Let's Talk Wyoming
A podcast about Wyoming and everything we talk about including the weather, politics, energy & agriculture, sports & everything else effecting our state.
Let's Talk Wyoming
Let's Talk Wyoming - Yellowstone's Volcanic Mysteries, Political Drama, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot & Hugh Glass' Legendary Survival
Is Yellowstone's Black Diamond Pool a ticking time bomb? Find out as we explore the shocking eruption that has captured everyone's attention and raised eyebrows about the region's volcanic activity. We'll also break down the smoky weather conditions in Wyoming caused by regional fires and an impending heat trend. As if that's not enough, we delve into the dramatic twists in national politics, including the investigation into the Trump assassination attempt and Kamala Harris' sudden rise as the Democratic presidential candidate amid concerns about Joe Biden's health.
Our journey continues as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot," reminiscing about its lasting impact and the iconic Montana locations where it was filmed. We’ll share stories about the film’s director Michael Cimino, the behind-the-scenes dynamics between Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges, and Bridges' unforgettable performance. Finally, we'll recount the epic survival story of Hugh Glass, the frontiersman whose incredible endurance and bravery have become legendary, a tale immortalized in "The Revenant." Join us for a whirlwind episode packed with natural phenomena, political intrigue, cinematic history, and awe-inspiring survival.
Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host, and today we'll be taking a look at our smoky Wyoming weather. We'll also be talking about an eruption in Yellowstone Park and looking to the north of us up in Montana, we'll talk about Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and also the story of the mountain man, hugh Glass and his encounter with a grizzly. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy the show. Taking a look at Wyoming weather here on the start of the week here on the 22nd day of July, right now, looking out the window here in Hot Springs County, can't see very far. The smoke has definitely set in from fires around the region and it is overcast. We had kind of an overcast weekend. We did have some rain late in the week last week. That sure made a difference. Cooling down the temperatures and just renewing things makes things feel a little bit brighter here in these days of July where it seems like July is never going to end. But weather right now looks like ahead is another heat trend, heavy-duty heat trend coming in. Saw some high 90s mornings out there. It's getting dry out there. There's potential for additional fires, as you can attest to with our smoke I think people are getting into that July month. As far as for travel and, again, as I said numerous times, being out on the water, our Bighorn River is really active right now with floaters on a daily basis. Fishing in some of the areas is going strong. I've not been to the mountain yet this year, I've not gone fishing up in the Bighorns, but look forward to making a trip up. So right now here in Wyoming we're just in those days of summer, like everyone across the country, and before we know it it's going to be August and Labor Day and then winter right around the corner and others around the area, kind of in a strange one.
Speaker 2:Yesterday, on the 23rd of July, there was an eruption in Yellowstone Park at the Black Diamond Pool which suddenly erupted. I saw some of the videos. It was unbelievable that no one was hurt. The way that suddenly erupted out of the blue. It wasn't anything planned, not a normal place for an eruption. It had to be just totally scary at that point for people who were there the way it blew stuff up in the sky. It took out most of that boardwalk that was by there and of course this Black Diamond Pool is in the Parks Biscuit Basin, and that was yesterday morning. I've read a lot of different accounts on different areas, but what is the meaning of this? You know they've always talked about Yellowstone, the potential of having an eruption, and if there is a big eruption there, that it would pretty much take out a lot of country when we're at here in Hot Springs County. Most of Wyoming would be gone with the event happening. County, most of Wyoming would be gone with the event happening. But it is a little bit questionable this eruption, but it woke up a lot of people and again, I'm so glad that no one was hurt. I'm glad I wasn't there. It would have definitely been something you'll never forget.
Speaker 2:Also, in other news, the investigations continue on the Trump assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. I get a chuckle out of watching the hearings on TV on Congress running these investigations and I see that the director of the Secret Service has finally resigned. I don't know what that's really going to accomplish. I do watch quite a few different other sources Twitter. There's a lot of information on there from non, I should say, established news media that have done a lot of investigation with sights and sounds and the shots and all the things that are happening. Let's just say there's a lot more to this story than most people would assume.
Speaker 2:And then we have the strange story about Joe Biden. He suddenly was the candidate after the debate about a month ago. He suddenly the left or the news media suddenly started attacking, which was just totally strange. And then he said he wasn't going anywhere, he was going to continue to run, and then suddenly he had a medical emergency, kind of disappeared for a while. Then, out of that, suddenly Kamala Harris, the vice president, is now the presidential candidate. It's pretty crazy. I mean, kamala Harris, no matter what you think of her previous 2020 election, in the primaries she was one of I think there was over 10 candidates for the Democratic Party. I don't think she got a delegate's vote from anybody. She had to end up dropping out, and so I guess that's what it gets down to. Our political system, I think, is totally out of kilter, but it looks like now, pending what happens in the upcoming convention, she's the candidate.
