Mountain Men

.

Names like Conger, Bridger, Rollins, Meeker, Berthoud
Echo through these canyons
Like summer thunder, proud and bold.
John Quincy Adams Rollins
Built the first wagon road through
The Great Divide. What didn’t Sam Conger do?
A mile from here, you can call his name
And hear your voice return
Twelve times from the deepest shaft
Of the Conger mine. And you know Jim Bridger.

Men of ruthless ego all. But what of the mountain ladies?
Didn’t they too have pride? And what about
The narrowing ache in the bed beside
You when she wakes to a rough face
That spells out one hundred years of unpleasant history?






Sam Conger
Will Old Sam Conger Make His Biggest Strike at 89? Milwaukee Journal, April 23. 1922 (Wisconsin Historical Society)