left him to die. And not only did they leave him, he was still alive and they took his belongings. So they robbed him and left him. Yes. So in their minds, there was no way, according to them, and they. And they were still alive. And they took his belongings. So they robbed him and left him. Yes. So in their minds, there was no way, according to them. And their minds, there was no way that he was going to make it much longer, let alone need his possessions and equipment, including his gun, which they stole along with his flint and powder. So they're like, a dead man's not going to need this stuff and they could help us. But he's not dead.

I know. Like what? I know. So when Hugh came to, because again, he's in and out of consciousness, he sees what's going on, but he can't communicate anything and he can't fight back and he's so week, but when he finally comes to and realizes his predicament that he's been abandoned, his desire for survival and revenge drove him on his epic 250-mile journey to Fort Kiowa, the closest settlement to his location. His injuries limited him tremendously at first. The grizzly had slashed into his back so deeply that his ribs were exposed, and the infected skin crawled with maggots. His leg was broken, or at least seriously fractured. to the point that he wasn't able to walk on it right away.

So he dragged himself for weeks and made slow progress through excruciating pain, sustaining himself on insects, snakes, and plant life. Next time I'm doing a hard hike, I'm just going to think of Hugh Glass. And I'm like, all right, I don't have maggots. My legs not broken. I'm just heavy breathing. It's like, I can do this. I can do it.

I got this. He managed to drive a wolf pack off of a fresh. killed buffalo calf or waited until they had their fill and then descended upon it after they left, which is in the movie as well. He camped at the carcass for days, consuming as many calories as he could and gaining some strength before he moved on. At this point, he was now able to be on his feet, albeit pretty shakily and it was slow progress, but he wasn't dragging himself anymore, and he was able to journey at a bit of a faster pace. He forged for berries and other edible vegetation, undoubtedly, pulling from his knowledge gained from his time with the Pawnee. At some point in his journey, he came upon

a band of Sioux who tended to his wounds and cared for him until he regained even more strength. They provided him with a boat or brought him via boat in which he completed his journey along the Missouri River, limping back into the fort by mid-October. It is estimated that he traveled anywhere from 200 to 300 miles from mid-August to mid-October, an incredible feat and one that shocked everyone. I'm sure when he walked in there, they were like, whoa. They probably thought they were seeing a ghost. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Fort Kiowa served as a place to rest and re-equip himself. From there, he set his sights on Fort Henry near the mouth of the Yellowstone River, another 300 miles away. Man, like this guy has truck. What a traveler, you know?

Yeah. I would have died a long time ago. I would have died at that first 1,000 mile journey. I would have died during the bear attack. Yeah, but you have to get 1,000 miles from that ship, the pirate ship first. Oh, yeah, right. Right, right. You're right.

I would have died. I would have died on the pirate ship. I wouldn't have thought to, like, give a gift. Oh, wait. Like when he was captured later. When he was given the option. Yeah. There's so many times in this.

that like this guy has nine lives yeah because he keeps using them he's thriving he is well i don't know he's making it he's struggling so the fort was another 300 miles away and it was there that he expected to find his deserters and exact his revenge love to be a fly on that wall oh my he's like imagine so he gets to the first fort they're not there he learns of their location at this other fort he's like well i'm going it's like i got some people to see hugh joined a five-man trading party that was heading from that fort north and it was in the direction he needed to go to reach Fort Henry so he he joined up with them he paddled with the group for six weeks until they reached a section of a river within a day or so from the fort he left the group either to cover the rest of

the distance alone and on foot or merely to hunt like he had when he got attacked by the grizzly in the first place but regardless whatever reason behind it that decision saved his life. Shortly after he left that group, they were ambushed by the Arikaras again and they were all slaughtered. So they were all killed. So another brush with death that he avoided. Finding himself alone again, he was assisted by a friendly group of Mandan peoples and they ultimately saved him from the Arikara. So I just like, I love this story because it's so, it's so pointedly shows, because I think we have like a very black and white. view on a lot of things. And I think that like when reflecting back on history a lot of time,

at least how we were, we were taught, that it's kind of like settlers and indigenous peoples were at war. You know what I mean? And that that is true. But there was also a lot of indigenous peoples that came to a lot of settlers aid and help them. And they had really good relations with them. And there was also indigenous tribes that were at war amongst each other. It was like, it's not so black and white and I just love how this story shows that. There's a lot of human kindness that's being extended for this person who's clearly struggling. I kind of picture it like, you know a child is innocent. You know, you see a child who's walking through the woods alone. You would obviously help them. They're seeing this lone guy who is a hot mess and they're,

and they determine he's not a threat. And I imagine this guy must have had just like the best personality. He was probably a charmer. He had to have some charisma. And then if he speaks the Pawnee language and he can, I imagine he would try to speak, even if it wasn't the Pawnee people, just speaking in that language would make them be like, oh, okay, like you are in relations with other indigenous group. I just imagine he's quick on his feet. He's charming. Yeah. He's a hot mess.