Speaker 2:Biden is supposedly going to address the nation. I think tonight, on the 24th, that I've heard, and I don't know how. If he suddenly can't run for re-election, does he have health issues? We know he has declined and dementia is a sad situation with him. How can he continue to run the country? How can he continue to run the country? And most people just, I guess we just keep on living our lives and just try to keep going forward with everything happening. But it is a strange world out there and here in Wyoming we just continue on and we'll see what happens when November gets here. Today I want to look at something that happened outside the state of Wyoming, in the state of Montana. I have lived in Montana before and this comes from Distinctly Montana, the winter 2024 edition, and in it. I found this interesting and since I'm a fan of Clint Eastwood, I had to share this.
Speaker 2:The 50th anniversary of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Hollywood in the 70s was an era characterized by vogue for gritty realism, jacked up rebellion, often unsuccessful, fast cars and Clint Eastwood. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, released in 1974, fulton Lightfoot, released in 1974, was all of it and Montana Fittingly for a picture styling itself as a contemporary western. It was shot entirely on location in the Treasure State, specifically in Great Falls and the surrounding region. In commercial terms, it was a modest though not spectacular success. Eastwood blamed it on the ad campaign from United Artists, but in the years since its release it has appreciated cult following. The movie's appeal is threefold the buddy comedy, chemistry between the two leads, the chaotic, exciting car chase sequences and the unique flavor granted by its authentic western location. On the 50th anniversary of its release, it's worthwhile to turn an eye towards said locations.
Speaker 2:The plot centers around two outlaws Thunderbolt, who is played by Clint Eastwood, an experienced bank robber turned occasional preacher, and Lightfootfoot, jeff Bridges, a footless young drifter who just can't fit into regular life. Bridges' role in the Rancho Deluxe the following year feels like a continuation of lightfoot in many ways. They met by accident during a car theft and find themselves teaming up, largely due to convenience, before taking a liking to each other's company. Thunderbolt is trying to escape from his former partners in crime, red, who is played by George Kennedy, and Eddie, played by Jeffrey Lewis, but they want to find the hidden loot from a successful bank robbery that he had stashed but never claimed. Unable to simply go to the cache, a one-room schoolhouse that was subsequently relocated, a new bank job is offered. Will the job go off without a hitch, and will thunderbolt and lightfoot ride off in the sunset? The setting for the new bank job is the fictional town of warsaw, limnally designed to suggest wiltshaw perhaps filmed on on the 7-9 Bar Ranch which at the time was owned by Gary Cooper's father, montana Supreme Court Justice, charles H Cooper. The 7-9 Bar is alongside the Missouri River, which makes a few appearances in the film itself, although the script amusingly suggests that it is the Snake river. Many montanan residents will recognize the gates of the mountains in the scenes where thunderbolt bit of movie magic that is showcasing real places that no longer exist.
Speaker 2:The church where Thunderbolt preaches at the beginning of the film Eastwood would dip back into the outlaw preacher. Well, again, 11 years later with the Pale Riders, was the St John's Lutheran Church in Hobson, montana. It was sold and dismantled in 1980. Similarly, the business where Lightfoot gets employed before the heist is Penske Brothers Plumbing and Heating, which is an actual business in Great Falls, one that has been a fixture in the community for several years. One of the most crucial locations, the drive-in movie theater where the bank robbers hid out. After the job was provided by Great Falls 10th Avenue Drive-In. It closed for the end of the season just after the filming wrapped up on Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. It reopened the following June, only to shut down for good two months later.
Speaker 2:The universe offered similar comparisons toward the vital one-room schoolhouse that figures in tourist attraction, but it was purchased again in 1974 and reconverted into a bar. Rechristian's Earl Smith's 7 Bar 9 Saloon had opened for business in 1975, but burned down in a fire years later. While an aura of bad luck seemed to befall some of the location sites, such misfortune did not permeate to the rest of the production. The secret weapon in the film's success is Jeff Bridges. Apparently, eastwood expressed concerns during production that he was being upstaged by Bridges. It is true that Lightfoot gets most of the humorous and playful moments, but Eastwood's concerns were misplaced, although it is true that Bridges did receive an Oscar nomination of her best supporting actor for the film. The dynamics between the grim mentor and the goofy apprentice is one of the main reasons why the film works and stands out among similar buddy movies of the same era.
