Canget - Red Lodge, Montana

AREA TRIPS | DESTINATION RED LODGEBridger Country Land of Many TrailsHistory’s Trails paint a bold panoramaacross the landscape of Bridger country.Along the meandering Clarks ForkRiver, where the plains reach out totouch the mountains, are some of themost diverse landscapes and some ofthe most powerful stories in Montanahistory.The “dinosaur renaissance” beganhere in the vast geologicbadlands east of Bridger.DeinonychusAntirrhopus - the“Terrible Claw” -was first discoverednear Bridger in 1964by Dr. John Ostromand his team fromYale University. “TheClaw” turned paleontologyon its head and manylong-held beliefsabout dinosaursvanished in the onslaught of thenew knowledge – and questions- Deinonychus provided. A littlelater, this extraordinary raptorcousinwent on to “star” in threeof the biggest dinosaur adventuremovies of all time.Bridger Country is the land of theCrow; mighty in horses and strongin heritage. The Crow chief, PlentyCoups, left his home and sacred springto successive generations as a place foreveryone of all cultures to gatherin peace. Plenty Coup’s home,now a state park, is a shortdrive from Bridger.This land encompasses partof the Nee Me Poo Trail, thepath of the Nez Perce who,in 1877, fled Americanmilitary might withtheir children and© Bridger Phototheir chief “Thunder Rolling Down theMountain” (Chief Joseph) before losingfreedom and hope a few miles short ofthe Canadian border.Bridger country knows the bigger-thanlifetread of the great mountain man, JimBridger “Old Gabe”, as Bridger is oftencalled, led many a “pilgrim” through thewestern lands. Jim Bridger’s trail - asafer rival to the “bloody Bozeman Trail”- crosses the Clarks Fork just south ofthe town of Bridger.Every year Bridger honors its westernheritage with a Youth Rodeo (second58 FACEBOOK.COM/REDLODGE TWITTER.COM/REDLODGEMONTANA