He worked his way through his life using something. and I think charisma was probably one of those attributes. So making his way alone to Fort Henry took over a month. The trek was long, cold, and exhausting, but he was determined to find Fitzgerald and Bridger. He arrived to the fort ready to confront the two men, only to walk up to an empty and abandoned fort. Unbeknownst to him, the group Fitzgerald and Bridger met back up with after leaving Hugh and abandoning him had made their way to that fort to Fort Henry, but had trouble making fur quotas there because, surprise, they decimated the whole fucking beaver population. So because of this, a second Fort Henry

was built another 30 miles away. No, he's so close. He's so close. You're almost there, Hugh. Whether a note was left directing people in the right direction to the new fort or Hugh was pointed in the right direction by others, he made his way there arriving on New Year's Eve, of 1823, covered in frost and scars. And I can only imagine his entrance, a dead man literally walking into a building full of people who thought for sure he was a goner, especially because that's what Fitzgerald and Bridger had told everyone. When they met back up with their group, they had told them that they fulfilled their duty, Hugh Glass had died, and that they had buried him. Oh, man. And now he's going to just throw a wrench in that entire story. He did not, he did not bury me, or they did not

bury me. I did not die. In fact, they robbed me and ditched me in the middle of the woods. And here I am. After answering an onslaught of questions from everyone, Hugh asked his own question. Where are Fitzgerald and Bridger? Bridger was at the fort and Hugh confronted him. He was a young man, not even 20 years old at this point, and Hugh deemed him to beckymed him to too young to kill. Instead, he gave him what could be dubbed a Stern talking to, and he forgave him. Wow. He now set his sights to Fitzgerald, the man most responsible for his abandonment, because it's thought that it was Fitzgerald who kind of influenced the other guy, the younger, more impressionable guy, to be like, okay, he doesn't need this stuff, he's going to die,

let's go. That's kind of the thought. Hugh had heard that Fitzgerald still had his gun, and Hugh wanted it back. Problem was, Fitzgerald wasn't at this fort. He had left. No, where is Fitzgerald? He was at Fort Atkinson, a military installation on the Missouri River. Hugh waited at Fort Henry for several more weeks until an opportunity to join a group headed to that fort presented itself. He was to accompany four men there and was instructed to then go on to St. Louis to give word that their operations had officially moved from.

that old fort Henry to the new one. So he's like, okay, you can come. They're like, you can come with us, but you need to go and give official word because it's kind of word of mouth that that other fort kind of failed and people need to know what's up. So his new group set off first on foot and later by bull boat. Hugh killed several buffalo along the way, using their hides to stretch over willow branches to construct the bullboats as he had learned from the ponies. While floating down the North Platte River, again, they came into an altercation with the Arikara. Two of the men were killed, and he was separated from the group amongst the chaos and the skirmish. He lost his new rifle in the water, but this time around was thankful to discover that he still had his knife, flint, and steel. Later recalling to a

fellow trapper, quote, although I had lost my rifle and all my plunder, I felt quite rich when I found my knife, flint, and steel in my shot pouch. These little fix-ins make a man feel right when he is three or 400 miles away from anybody or any place. So here he was, once again, this man is 400 miles away from his intended destination alone. It's like, all right, I guess I'll just walk there. I guess I'll just do this on my own then. Unlike his first solo Odyssey, this time he was uninjured, had some supplies, and was venturing during a completely different time of a year. It was spring and it was that meant it was Buffalo calving season. So he dined on calves for that 400 miles covering the distance with quote unquote relative ease before striding into Fort Atkinson in June of 1824, hell bent on getting revenge

on John Fitzgerald. I can say if that was me, I would not describe the journey as a relatively easy. I mean, comparatively, maybe. Maybe. If I had been through what he's been through, yeah, maybe, but in my state as of right now, my description would not be relatively easy. So I don't know if you caught what Fort Atkinson was, but it's a military base. It turns out that Fitzgerald had enlisted in the army and now was protected underneath them. The army blocked Hughes attempts at his retribution, although they did retrieve Hughes gun from Fitzgerald's possessions and he was given $300 for his troubles. Otherwise, he was basically told to forget about the whole thing and scram. Man, no, he just went so far. You're not even going to let him talk to the guy?

