Western Frontiersman and Explorer. He is remembered for his exploits as an adventurer and trapper in the Western United States from the 1820s until the late 1860s. He spoke several Native American languages, as well as being able to converse in French and Spanish, and was often called upon to negotiate disputes between the Native Americans and encroaching white settlers. Born James Bridger in Richmond, Virginia, he attained very little education during his early years. In 1822, he joined up with William Henry Ashley's Upper Missouri Expedition as part of a fur-trading venture and was one of the first white men to see the natural wonders of the Yellowstone region. In 1830, he and several other trappers bought out Ashley and established the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In 1843, he and fellow trapper Pierre Louis Vasquez built a trading post (later named Fort Bridger) on the west bank of the Blacks Fork of the Green River in present-day Wyoming that served American pioneers who travelled the Oregon Trail on their way to the American Northwest. In 1850, he found an alternate route to the South Pass in present-day Wyoming that shortened the Oregon Train route by 61 miles, and, in 1864, he established the Bridger Trail that took settlers and prospectors over a safer route to the gold fields in Montana Territory. A year later, he served as a guide and U.S. Army Scout during the Powder River Expedition against the Native American Sioux and Cheyenne tribes. Suffering from arthritis and other health problems, he was then discharged at Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory, and relocated to Westport, Missouri, in 1868, spending the remainder of his life on his farm where he died at the age of 77. Originally interred in an unmarked grave at a small private cemetery near his home, his remains were moved to Mount Washington Cemetery at Independence, Missouri, in 1904. On the silver screen, he was portrayed by Raymond Hatton in "Kit Carson" (1940), Van Heflin in "Tomahawk" (1951), and Dennis Morgan in "The Gun That Won the West" (1955). He was also immortalized in the Johnny Horton song "Jim Bridger" that was recorded in the late 1950s. A statue in his honor, along with Pony Express founder Alexander Majors and Kansas City founder John Calvin McCoy, resides at Pioneer Square in the Westport neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri. Another statue is at the National Frontier Trails Museum, Independence, Jackson County, Missouri.