Grave of Jim Bridger

Independence, Missouri

Perhaps mountain man Jim Bridger's greatest accomplishment was living long enough to die in bed as an old man, and be buried in a marked grave.

He had worked with other famous backwoodsmen such as Hugh Glass and Jedediah Smith, whose bones were scattered by the Indians who killed them. Bridger, however, died peacefully on his farm. He lay buried in a quiet country graveyard for 23 years before his bones were dug up and moved to a prominent spot in a city cemetery by Grenville Dodge, railroad tycoon and former Bridger employer (Dodge City was named for him). Grenville also paid for a new granite tombstone, engraved with a likeness of Bridger taken from an old photograph. The gravestone was unveiled in 1904 by Bridger's great-granddaughter from one of his three Indian wives.