On entering Bridger from the south on Highway 31, just about the first thing they will encounter is Jim Bridger Lions Club Park. It is a small, narrow park set between Highway 310 and South Main Street. In the park are a couple of covered picnic tables, a barbecue, an informational kiosk, the highway marker whose text appears below and a welded steel sculpture of Bridger.
Dedicated in 1976, the sculpture was designed by Bill Butler and welded by Gary Noddings. It stands high atop a steep pole, giving the whole a height of approximately sixteen feet or more.
A full-length standing male figure, a portrait of mountaineer Jim Bridger. He holds a rifle in his hands. The rifle stock rests at his feet. He is dressed in fringed buckskin with a belt around his waist that has a knife attached on the proper left, front side. A pouch for black powder and balls is slung over his proper right shoulder. He wears a flat brimmed hat on his head.
From the Smithsonian
JIM BRIDGER, MOUNTAIN MAN
Jim Bridger arrived in Montana in 1822 as a member of a Rocky Mountain Fur Co. brigade. He roamed the entire Rocky Mountain region and often came through this part of the country. A keen observer, a natural geographer and with years of experience amongst the Indians, he became invaluable as a guide and scout for wagon trains and Federal troops following the opening of the Oregon Trail.
He shares honors with John Colter for first discoveries in the Yellowstone Park country. He was prone to elaborate a trifle for the benefit of pilgrims. It was Bridger who embroidered his story of the petrified forest by asserting that he had seen "a peetrified bird sitting in a peetrified tree, singing a peetrified song".
The Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone was named for Capt. Wm. Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Chief Joseph led his band of Nez Perce Indians down this river when he made his famous retreat in the summer of 1877.
From the Highway Marker in the park