About Grizzly Adams

The Film and Television Origin of Grizzly Adams

Although it has been a recognized brand in film and TV for years, the success of Grizzly Adams® began in 1974 when “The Life of Grizzly Adams” became a hit movie. The film was based on the actual frontiersman known as Grizzly Adams from the 1800s. The man was famous for his ability to tame wild grizzly bears and to communicate with animals. The success of this movie led to a top rated TV series appearing on NBC. Dan Haggerty played Grizzly Adams, Don Shanks starred as Nakoma, and Denver Pyle was casted as Mad Jack. The Grizzly Adams movie and TV series were distributed by Schick/Sunn-Classic™.

From that point on, Grizzly Adams became iconic. The original franchise grossed upwards of $130 million, including merchandise like Grizzly Adams dolls, stuffed animals, games, GAF View-Master reels, coloring books, puzzles, clocks, lunchpails, and more.

NBC earned a record audience due to Grizzly Adams and its prime time slot that aired every Wednesday night. The combined success of the movie and TV show resulted in Grizzly Adams becoming a well known symbol for nature’s beauty and wildlife, self sufficiency, and healthy outdoor living.

The Real Story

Behold, Grizzly Adams, the mountain man with one of the most incredible frontier biographies that has ever been documented. Grizzly Adams’ real name was John Capen Adams, and he was born in Medway, MA in 1812 as the relative of the two Adams United States Presidents and Revolutionary War Patriot, Samuel Adams.

As John “Grizzly” Adams advanced through manhood, he began to discover an ability to understand wild animals and their behavior. After nearly being killed by a Royal Bengal Tiger at age 21, he became a shoemaker as his father was.

Adams life as a shoemaker consisted of selling shoes in Boston, getting married, starting a family, and losing his father to suicide after their business had been drained of its savings due to a tragic business venture. This happened simultaneously with the upcoming Gold Rush of 1849, so Adams headed west in hopes of great fortune and a fresh start. Through “numerous hardships and privations” as he put it, he began mining for gold in Stockton in which he was quite successful. Over time, he acquired land and hired employees to run his personal sluice operation. Unfortunately, his naive trust led him to involvement with low-end business sharks that would soon con him out of his accomplishments. By 1852, Adams great hardships caused him to turn his back to civilization. He headed for the wilderness and eventually built a cabin in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains near Yosemite in which he settled. This spot was surrounded by wildlife and friendly Native American Tribes. Adams grew to be an expert hunter, tracker, and provider for himself and his Indian friends. Through all of his time spent in nature, he learned to capture, raise, and train grizzly bears, hence his nickname: Grizzly Adams.

With his most beloved grizzly bears, Lady Washington, General Fremont, and Benjamin Franklin, Grizzly Adams created a pack to lead tracking expeditions from his cabin in Sierra Nevada. He traveled as far north as the Canadian border, as far south as the Mojave Desert, and as far east as Salt Lake City. His pack of grizzlies were not his only source for tracking; Adams also hired Native American scouts to aid his adventures. This created an array of relationships with different tribe leaders, which set him apart from other mountain men of this era considering he befriended them rather than hunting them down like animals. He saw Native Americans as “fair and honest” and valued their interactions.

Grizzly Adams lived like this for three and a half years. By 1856, he relocated to San Francisco, making a living off putting on shows with his bears and other animals. He slowly reconnected with the city lifestyle and his “Mountaineer Museum” became popular enough that it made its way into newspapers. Theodore Hittell was one writer in particular who wrote a wide series of articles on Adams, which later landed him a number of professional performance opportunities. Adams was initially billed as “The Wild Yankee Adams”, but the name was soon replaced by who we all know and love today as Grizzly Adams. Four years of performing at San Francisco’s most notable venues delivered him a high social status that left him involved with figures like Civil War General, William Tecumseh Sherman and Lola Montez to name a couple. He also became a recognized voice during Governor Neely Johnson's controversial vigilante's movement that was geared to help curb San Francisco's reputed lawlessness. Even with his fame, his overhead was extremely high due to his beloved animals. His bears were especially high maintenance due to special boarding needs and food costs, making it difficult for him to get ahead financially.

The aforementioned Theodore Hittell was so intrigued by Grizzly Adams that he wrote a book surrounding his mountain adventures that are said to have been admired by Teddy Roosevelt. For unknown reasons, Adams used the name of his brother when identifying himself to Hittell, which led him to mistakenly publish his book about James Capen Adams rather than John Capen Adams.

In 1859, Adams left San Francisco after an unknown illness caused the death of his favorite bear, Benjamin Franklin. He headed to New York with as many of his animals as he could bring onto a ship. They sailed around Cape Horn on an adventure that has been compared to the likes of Noah’s Ark; he brought over a hundred animals, reptiles, and birds onto “Golden Fleece” in January of 1860. Elk, wolves, a sea lion, and seventeen of his prized bears were only a few of the species that accompanied him on this adventure. This journey lasted for three months.

Adams had previously been injured while wrestling General Fremont, and was injured by him once again while on his ocean voyage. Little did he know, he would never recover from this injury. He was one of the toughest men to have lived though, and he proudly paraded his troupe of animals on Broadway as soon as he arrived in New York City. Adams headed for the office of P.T. Barnum, and was signed to a performance contract. Barnum’s “Old Grizzly Adams” act became very well known in New York City. His fame lead him to be reunited with his wife, Cylena, who he had sent money to a number of times while he was away. Their reunion was bitter sweet because of Adams’ poor health. His wife practically became the nurse of the decade-long estranged, turned gravely-ill husband in between his acts.

By 1860, Grizzly Adams was done performing because of his poor health. Cylena brought him back to Boston to surround him with his family before it was too late. He died on October 25, 1860, three days after his forty-eighth birthday and a few weeks before Abraham Lincoln was elected to become the President. P.T. Barnum paid for his funeral and burial in Charlton, MA. His headstone still lies there today next to his wife and one of their daughters. No one can say just how much Adams impacted P.T. Barnum; he influenced his thoughts on the future of the circus. Since Adams was the first to lead a troupe of wild beasts into major cities, this became a tradition for many circuses to follow. The animals in the troupe that outlived Adams contributed to the start of the San Francisco and the New York City Zoo. By the twentieth century, descendants of Adams’ very own animals were still residing in both of these zoos!

Nowadays, the name Grizzly Adams is a regular term used to describe a full beard. People even hold Grizzly Adams beard growing competitions! As for Adams’ notorious buckskin outfit, it is now preserved at the Worcester, Massachusetts Historical Society. There is a historical footnote about Grizzly Adams that claims that the grizzly bear on California’s State Flag was representative of his most ferocious bear, Samson. This bear was painted in 1855 by Charles Nahl. William Randolph Hearst tried to claim that the bear was modeled after a different bear named Monarch from the 1880s, but the claim was proved to be false.