The South Dakota Office of Tourism has a weekly series of press releases called "Great Faces." This week, the topic is Hugh Glass. The tale of Hugh Glass is one of my absolute favorite South Dakota stories, so I’m passing the release along to you.
Here it is:
PIERRE, S.D. – Bravery, determination and a wilderness survival tale of beating all odds are the reasons Hugh Glass is one of South Dakota’s Great Faces.
Glass was a fur trapper and frontiersman in an 1823 expedition that traveled along the Missouri river to present day North Dakota. He was severely injured during the trek by a grizzly bear near the town of present-day Lemmon, S.D.
The rest of the party moved on except for one man, believed to be Jim Bridger, who was assigned to care for Glass. Instead, Bridger stole Glass’ gun and gear and left him to die.
Fighting infection, Glass was alone on the prairie, constantly in and out of consciousness. With a broken leg, he crawled more than 200 miles in two months to Fort Kiowa, near Chamberlain, S.D.
Out of respect for Glass’ implacable will to survive, there is a monument in his honor near Shadehill reservoir, just south of Lemmon, S.D.
