Original subtitles

The story of Grizzly Adams is big and powerful and beautiful.

They call me Mad Jack.

And me and my burro number seven have been traipsing these slopes and valleys

for a long spell. So I know the story from the beginning. My friend Adams was

accused of a crime he didn't commit.

So he escaped into the mountains, leaving behind the only life that he

knew.

Now, that wilderness out there ain't no place for a greenhorn, and his chances

of surviving were mighty slim.

There was no time at all, for he was beaten down, ragged, and nearly starved.

Long about then, he come upon a grizzly bear cub, all alone and helpless.

Now, Adams knew that little critter couldn't survive without his help, so he

started right down that cliff, risking his own life.

To save it.

Now that cub took to Adams right off.

And that was when he discovered he had a special kind of way with animals.

They just come right up to him like he was a natural part of the wilderness.

But that bear cub, he was extra special.

As he growed, he became the best friend Adams ever had. And together, they

became a legend.

Now, for mountain men like me and James Adams, there's nothing to match the

glory of nature and the good times.

But there are other times that are, well, not so good.

When all of a sudden there's too much of one thing and not enough of another.

Like when one blistering hot day tags right along after the other. And no

rain comes to wash and cool things off, leaving only the parching heat and a

time of thirsting upon the land.

Now, my friend James Adam knowed the growing of things, and he could read

needs like a teacher does a book.

You're right, Ben.

This dirt's awful dry.

If we don't get some rain pretty soon, we're going to lose these baby cats and

these turnips you're so fond of.

Well, we'll just nurse them along the best we can.

What is it, Ben?

Visitors?

Where?

Oh, I see her.

Well, that looks like Fancy.

Remember that little cub we found after that lightning storm?

She was all singed and scared.

Hi, Fancy.

Did you come to visit? We haven't seen you for about a year.

That's Fancy, Joshua.

Looks like there's something bothering her, though.

You're right, Ben.

She's trying to tell us something.

You better go with her.

Come on, Ben.

We're right behind you, Fancy.

Take a

look

at that.

Well, you've been a mite busy, Fancy.

It's a right -looking, proud cub you have there.

He looks a mite thirsty, though.

How about a nice little drink?

Not too much.

Ben, you won't find better manners than a bobcat mama.

Take as much as you need, Fancy.

You get enough, Fancy?

Well, we best get going. We don't want to wear out our welcome.

Now, I could see things was getting bad.

But I wasn't all that worried.

Mainly because my dry knee wasn't acting up. It takes a heap of parching to

crick up my dry knee.

Well, yeah,

them roots is dry, but that don't mean much. It's when the whole thing gets dry

that you got a drought on your hands. Well, I've seen these mountains so dry

that the grass just rolled up like carpet and fell down into the bottom of

hollers.

Well, that's the truth.

You, uh, going up to Adams?

I, uh, a week. He will be with Sheik. You're going to work with your people

make dewcatchers?

You'll be along later?

Uh.

All right.

Dewcatchers. You know, come along.

That's a lot of hard work, making them dewcatchers.

Well, now.

I suppose you're thirsty, too.

Do you know what?

You're the third critter that's come begging to me on this trail this

Ain't much, but you are welcome to what they is.

You wait here.

I'll give you a drink later.

Now, here you go.

You was thirsty, weren't you?

Well, now, if the creeks is all dried up hereabouts, why don't you all go up to

Swallow Lake?

Can't be more than eight or so miles.

If you ask me, it's just plain laziness. Just laziness, that's all.

That's all you're going to get.

That's enough.

Well, at least you could have said thank you.

You know, maybe laziness is catching like them.

Catch barrels that Greenhorn Adams fixed up to catch the rain runoff in back of

his cabin.

He did that just so he'd have water closer instead of farther.

Laziness for pure certain.

Wet your little tongue.

Aren't you hungry?

Try that leg out.

You wouldn't mind some, would you, Ben?

Sure hot, isn't it?

Let's go check your catch barrel.

Not so good, Ben.

Not so good at all.

I think you're right.

We're going to have to get ourselves a bucket brigade coming up from the creek.

Come on, Ben.

I'm dry as thirsty as you are, but you don't hear me caterwallering, do you?

Get your gumption up.

Get a move on.

We's mountain folks.

We, some of them weak -kneed, flat -footed drylanders.

Oh, it's all right. It's

nothing. I just kind of...

