James Bridger, Trapper, Frontiersman, Scout and Guide, A Historical Narrative

"James Bridger...perhaps more than any other contributed to and made history of the western third of the United States...It is astounding...a comprehensive study of Old Jim Bridger...most interesting...a monument to the long-neglected Bridger, a landmark in any comprehensive study of the west and a performance which bespeaks immortality for the author." -Salt Lake Telegram, July 5, 1925

"James Bridger, famous western guide and trail-blazer, is now one of the Immortals...his biography the work of J. Cecil Alter, contains much that is old, and well known regarding his life, but many well known regarding his life, but many facts not accessible before to the majority of readers, are found within it." -Fairfield Times, January 7, 1926

"The standard work on Bridger remains J. Cecil Alter, James Bridger: Trapper, Frontiersman, Scout, and Guide." -Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Montana History (2011)

Heading to the west in 1822, James Bridger took to the Rocky Mountain wilderness like one born to it, and soon became one of the West's most skillful single-handed hunters and beaver trappers, eventually to take the leadership of a trapper's brigade; and subsequently to accept the responsibilities of proprietorship of a major fur-trapping and trading enterprise.

James Bridger, known as Jim Bridger (1804 - 1881), was among the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820-1850, as well as mediating between native tribes and emigrants.

The western plains and mountains brought forth thousands of men noted for their valor, bravery, daring, sagacity, woodcraft, frontiersmanship and skill in guiding wagon trains and military expeditions across the trackless prairie and barren desert and through snow capped mountain fastnesses on the way to the land of gold beyond the setting sun, or in trailing and bringing to bay the tribes that sternly fought the advances of civilization; but among those dauntless spirits there was one who stood head and shoulders above all others as the greatest scout, trapper and guide, the most skilled frontiersman, and the quietest, most modest and unassuming prairie man in all the west. That person was James Bridger, Major Bridger, or, as he was more commonly and familiarly known, "old Jim Bridger," the "grand old man of the Rockies." No history of the American western frontier would be complete without a sketch of the life of this remarkable man.

In 1925 J. Cecil Alter would publish the greatest biographical narrative of James Bridger under the title "James Bridger, Trapper, Frontiersman, Scout and Guide, A Historical Narrative."

About the author:

J. Cecil Alter spent 39 years in the U.S. Weather Bureau in Salt Lake City, passing away in 1965. He was deeply interested in Utah and its past, and was a member of the Utah Historical Society, serving on its board and editing the society's Quarterly. His biography of Jim Bridger is considered a classic.