In 1856, San Franciscans who paid a quarter to venture into a large basement room found themselves a few feet away from half a dozen grizzly bears.
Story News
UNCATEGORIZED
The original Grizzly Adams kept his bears on a chain in SF
BY ADMIN · SEPTEMBER 15, 2023
In 1856, San Franciscans who paid a quarter to venture into a large basement room found themselves a few feet away from half a dozen grizzly bears.
INTERESTING FOR YOU
Meghan Markle May Not Have Intended For Anyone To See This
More…
110
28
37
Princess Beatrice’s Secretive Act Captured On Camera!
More…
828
207
276
The Video Of Ivana Trump Donald Probably Doesn’t Want Us To See
More…
128
32
43
Two of these ferocious beasts were in the middle of the room, secured with 5-foot logging chains bolted to the floor. Several younger grizzlies, along with some black bears and a cinnamon, were chained off to the side. The largest grizzly, too powerful and ornery to be given even the limited freedom of a chain, was confined in an iron cage.
In addition to the most dangerous animals in the Western Hemisphere, the Mountaineer Museum at 143 Clay St. featured mountain lions, eagles and two elk, which chewed their cud in an open stall near the front of the room.
The man who had collected the animals in this first Western zoo, John Adams, was one of the most extraordinary figures in a city filled with eccentrics. Wiry and muscular, he was invariably dressed in a buckskin suit, fringed at the edges, with a deerskin cap ornamented with a fox tail. He wore buckskin moccasins. His gray hair and white beard made him look older than his 43 years, but that was a minor matter: It was amazing he was still alive.
Grizzly Adams, as he was known, had made it his vocation to fight grizzly bears. In the course of his career, Adams had been mauled, bear-hugged and chewed on so many times he had lost count.
As Richard Dillon recounts in “The Legend of Grizzly Adams: California’s Greatest Mountain Man,” John Adams was born in Medway, Mass., in 1812. He hated his profession of boot maker and was overjoyed when he was hired by showmen to capture wild animals. In an anticipation of his grizzly-defying feats to come, he survived being mauled by a Bengal tiger.
He moved to California in 1849, but everything he tried — mining, ranching, trading, stock raising — failed. In 1852, disgusted with humanity, Adams decided to return to the wild life he had loved. He left his ranch near Stockton and headed for the mountains on a wagon drawn by two oxen.
Adams made a log hut near present-day Long Barn (Tuolumne County) and fell in with local Indians, shooting deer for them. In exchange, they gave him the deerskin suit, hat and moccasins he was to wear for the rest of his life.
He survived by hunting and fishing and began trapping grizzlies. He took one of his grizzlies to Mariposa to stage a public wrestling match, a feat that netted him $800. Soon afterward, Adams met a Texan named Saxon who persuaded him to explore the Pacific Northwest.
Along with two Indian youths, the two adventurers journeyed beyond the Snake River, where Adams set out to capture young grizzlies. One day he shot a mother bear, intending to seize and tame her cubs. (Like most people at the time, Adams was innocent of the concept of animal rights.) When he tried to lasso the cubs, they attacked him and chased him up a tree.
He finally managed to catch them by waiting for them to drink at a spring. He named the female cub Lady Washington and her brother Jackson, and set about taming them. Lady Washington became so docile she followed him about like a puppy.