Speaker 2:The film was the directorial debut of Michael Shimano. He had co-written the script for the Silent Running in 1972 and Magnum Force in 1973 and the sequel to Dirty Harry in 1971. He wrote Thunderbolt Lightfoot as a spec script with Clint Eastwood in mind. Eastwood apparently liked the property so much that he wanted to direct it himself, but ultimately he granted the opportunity to Shimano. Instead, shimano would later state that he owed his filmmaking career to Clint Eastwood. Four years later, shimano scored massive commercial and critical success with his grim Vietnam War epic, the Deer Hunter, which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Shimano.
Speaker 2:Shimano's follow-up Passion Project Heaven's Cafe in 1980, was a failure that nearly bankrupted the production company United Artists. While Shimano did direct a few films afterwards, he never achieved the same level of prestige or success. There is a kind of ironic symmetry in that the film that launched shimano's directing career and the film that tanked it were both filmed in montana. As well as that, for all the hopes of good significance the western historical epic was meant to carry, thunderbolt and lightfoot has emerged fifty years down the road as a more successful picture. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Hats off to you 50 years later, and we'd like to thank Distinctly Montana and the author of this story, carrie Bowles, for this great story. Today we have a story on the Odyssey of Hugh Glass. This is by Douglas A Shimato from the Distinctly Montana publication.
Speaker 2:On or around August 23, 1823, near the forks of the Grand River in northernmost South Dakota, hugh Glass experienced a nightmare scenario for anyone traveling in grizzly country In a thicket, he unexpectedly came into close quarters contact with a sow one accompanied by cubs. Combat erupted almost immediately. James Hall, who published the first account in 1825 of Hughes' harrowing encounter, reported that his assailant was so close that when glass first became aware of its presence, old Ephraim charged and caught him before he could set his triggers. Philip St George Cook in 1830, on the other hand, asserts that glass fired one well-targeted round that ultimately proved to be fatal. Its immediate effect, however, served only to raise to its utmost degree the ferocity of this animal.
Speaker 2:When his comrades-in-arms rolled the enormous beast off of Glass, they were astonished by the number and severity of his wounds. Edmund Flagg emphasizes that Glass received not less than 15 wounds, any one of which, under ordinary circumstances, would have been considered mortal. Cook's graphic description indicates that the bear's claws literally scraped flesh from the bones of the shoulder and thigh. George C Yount's narrative strongly suggests that another wound perforated the windpipe which spurted a red bubbly every time Hugh breathed. Biographer John Myers Myers emanated lacerations in Hugh's scalp, face, chest, back and one shoulder, arm, hand and thigh, based on specific details in various accounts.
Speaker 2:Overnight his conditions teetered between life and death. Klaus, however, would not surrender to the grim reaper, so a makeshift litter was constructed to carry him. According to Flagg, klaus was transported thusly for two days and a bit. Andrew Henry informed his men that this was a good place to stop risking the entire party, for one man almost certainly would not survive. He requested that two volunteers stay with glass until he expired. As compensation for the danger involved and their subsequent service as a burial detail, henry offered an extravagant reward.
Speaker 2:Sources generally concur that John Fitzgerald volunteered for this task. Circumstantial evidence suggests that his partner was Jim Bridger, but supporting documentation is paper thin. Gout and Crook characterize this person simply as a youngster of 17. In commentary pertaining to this post, myers Myers notes that Bridger was apparently the only member of either of Ashley's first two expeditions who wasn't at least 21. Flagg identified this shadowy figure as Bridges 21. Flagg identified this shadowy figure as Bridger's. Hiram Martin Chittenden, the pioneer fur trader. Historian letter concluded that the trapper in question was indeed Bridger, based primarily on data from Joseph Labarge, a former steamboat captain. However, a J Cecil Alter author of James Bridger, challenges this idea to either conform or contradict Labarge's statement, given the absence of direct references to Bridger in early accounts of this saga.
Speaker 2:The vigil observed by these men lasted from four to six days when their resolve broke. Fitzgerald was, by all all indications, the first to crack. At that time, glass's throat injury made speech impossible, but his hearing was unimpaired, and he later told young, abandoned Glass. When finally they did so, they took virtually all of his injured man's possessions. The theft of Glass's rifle was a particularly egregious offense, one that breathed unquenchable fire and renewed purpose back into the dying man.