A rock skittered my heel, that's all.

Well, yeah, you're right. That is the trail over to the old waterhole. Why

you just go ahead on and I'll catch up with you.

That's my dry weather knee.

Well...

That's the spring hole, all right.

But there ain't enough water in there to give a gnat a bath.

Here.

You thirsty?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I suppose you're thirsty, too.

Here you go, little one.

Here you go.

Isn't that good?

Hey, you were thirsty.

Yes, you were.

Now, ain't that always the way it is?

You run short of something and the whole world shows up at your doorstep.

This is a whole lot worse than we thought, Ben.

Ben, the creek's drying up awful fast.

We best make this the last trip with the buckets.

There's other folks downstream that need this water just as much as we do.

Besides, we got Swallow Lake.

Well, sure, I know it's a long way to get water.

Well, let's be mighty grateful it's there for the getting.

Get your bucket and let's go.

Howdy, Adams.

Howdy, Jack.

Must have been a long, hot, dry trip the way Seven's telling it.

Remember, Seven's got the manners of a three -toed caterpillar.

Begging before you've been invited.

Give Seven a little drink.

Easy doesn't... Not too much, Seven.

How about you?

Well, I would take just a tad to get the...

Trail dust off of my teeth.

Thank you.

I tell you, Adams, it's going to be bad. And it's going to get worse.

My dry weather knee is a twitching something fierce, fit to be broke.

Your bones are always telling you something.

Well, of course they do.

Well, Jack, you know how hot it gets up here.

But somehow or another, it always manages to rain.

You feel that?

It's a nice, cool, refreshing breeze.

Yeah, the breeze is refreshing, all right.

But it's the wrong breeze.

It's out of the southwest, what the old -timers used to call the breath of the

devil, because it blows up out of the desert, just parching everything in

of it. It's the worst medicine that could happen to these mountains or to

critters.

No, there's more to it than that, Jack.

Animals are acting different.

There's something real wrong.

Real different up here.

It's getting lazy, if you ask me.

All along the trail up here, they was coming up begging for water.

Well, does that sound normal to you?

No.

How many did you see?

Must happen four or five times.

I'm going to go up and see if I can do something for them.

Well, you got to go right this instant.

Don't seem fitting.

Used to be a man would...

How do you pop her?

But you said a spell instead of rushing you off into something.

Come on, Ben.

I see him, Ben.

It's a deer over yonder.

There's some wolves.

They're leaving the mountain.

Why?

Well, if I didn't know Swallow Lake was right up over yonder, I'd say they was

going down for water.

No, something's happened, Jack, and I gotta find out. Well, don't get excited

over nothing.

What could happen to a whole lake that's always been there?

Would you look at that?

You know, somebody that told me this, I wouldn't have believed it.

Boy, it looks like the end of the world.

You might be right.

Because without this water, hardly any of these critters are going to make it.

Now, if things were bad before, they were a hundred times worse now.

And the days kept coming right along, each one hotter than the one before.

The forest was turning so poorly, it hurt just to look at it. And the

seemed like they was ready to give up and blow away.

But as usual, it was the critters that was suffering most.

From the instant we found Swallow Lake all dried up, Adams got to worrying for

the critters.

We had to find some water for them, or they was done for.

So Adams went one way to look, and me and number seven, we went the other.

We sure could have used Nokoma.

But Nokoma was still down at his village, helping his people get them

of theirs made.

They used them contraptions to catch the dew that come from the cooling of

night.

Didn't amount to more than a handful in each, but...

A long time back, Nicoma's folks learned it could save them in a bad time.

Of course, the water was too precious just to drink.

So they dipped pieces of bark or pine cones in it and chewed on them.

Nicoma finished up the work on the cisterns and decided he'd go on up and

how Adams was doing.

Not even damp, Kemp.

If our best creek's gone dry, that means all the rest have too.

There's no sense in looking any farther.

We're going to have to figure something out.

Some way, somehow.

These little guys are in trouble.

So about that.

Look at their nest that their mom's been gone for more than a day.

They look like she's coming back to take you fellas with us.

Tuck inside here.

You'll be nice and safe in there.

I know, Ben.

Seems like hard times are part of some little critters.

Now, don't you worry. We'll find your mama.

Is that all you?

You know, we're going to have to figure some way to get water up to these little

critters, and they aren't going to make it.

Now,

you've got to be funded.

You're a mite too big for me to carry you.

