American frontiersman, fur trapper and trader, hunter, and explorer.
1783 CE
to 1833 CE
Hugh Glass (c. 1783 – 1833) is an American frontiersman, fur trapper and trader, hunter, and explorer.
He is best known for his story of survival and retribution, after being left for dead by companions when he was mauled by a grizzly bear.
Born in Pennsylvania to Scots-Irish parents, Glass becomes an explorer of the watershed of the Upper Missouri River, in present-day Montana, the Dakotas, and the Platte River area of Nebraska.
His life story has been adapted into two feature-length films: Man in the Wilderness (1971) and The Revenant (2015).
They both portray the survival struggle of Glass, who (in the best historical accounts) crawled and stumbled two hundred miles (three hundred and twenty kilometers) to Fort Kiowa, South Dakota after being abandoned without supplies or weapons by fellow explorers and fur traders during General Ashley's expedition of 1823.
Despite the story's popularity, its accuracy has been disputed.
It is first recorded in 1825 in The Port Folio, a Philadelphia literary journal, as a literary piece and later picked up by various newspapers.
Although originally published anonymously, it is later revealed to be the work of James Hall, brother of The Port Folio's editor.
There is no writing from Hugh Glass himself to corroborate the veracity of it.
Also, it is likely to have been wildly embellished over the years as a legend.