Like he couldn't even like punch him in the face once. Yeah. Even just look him in the eye and to be like, hey, I'm alive. Like, I see you and I'm watching you. I'm watching you. I just travel the country. I say dare you. I said the audacity to still have his gun also. The audacity to not face him.

It's just like, and maybe he did. Who knows? We don't know. But we do know that he wasn't killed or beat up. There was no physical, like, big grand finale. It was just kind of like. Confrontation. It's like, I just imagine Fitzgerald, like, behind, like, military offers.

Like, you can't get me. Yeah. Just hiding. Unable to do what he traveled all that damn way to do. Hugh Glass moved on to Western Missouri working odd jobs here and there until joining a fur company in New Mexico. He became a partner in a trading venture along the Gila River. Over the next few years, he traveled throughout New Mexico from Santa Fe to Taos trapping. While on an expedition that brought him into southwest Colorado, his party was, shocker, once again, attacked by a local band of Native peoples.

And this time, it was the Shoshone. Several men were killed. escaped again with his life, but this time he had been shot in the back. An arrowhead was lodged in his back for the next 700 miles until they reached house where a fellow trapper removed it with a straight edge razor and he stayed there for several months to recover. He just prefers to travel injured, gravely wounded. It's a preferred method of travel and he always has to be two to 700 miles away from anywhere he needs to be for help. Yeah.

It keeps life interesting. I guess. He likes to keep you on your toes. Details of the next couple of years are even more scattered and confusing and difficult to track than the rest of his story, if that's even possible, which is saying something. So just know that he bounced around the West and Southwest trapping and working as a free or independent trapper after dissolving his relationship with the Ashley Henry Company. However, by 1830, we do know that Hugh was based out of Fort Union near the Montana-North Dakota border. He was hired as a hunter and a trapper for the newly constructed fort.

He harvested so many big horn sheep on the hillside opposite of that fort that they named those hills glass bluffs, and they are still referred as such today. It is thought that Hugh spent a total of four years working as a hunter and trapper for that fort, until relocating to another fur industry built fort several miles away, called Fort Cass to supply meat to them. In the spring of 1833, Hugh Glass, Edward Rose, and Hellayan Maynard left Fort Cass to trap beaver just a short distance away from the fort. While making a technical crossing of the icy Yellowstone River, they were ambushed by the Arikara's.

This time, though, Hugh was all out of his lives. He and his two companions were shot and scalped. Their bodies were later discovered and buried in an unmarked grave on the banks of the river near present-day Big Horn, Montana. In a very morbid twist of fate, several members of that Arikara war party that killed and scalped Hugh and his two fellow trappers later ran into a camp of other trappers led by a man named Johnson Gardner. Apparently, they disguised themselves as another tribe, and they were.

were welcomed into the trappers camp, given food and comforts. And while sitting around the fire, the trappers noticed that some of their belongings belonged to their murdered friends. Enraged, the trappers attacked and captured two of the Arikara's. Johnson Gardner questioned them about how they got those things, like where did they come from? How did you get them? But when they didn't have answers that satisfied him, he thought that they were lying and that they were responsible for his friend's deaths, he ordered them to be scalped and burned alive. So that happened, but the men, the Arikara that escaped, because remember only two of them were captured, the ones that escaped that encounter later got their revenge on Johnson Gardner when they captured him and did the same thing

to him. So everyone's being scalped and burned alive around here. Everyone's being scalped and murdered. Yeah. An eye for an eye makes a whole world blind. That is true. I know the story was really historical based. So thank you for everyone for hanging in there. I know there was like a lot of dates and locations and events going on. But I did not forget about the whole national park tie in. I was going to ask. I'm like, where's the national park here? Yeah. Since Hugh Glass's life and journey took him so many places, the story is not contained to a single park unit. I did put the park unit in the title as the four union trading post national historic site because that is where he spent those four years. And it's a historic national