Speaker 2:Prior to their departure, Glass's attendants placed his litter next to the spring by which they were encamped. In that position, glass could extend his arm and obtain water or buffalo berries which dangled from an overhanging brush. To swallow them, however, he had to crush the berries to a pulp and further soften them in water. Several days later, anna assumed the form of Rattlesnake, the glass noticed after waking from a nap. The rattler's immobility and bloated condition indicated that it had digested recently some type of animal or bird, which gave glass the opportunity to safely kill it with a sharp stone. Despite the difficulty of shredding and swallowing its raw flesh. The snake's trunk provided the first subsequent food that Glass had eaten in many days. The subsidence afforded by that reptile gave him enough strength to crawl but not to walk, and so the pursuit of his deserters began.
Speaker 2:Without his rifle, glass had to fully utilize every available food source. Without his rifle, glass had to fully utilize every available food source. Glass employed the plain Indian practice of cracking open the large bone of a bison carcass and scraping out the calorie-rich marrow, to which he added buffalo berries. Glass eventually struck the proverbial motherlode when he saw several wolves kill a young buffalo calf nearby. According to Cook, hugh waited until they devoured half of the carcass, after which he appropriated the remaining portion.
Speaker 2:For someone who had lost as much blood as old glass, the greatest need was food capable of replenishing it. Tripping with gore, the chunks he ripped from the young buffalo were, as Myers-Meyersyers observed, just behind a blood transfusion, with his arteries flushed. For the first time since his terrible encounter, he was now on the way to rising from all fours. Indeed, glass systematically exploited this windfall off it. He allowed his body to recuperate as thoroughly as possible. When he resumed the journey a few days later, Glass had regained bipedal locomotion. His increased blood flow volume and improved circulation accelerated the healing process. But Glass' back wound, which he could not reach, became infested with maggots as he proceeded downstream towards Fort Kiowa, he encountered two Indians who thoroughly cleaned and treated his wounds. Sources suggest that the Sioux also provided access to a horse or a buffalo-hided bull boat.
Speaker 2:In either way, glass arrived at the fort no later than October 11. Following acquisition of supplies and weaponry, he headed back upriver. His party reached their objective by November 20th. Glass narrowly escaped an attack by the Akara. Four separate accounts collaborate in his rescue by one or two mounted Mandans who took him to either their village or Fort. Tilton, working initially from the premises of his quarry, was then stationed at the mouth of the Yellowstone.
Speaker 2:Glass, embarked alone and on foot, the length of his journey ultimately took him five hundred fifty miles to the newly established fort henry, located at the confluence of the little bighorn, on the frozen soil for most part of the route, a foot or two in depth. Nevertheless, yount relates that Glass appeared unexpectedly at Fort Henry on New Year's Eve. He confronted Jim Bridger, whom Meyer Myers regarded as one of the deserters. Unprepared for the sheer terror exhibited by the 19-year-old youth, and recalling conversations he overheard on his deathbed, glass forgave Bridger. Reverend Orange Clark, who transcribed Yownson's narrative, indicates, however, that Glass departed Bridger with food for thought. I leave you to the punishment of your own conscience and your God, that truth and fidelity are too valuable to be trifled with. And fidelity are too valuable to be trifled with.
Speaker 2:As winter worsened, glass had to postpone his pursuit of vengeance until February 29th of 1824, when he volunteered for a courier service on a contingent headed to Fort Atkinson. Unfortunately, another skirmish with the Akurai Indians, which took place near the historical site of Fort Laramie, left Glass once again, unarmed, alone and on foot, after traveling some 400 miles to Fort Kiowa that John Fitzgerald had given up beaver hunting and enlisted in the Army. Given Glass's unwavering commitment to his mission, it is entirely possible that he would have executed Fitzgerald when their past cross at Fort Atkinson in May or June of 1824 had not been for the Army intervening authority. Even so, that encounter was volatile, as Myers-Myers observed. The officers of the day, captain Bennett Riley, informed Glass that he couldn't have one of the posted soldiers to eat. To his credit, riley ensured that Glass's rifle was promptly returned to him, thus acting in conjunction with the pursuit of his $300, which Yount insisted that members of the 6th Regiment donate to Glass, finally extinguished the fires of vengeance that had fueled Hugh's behavior.
Speaker 2:Literary and cinematic portraits of this saga have consistently and understandably emphasized the life-and-death struggle for surviving that occurred during the weeks immediately after the near-fatal grizzly attack. Fully contextualized, however, hugh Glass' journey constitutes nothing less than an American odyssey, one that pitted Glass against extraordinary odds, the destructive power of an enraged, grizzly, brutal weather and the Indian war parties For more than nine months and 2,000 miles, much of which he traversed alone and on foot. These events justly give rise to one of the West's most enduring legends, hugh Glass, and a lot of people will remember. The movie Reverent was most likely based on this story. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy our podcast. As per the Code of the West, we ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming. We love life. We love life Now, now, now. © BF-WATCH TV 2021.
