Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-07

| tain defiles and waterless plains. they
fought their way through savage enc
| mics with the loss of but a single man
and finally fell upon the Mission of
San Fernando, where a brief battle
ended in the surrender of the Mission
after the mountain men had killed a
score of Californians, with a single
fatality among their own forces. Fol
lowing three days possession of the
Mission, during which they drank many
flagons of good wine, they started on
the back trail toward the Rockies with
four hundred selected horses and mules,
A last attempt by the Spaniards and
Mexicans to attack the departing trap
pers and stampede their horse herd
ended disastrously for the Mission de-
tenders. who were driven back with the
loss of half a dozen men.
Bridger and Carson
1t now being October, mountain
storms were added to the terrors of
the desert, and before they reached
of what is today Colorado. they had
lost three more men and half of their
mules and horses. In the mountain
parks above the Arkansas they made
winter camp, allowing their stock to
fatten for a month before driving them
to Bent's Fort, where the animals
brought a good price. With the pro-
ceeds from the sale, half a dozen mem
bers Of the California expedition set
out for New Mexico. and at Taos.
"a paradise for trappers. they INDUCED
in a protracted spree of the kind thar
formed their only recreation. Before
summer came they were back in the
mountains, and autumn saw at least
four of the original party again on the
Yellowstone river, ready for the win
ter's trapping.
There were many outstanding fig
ures in the ranks of the mountain men.
The two on whose names fame has
shed the greatest luster were Kit Car
son and Jim Bridger. From the ap-
p%earance of Carson, who was small in
stature, %slenderly limbed, but with
muscles of steel; whose intelligent fea-
lures and fair complexion bespoke n
mild demeanOr. none would have sup
posed that he was a champion of cham
pions in Indian fighting. Bridger, who
was a Virginian, bOrn in 1904, had be-
come a daring leader in the mountains
at the age of 26, and became the best
guide the west ever knew. Like Car
son, he was the hero Of unnumbered
border battles.
One of the most extraordinary char
caters among the free trappers was
old Bill Williams. who was in the
mountains, it is said. as early as 1910.
His popularity was that he almost in
varlably trapped alone. In the event
of his joining a party, he at once sup
planted the previous leader, for he
took orders from no man. He is de- |
scribed by a writer who knew him |
late in life, as follows:
Fate Of "OId Bill" Williams
civilians always rode ahead. his
body bent over his saddle horn. across
which rested a long. heavy rifle: his |
keen gray eyes peering from beneath
the slouched brim of a flexible hat. /
black and shining with grease. His
buckskin shirt, bedaubed until It had
the appearance of polished leather.
hung in folds over his bony carcass.
His legs were clothed in buckskin leg
gings with scattered fringes down the
outer seams, although these ornaments
had been thinned to supply 'whangs'
for mending moccasins. The leggipes.
with rain storms, chung tight to
his long, sinewy legs. His feet were
into Mexican stirrups of wood,
big as coal scuttles. He wore enormous
spurs, beaded straps, four inches
broad, fastening them over the in
step. His shoulder belt held powder
horn, bullet pouch. an awl with deer
horn handle. a worm for cleaning his
and a squat. quaint bullet mold.
Williams. with his wbininEA cracked