Why a Booktrail?
1823 : The true story of Hugh Glass a famous Trapper in the rocky mountains which is now a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio
The Revenant
What you need to know before your trail
The Rocky Mountain fur company works its men, the trappers hard. They live on frontier towns and struggle every day against the elements as well as the wild animals they come across.
Now a film with Leo DiCaprio, this is the true story of Hugh Glass one of the company’s finest men and an expert tracker who one day gets savagely mauled by a bear. His two fellow trappers are told to stay behind and look after him, get help if they can but they leave him to die in the wilderness instead. Glass has other ideas however and vows to do anything he can to stay alive …so he can get revenge of those who abandoned him when he needed them the most.
Travel Guide
Talk about the wild frontier and the American wilderness!
Trapping animals and collecting pelts in such a harsh environment is no easy task and it’s only the toughest of men who survive and can do such a job. The raw bitter weather, the unforgiving landscape and the wild animals are only some of the obstacles to the job in hand. Not a place to be left alone in and certainly not at the mercy of the elements:
“He stopped, awestruck. Fusing heaven to earth, the Big Horn Mountains stood before him. A few clouds swirled around the highest peaks, furthering the illusion of a wall reaching forever upward. His eyes watered from the glare of the sun against snow, but he could not look away…His awe of the mountains grew in the days that followed, as the Yellowstone River led him nearer and nearer.”
South Dakota is bear country
The landscape is awe inspiring – whether it be Bear Country in the Black Hills or Grand River which is near here to where Glass gets attacked by a bear. The way in which Glass has to use every little last bit of hope and strength to fight his way to safety with such horrific injures is remarkable. The Platte River region of Nebraska was the setting for Fort Atkinson which was where Glass managed to reach safety – north of where the Platte and Missouri rivers meet.
Glass Memorial
The landscape and subject matter are are brutal, violent and visceral as you might expect. A dark insight into the life of fur trappers and how man, beast and nature are such powerful forces. It’s everyman for himself, only the strongest will survive. A monument to Glass now stands, near the site of his mauling, on the southern shore of Shadehill Reservoir, at the forks of the Grand River.
Where Next?
