James Clyman Recalls a Grizzly Bear Attacking Jedediah Smith
The story of Jedediah Smith’s grizzly bear attack shows the hard reality of mountain man life.
in 1871, James Clyman, a former mountain man, sat down and described his experiences. Although the events took place decades earlier, these stories help tell us about life on the American frontier. Many of the mountain man journals describe grizzly bear encounters, and the Clyman reminiscences are no different. Fairly early in the story (available at this link) he recalls the time Jedediah Smith was attacked by a grizzly bear in the modern-day Black Hills. Smith’s scalp was nearly removed, and his ear nearly bitten off, but he remained coherent enough to supervise his own surgery after the attack. The video is a reading of the incident. Below it is the full-text transcript. You may notice there are slight deviations in the video. These were included in order to make the story more clear when read.
“while passing through a Brushy bottom a large Grssely came down the vally we being in single file men on foot leding pack horses he struck us about the center then turning ran paralel to our line Capt. Smith being in the advanc he ran to the open ground and as he immerged from the thicket he and the bear met face to face Grissly did not hesitate a moment but sprung on the capt taking him by the head first pitcing sprawling on the earth he gave him a grab by the middle fortunately cathing by the ball pouch and Butcher Kife which he broke but breaking several of his ribs and cutting his head badly none of us having any sugical Knowledge what was to be done one Said come take hold and he wuld say why not you so it went around I asked Capt what was best he said one or 2 for water and if you have a needle and thread git it out and sew up my wounds around my head which was bleeding freely I got a pair of scissors and cut off his hair and then began my first Job of dessing wounds upon examination I the bear had taken nearly all his head in his capcious mouth close to his left eye on one side and clos to his right ear on the other and laid the skull bare to near the crown of the head leaving a white streak whare his teeth passed one of his ears was torn from his head out to the outer rim after stitching all the other wounds in the best way I was capabl and according to the captains directions the ear being the last I told him I could do nothing for his Eare 0 you must try to stich up some way or other said he then I put in my needle stiching it through and through and over and over laying the lacerated parts togather as nice as I could with my hands water was found in about ame mille when we all moved down and encamped the captain being able to mount his horse and ride to camp whare we pitched a tent the onley one we had and made him as comfortable as circumtances would permit this gave us a lisson on the charcter of the grissly Baare which we did not forget”
If you found this tale of mountain man survival interesting, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy the Jemmey Fletcher trilogy. It’s an authentic one-of-a-kind historical fiction that has been called “The best at describing the life of mountain men.”
