Hugh Glass was who? The Guy Too Angry to Die

Hugh Glass was who?

Do you recall when Leonardo DiCaprio was in a film about a man who was literally too angry to die? The Revenant is based on a little more than "just give his award to Leonardo DiCaprio," Hugh Glass, his protagonist, was a real dude who was too angry to die. So who, in truth, was Hugh Glass? He wasn't even Leonardo DiCaprio, hint.

Here's a fun fact of trivia. You should know that Glass existed between 1783 and 1833. But did you also know that in modern day Scranton, Pennsylvania, he was born? Only for you fans of The Bureau.

How many times has Hugh Glass almost died?

To be frank, who knows how many times a man who is too angry to die has nearly died. Although in a super long telephone game, a lot of Glass's story is possibly mythologized, his reputation for having a serious case of old man power.

But Glass was quite a negotiator, too, since Glass was a pirate as well. Our angry frontiersman, a former sailor, was once a sailor who had found himself on the poor end of Jean Lafitte. The past behind Lafitte is not important because Lafitte was a pirate, which is important. Lafitte offered Glass a position with the pirate crew after obviously deeming Glass worthy. Provided that the other choice was to be on the angry side of a bunch of pirates, Glass chose to join them (probably pragmatically).

Though he is best remembered for his angry bear saga, Glass also spent time in the late 1810s to the early 1820s with the Pawnee people. He was not, supposedly, very willingly there, he was caught and inches from being (again) on the bad end of ritual sacrifice. With an offer of vermilion powder to win favor, Glass is said to have scraped by. So he's had quite a few opportunities to flex those social diplomatic skills.

Why did Glass end up caught by the people of the Pawnee? Well, probably the whole Manifest Destiny thing, for starters. Glass, however, was not eager to be a pirate forever, and sought a great escape that eventually led to his capture. 

All of this and we haven't even met the bear yet.

That Thing of the Whole Bear

Apart from "how accurate that one movie was," this is what most people google Hugh Glass for. Tip: not too much.

Glass was chilling as a fur trapper by this time. That means that he spent a lot of time outside, where the world isn't very kind to you. As a result, Glass found himself on the sharp end of a grizzly (honestly, how many bad ends will a guy end up on in a lifetime?). Well, as he collaborated with William Henry Ashley (one of those major Manifest Destiny guys), there's more sense to hit, and they find themselves on the run. Since, you know, the whole incident where border guards were sort of super-invasive on Native American territory.

Glass was targeted sometime in the on-the-run timeline by a grizzly in present-day Lemmon, South Dakota. If you've never seen (even if you have) a grizzly bear, they could theoretically lift as much as 1,000 pounds. While the weight of the grizzly bear varies from a few hundred to 500 pounds, depending on whether you're inside or on the shore, it's enough to say that even the weakest grizzly might throw all of us around like a ragdoll. 

Sadly for the bear, Glass had the strength of weapons and even mates. It's said that his ribs were exposed to his back from lacerations, and he had a broken leg (maybe an arm too) as well as a punctured throat. But that doesn't mean Glass won. 

Hugh Glass, also known as, was certifiably not having a nice time.

How Wrathful Was the Glass?

The response was very straightforward. Not because of the bear, but because of the people who had left him behind. If you hadn't guessed that, mountaineering is hard enough to take care of when you don't have a dying man. So the expedition agreed to leave two of them to remain with Glass until he died, give him a semi-proper funeral, and then go back. One was called John Fitzgerald, and the other was Jim Bridger, a bright-eyed 19-year-old boy. As if those weren't the boundary names of the 1800s.

Except the Glass didn't die and Fitzgerald lived long enough to persuade Bridger to leave Glass behind. They took all the glass gear, too. After all, a dead man doesn't need any mountain equipment. Glass's rifle was amongst the gear. 

Although most of us would probably gawk at that being a super important detail, a super valued possession was getting a nice gun in the 1800s. Glass set off on his six-week adventure to what we now know as Chamberlain, South Dakota (it was Fort Kiowa back then). This is just over 200 miles from where he was reportedly mauled, for those keeping track.

Glass seemed to have let go of the rage somewhere along the way, however. Anyway, at least for Bridger. Also, yeah, they were noticed by Glass. He ended up forgiving Bridger and used his heart to give him some advice from the old man, because at the time of the incident, Bridger was just 19.

Whether or not Glass had the same feelings about Fitzgerald varies, but Fitzgerald lived and Glass got his gun back is widely accepted. Some versions of the Glass story claim that he still forgave Fitzgerald, but others argue that Fitzgerald joined the army, effectively rendering him immune to Glass because a lot of wrath would be brought down on his head by that kind of murder. 

So, how exactly did Glass die?

Yeah, Glass wasn't immortal, but even less thrilling than the rest of his story was his ending. As a fur trapper, Glass would spend the rest of his life, which would also bring him into conflict with the Native American people. He was shot in 1833 and killed in present-day Montana.

Is that actually a little better than finding another bear, we suppose?

Want to see the bears more? Here, check them out.