American Primeval, the new Netflix mini-series directed by Pete Berg, has fans excited. The show created by Mark L Smith follows the story of a mother Sara Rowell, played by Betty Gilpin, and her son Devin (Preston Mota) trying to escape their past and build a new life in the rough and brutal American West of 1857.

Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin led the gritty miniseries about a family's trek across the American West in 1857.

The series, now streaming on Netflix, depicts the brutality with which the Mormons sought to create a new world for their beliefs, the pride with which the native people held onto their ancestral lands, and the tragedy of the people just seeking to make a new home in the chaos. But is any of it true?

Jim Bridger is one of the most important characters in Netflix's American Primeval, and here is the real-life story behind the historical figure.