Later in the same year, 1864, a small company of miners, including George Huston, Rube Libby, George Hubbard, Soos, Lewis, and a Mexican, made a cursory trip in the Park area. They entered the region from the west and ascended the main Firehole River. They were startled by the eruption of the Giantess and other geysers, but they passed by with a glance and dismissed them as of slight importance.[108] An account of this journey was discussed with L. M. Freeman, a newspaper reporter, at Emigrant Gulch. He arranged to have it published in the _Omaha Herald_.[109] Other prominent miners whose explorations in Yellowstone are well known were C. J. Baronett, Bart Henderson, H. Sprague, Frederick Bottler, Adam Miller, and Adams and Crandall. The latter two were killed by Indians in the Hoodoo region in 1870, while Adam Miller and two companions narrowly escaped.[110] It would appear that probably a dozen nondescript mining groups had some contact with the region during the sixties. Yet these miner meanderings did not definitely confirm the actual existence of Wonderland, even though they added another chapter to an increasingly impressive legend. However, the persistence of this marvelous legend between 1820 and 1870 was largely due to the influence of Jim Bridger. Chapter VII JIM BRIDGER—MAN AND LEGEND It is customary to assign an extraordinary disregard for truth to Jim Bridger. At times he appears as a rantipole hero, and undoubtedly he drew the long bow to unparalleled tension in matters of adventure. Still, he achieved excellent recommendations for reliability and trustworthiness from all the government officials who had business in the West. Surely Bridger was such a contradictory personage as to warrant investigation. Jim was the son of James and Chloe Bridger. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 17, 1804. The Bridgers moved to St. Louis about 1812. The father died in 1816, and Jim became a flatboat operator; then, an apprentice in Phil Creamer’s blacksmith shop. There his interest was first pointed to the West. In 1822 he became a member of Andrew Henry’s party and departed for the Indian country. There is some evidence that he was the young man in the detail which deserted Hugh Glass in the time of his great need in 1823.