Park Manage Historic Site that you can go visit today. Cool. And I'm sure I'm missing some, but his adventures and travels took him so many places around the country that are now public lands managed by either the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, or different state entities. And they are in states including South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, New Mexico, Montana, and Utah. and just some of them include the Grand River National Grassland, the Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area, Oregon National Historic Trail,

the Santa Fe National Historic Trail, and the Knife River Indian Village's National Historic Site. So there's quite a lot, and I'm sure I'm missing more, but he was all over the damn place. But I was trying to see like pin down his most infamous, you know, claim to fame, which is, of course, the grizzly encounter, like where in the world that was. And there is, of course, a monument dedicated to it. It's not managed by the park service. But there is a monument dedicated to Hugh Glass, and it's erected close to the site of his famed grizzly mauling. And it's in

present-day Shade Hill State Recreation Area in South Dakota near the town of. It's either Lamon or lemon. However you want to South Dakota people, let me know. I like lemon. A town which holds a holds actually a Hugh Glass rendezvous every summer where attendees dawn clothing of the era play games that were common during that time period, camp and cook over fires for a week, just to remember Hugh's story and to keep the pioneer spirit alive. The monument itself has an intriguing story and somewhat of a little bit of a mystery. It was erected in 1923 by John Nyhart, the man who wrote the epic poem, The Song of Hugh Glass in 1915, and some members of the Nebraska Normal College, which is now named Wayne State College,

in the college newspaper, the professor wrote that he left an original manuscript of that Hugh Glass's poem inside of the monument and challenged future members of the college to commemorate the bicentennial just as he and his students had celebrated the centennial. So him and his students erected this monument on the 100th anniversary of Hugh Glass, just as he and his students erected this monument on the 100th anniversary of Hugh Glass, just as he and his students. Hugh's story. And apparently he buried some sort of original manuscript inside of the monument and kind of said in another hundred years, I want students to come back here and celebrate the way that we did. Oh, wow. He even went on to leave instructions, gave specific pages of his poem about Hugh Glass to read and advise them to spark a fire with Flynn and Steel, the old-fashioned way, and to give a mountain man yell. Last summer, Wayne State College professor Joseph Wexelman and several of his students followed those instructions.

In a special summer course called Nidehart and the American West, they ventured out to follow the instructions and retrieve the time capsule, but they hit some snags. First, the question of who technically owns the monument is currently up for debate between the college, the Knighthart family, or the state, the details, and the legality is kind of murky, and going forward with doing any sort of like demolition or moving of the monument is is sketchy. There's also question as to whether the time capsule inside is even intact anymore, as the land that the monument sits on today was flooded a few decades ago. Also, there's clearly

concern for damaging the monument while trying to retrieve the 100-year-old time capsule inside the historic monument. So all of that was just too risky to do. But they did go out there. While they await permission and answers, the group did go out to the monument. They followed the 100-year-old instructions left by the original professor, they shared stories around the campfire, recreated a photo that the original group took in 1923 next to the monument, and they wrote letters that they themselves left in a new time capsule that they placed at the monument. Wow, that's so cool. It is so cool.

Regardless of what happens to the monument, as of now, the historical marker, the altar of courage honors Hugh Glass and his story, a man who has become the stuff of legend, and who will live on forever in the great stories of the American West. And that is the story, I think, of Hugh Glass. That is the alleged story of Hugh Glass. There you happen. What an interesting tale, though, especially because a lot of people have seen the Revenant. If you haven't seen The Revenant, now you have something to go back and compare.

And it is fun. It is fun to know the backstory on it and then, like, with that, armed with that new information to go. see the ties of, you know, what we think happened and then obviously you can see their clear departures that the, what is it called, artistic liberties taken. But yeah, I mean, his whole, like, life before the grizzly incident, I think is like, and after is worth movies themselves. Like, what a light. The grizzly attack is definitely wild. And the fact that he traveled so far after it is definitely, I see why people focused on that, but I agree. I mean, he was taken over by a pirate ship. He's lived with indigenous people. He has traveled hundreds,

thousands of miles just over his lifetime. And very, very interesting person. Yeah. Or at least, I don't know. And I think it was kind of fitting the way that he died too. Well, yeah, I mean, it's rough, but fitting to his life. Yep, that's true. So yeah, that's the story. And I hope everyone and kind of took something from it. And like I said, the saga of Hugh Glass, pirate, ponny, and Mountain Man is a book that I read for this episode. And there are others out there. But yeah, he was a cool person to, he offers a really unique glimpse into the American West that kind of predates a lot of what we learn about with the pioneers and manifest destiny and the cowboys and all of that. Like, they really, they really were the first Europeans to do it. And they really carved the way and took a lot of brunt. And yeah, I just think it's such an interesting period of time in the history of America and North America. And yeah. So anyway, that's it.

Cool. Well, thank you. That was a fun episode. And I guess for everyone listening, we'll see you next time. Enjoy the view. But watch you back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPADPodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders-only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content.

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