This is a short version of a story I wrote about what California was like when the Spaniards first explored California. People see the bear on the state flag but most don't know what it's there. This story explains it. It's about a young Chumash Indian who lives the experience and becomes a disciple at Misión San Luis Obispo. Go to http://msgdaleday.blogspot.com to read it. Enjoy.
The Sunland Grizzly But sometimes history doesn't jive. The path to extinction The last known physical specimen of a California grizzly was shot and killed in Fresno County in 1922. Two years later, the last wild California grizzly was spotted several times in Sequoia National Park and then never seen again. Civilized man had made California’s official animal officially extinct by 1924.
Bear stories rock. There was a giant grizzly bear in the entrance to a bar in Orlando called Rosie O'Grady's . They also had Buffalo head that were at least 10 feet in length. Real Buffalo were as big as elephants. The kind we have now are hybrids bred to be small. You cannot pen up a real Buffalo. Jedediah Smith got attacked by a bear . It ripped his scalp off and he had to have it down back on by a kid who was hired to be a helper. He lived but was killed a year or so later by some indians in the south west. It is true that Hugh Glass was attacked by a grizzly sow. It was very bad . They waited for him to die but he would not die. They were in black foot country and very nervous about that. Indians sometimes liked to make an example out of their enemies they capture. It can go very badly. Indeed. So they offered an extra share if two men would stay and wait for Hugh to die. Jim Bridger was a 19 year old kid. And the other guy , Fitzgerald I think, was probly 25 or so .They stayed. About three days any by and they decided to just leave. They took all of Hugh s stuff . They took his gun his knife his tomahawk his tobacco his pipe and his shoes. Fine thing .They covered him up with brush and left. He lived and crawled some 700 miles back to ft Laramie I think. Pretty tough guy. Hugh was in the corps of discovery. He was out two and a half years with them. When they were almost all the way home , two weeks away from st Louis, this fur company trapper group was coming upstream and asked if any one wanted to join them . Badass Hugh Glass joined them.
