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Charlton, Massachusetts: Grave of Grizzly Adams

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Bay Path Cemetery

Address:
Muggett Hill Rd, Charlton, MA
Directions:
From US Hwy 20 turn south onto Hwy 31/N. Main St. The Bay Path Cemetery is on the east side, just past Muggett Hill Rd. Grizzly's grave is in the center of the graveyard, toward the back.
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Grave of Grizzly Adams

Not TV's mangy mountain man, but the real "Grizzly Adams," who killed or befriended bears depending on his mood.

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Grave of Grizzly Adams.

Grave of Grizzly Adams

Don't just stop for this -- look around at all the old headstones. There is some serious history here.

[John Ferron, 07/01/2017]
Grizzly Adams Grave

The real Grizzly Adams was born and raised in Massachusetts near Boston, and actually worked there as a shoemaker into his 37th year. He got caught up in the Gold Rush Fever of 1849 and left for California. He had moderate success as a miner, but kept getting conned out of his claims and land holdings. He turned his back on civilization to go live in the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite, then returned after a few years and became a famous showman in San Francisco. He hunted all kinds of wild game in the mountains for three years; he was a good hunter and tracker and a friend of Native Americans.

He did sell some of the wild animals he collected, but when he heard that bears were being pitted against bulls he condemned it. He would adopt and raise all kinds of animals left orphaned by hunters, wildfires, or other mishaps, and several of them were bears of different varieties that he tamed and trained for his shows.

Adams died in 1860 in Massachusetts after he returned to the East Coast to work with P.T. Barnum in New York.

Really, the amount of bear hunting that Grizzly Adams did was only a drop in the bucket compared to the additional 70 years of bear hunting that continued in the West after he died, and that eventually led to grizzly bears being driven out of their California habitats. There are still large bear populations in California, and grizzlies remain abundant in the northwestern United States.

[Tod Swindell, 08/23/2013]

Nearby Offbeat Places

Giant Eye GlassesGiant Eye Glasses, Southbridge, MA - 5 mi.
Optical Heritage MuseumOptical Heritage Museum, Southbridge, MA - 5 mi.
Largest Cuckoo Clock in New EnglandLargest Cuckoo Clock in New England, Sturbridge, MA - 7 mi.
In the region:
Potato Head at Hasbro Headquarters, Pawtucket, RI - 36 mi.

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