I’ve written about Glass before, but his tale deserves to be revisited.
With the return of Hugh Glass to the silver screen, the town of Lemmon, SD will be taking advantage of the recent publicity and plan on staging the First Annual Hugh Glass Rendezvous August 27-30. Being a rendezvous, period attire is required, except for the 29th which is the only day civilian clothing is acceptable.
In 1822, Hugh Glass joined General Ashley’s expedition ascending the Missouri River. Also joining Ashley’s Hundred, as the expedition was known, were John Fitzgerald, Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith, among other notables of the era.
Glass was on a side expedition up the valley of the Grand River in what is now South Dakota, when he ran into a female grizzly and her two cubs. Before Glass could raise his rifle, the mauling was on. Glass managed to pull out his knife and fought back as the grizzly tore him apart. Finally, Glass along with Fitzgerald and Bridger managed to kill the bear, but Glass was severely mauled.
Convinced Glass would die from his wounds, Fitzgerald & Bridger took his rifle, knife and belongings and left the man to die. Mutilated, with a broken leg and no gear or provisions, Glass set his own leg and started to crawl the 200 miles to Ft Kiowa on the Missouri River. It took 6 weeks to make it to the Cheyenne River, where Glass made a raft and floated the rest of the way to the fort.
Leonardo DiCaprio is set to play Hugh Glass in the upcoming film “The Revenant”. Tom Hardy is slated to play John Fitzgerald, and Will Poulter as Jim Bridger. I’m not sure what to make of 2/3’s of the casting, but I’ll hold out hope that it works. The film is scheduled for a Christmas 2015 release.
Lemmon, with its population of 1227 people, lies in the northwest corner of South Dakota. It’s beautiful country, and well worth exploring.
Logo courtesy of http://www.hughglassrendezvous.com
