Hugh Glass – 1783 – 1833
Time stranded: 3 weeks
Distance traveled: 200 miles
Terrain types: Forest, Plains
Deaths: 0
Situation ended: Reached friendly Fort
Location: Missouri, US
Hugh Glass was a man of various trades in colonial America during the 18th century, he was a hunter, fur trapper, trader, and most of all an experienced explorer.
He had many close calls during his days and got into various survival situations, but he is most well known for his encounter with a bear, and the following days where he amazingly didn’t die.
In 1823 he joined General William Henry Ashley’s expedition which advertised for 100 men to “ascend the river Missouri” with the goal of expanding his fur trading business. The expedition was had set up the previous year and many of the men were now experienced explorers, but shortly after Hugh Glass joined them, the party was attacked by warriors of the Arikara tribe.
Glass himself was shot in the leg during the fight and numerous members of their party were killed, but they eventually fought off the tribe who retreated into the forest while the expedition made it to their boat on the river. Glass wrote a letter to the parents of one of his friends who died in the fighting.
“Dr Sir:
My painful duty it is to tell you of the death of your son who befell at the hands of the Indians 2nd June in the early morning. He died a little while after he was shot and asked me to inform you of his sad fate. We brought him to the ship when he soon died.
Mr. Smith a young man of our company made a powerful prayer who moved us all greatly and I am persuaded John died in peace. His body we buried with others near this camp and marked the grave with a log. His things we will send to you.
The savages are greatly treacherous. We traded with them as friends but after a great storm of rain and thunder they came at us before light and many were hurt. I myself was shot in the leg. Master Ashley is bound to stay in these parts till the traitors are rightly punished.
Yr Obt Svt Hugh Glass “
After regrouping at Fort Kiowa, Glass, and several others set out towards the Yellowstone River on a hunting party to catch small game for the expedition. After traveling many miles in search of enough meat, the part was hunting in a forest when Glass disturbed a grizzly bear he didn’t notice until he was too close. The bear was with 2 cubs and immediately charged, grabbing glass with its claws and throwing him into the air. The bear pinned Glass to the floor while slashing at him with huge claws, but Glass decided he wasn’t going to go out so easily and started fighting back with his knife.
After the other members of the party came over to help, the group managed to kill the bear, but Glass was very badly hurt and no one thought he was going to make it. They carried him for 2 days on a makeshift sled they made but since he was slowing them down combined with them being convinced he was going to die anyway, the party decided to leave 2 people behind to wait for him to die so they could bury him.
After the main group had left the 2 waited for Glass to die and took his rifle, knife, and anything else they could use, and left. They later reported that they were attacked by Arikara Indians again and had to leave Glass who they claimed died shortly before.
Whether they were lying because they just didn’t want to wait for him to die before leaving or if they genuinely thought he was dead isn’t clear, but he was unconscious when they left as he recalls waking up alone with no weapons and no equipment or food.
At this point, he had a broken leg and many deep cuts that had begun to fester, including a very deep cut on his back that went down to the ribs. He reset his leg the best he could by placing it against a log and snapping it back into place, wrapping it with some of the shreds from his clothing.
He prevented his wounds from developing gangrene by letting maggots eat the dead flesh so it couldn’t rot, and luckily his companions had skinned the bear and draped the hide over him before they left as a funeral shroud.
He walked and crawled for around 200 miles and using Thunder Butte, a lone hill in the middle of a huge flat plain as a landmark, managed to make his way to the Cheyenne River where he fashioned a crude raft.
He floated downstream until he reached Fort Kiowa, with the total time from the bear attack to safety taking 6 weeks.
This is one of the best examples of “don’t give up” when you’re stuck in a survival situation, but as for this story luck also played a massive part. How he avoided infection is a wonder and he was also fortunate enough to not run into any more Indians or bears along the route. His story has been made into various books and 2 feature films, with the most recent called “the Revenant” being released in 2015.