Come on, let's go.

Now, while Adams was beating the bush for a new creek or a hidden pond, I went

on up to the high crags, because I recollected that them rocks was just

good springs.

All you got to do is keep a turning over rocks till you find one with moss on

the bottom.

Then you dig out the rocks underneath of that one, and you find a good spring of

water. Nothing to it, just as easy as falling off a rock.

Now, there's got to be one in this one.

Why don't you get up here and help me?

That's my water finger.

And when it flitches like that, that's a sure sign there's water around here

somewhere.

Oh, look at that.

Look at that cheese right there.

Now all them little critters is going to get themselves a...

Dang lizard.

Now that lizard wasn't in there taking himself a bath.

You never find lizards and water together anyplace.

You know, Seven, that old devil's breath is blowing hotter up here than it is

down below.

It's enough to burn the hide off of a stone statue.

Get over here and sun yourself a little bit.

Of course, this here drought compared to the ones we had in the old days is

practically a flood.

Well, I remember times when it was so dry that... Now, whoa up there, number

seven.

Don't you want to hear the rest of this story?

I got another, and it's even better.

Here's your family, Mama. All safe and sound.

We haven't had much rain this year.

We're a lot luckier than most.

We've got some water stored up in the barrel.

But we're going to have to ration it.

It's not going to be easy.

All we can do is drink it.

No washing.

Nothing else.

We're all going to have to stick together. This is going to be tough.

But we stick together through the good times. We're going to have to stick

together through the bad times.

Now, what rationing means is everybody's going to get a little water.

Get a little water in the morning.

Then we'll all get a little water at sundown.

That's all.

We've got to make it last.

Here you go, Ben.

Joshua?

I know it's not much, Josh.

Well, we're just going to have to learn to live with it.

Come on, Mary Lou, you're next.

That's a girl.

That's good.

We're going to get this down real quick.

Dano?

That's a good boy.

You know, Dano, I bet those catch barrels are the only water left in these

mountains.

You got some of that for me?

Howdy, Jack.

Yeah. I'll just explain to the critters how the rationing's going to work.

That figures.

Well, now, I'm just taking what's my due.

We're all in the same pond.

That's a joke.

Don't ask me how my luck went.

I didn't have none.

I tell you, there ain't no water up there in them rocks.

Just nothing in them spring holes but a herd of lizards.

Of course, I know there was no water up there all along.

I just went up there to satisfy your curiosity. See, I know more about them

things than you do.

Hand me that wood. I got to cover up this.

Now, that right there, that's one of the better ideas you've had.

Of course, you didn't build it, right? You didn't build it like we did in the

old days.

Well, I'm glad we got it.

We'd be in a fine fix without it.

Yeah, I got an idea about saving the animals. I want to show you.

Well, I'm not worried about the big animals. I think they can take care of

themselves.

It's the little ones.

We'll just hang these along the main animal trail, and I think they'll make

Well, how's a little critter going to drink out of one of them? They can't

lift it.

Well, they don't have to lift them.

These are drip sacks.

We hang them up along the trail, punch a little hole in the bottom, water drips

out on a flat rock.

They'd come right in and take a drink.

Well, I don't think it'll work, but... Well, me and number seven better

go along with you just to make sure you don't get everything hindsight, too.

Well, that's it, Jack.

I'm gonna rest a lot easier knowing some little critter's not going without

tonight. Me, too.

But I'll tell you something.

Right now, I'm feeling awful gant.

And I'm looking forward to some of that nice, juicy stir about you make with

them potatoes and carrots and the greens. What do you say? Let's go get

Let's do that.

Come on, Sam.

Come on, Ben. Let's go.

Hi,

Nokoma.

Well,

we got trouble.

Lots of trouble. Swallow Lake is dried up drier than last year's hiccup.

Closed up?

I can believe that.

We were just up there.

Well,

I'll tell you what we're doing for water. We're doing without. That's what

doing.

Let's get up to the cabin and have some supper. I'm for that.

I want a drink out of that catch barrel.

I'm so dry I could blow dust bubbles.

Hey,

fellas.

What's all the ruckus?

Jack, I've never seen him so upset.

You better check the water supply.

The wind must have knocked this dead tree down.

Smashed our catch barrel.

Sure is a sad sight.

What are we going to do now, Adams?

Pray, Jack, for anything we got left.

There's no reason for you fellas to fret.

There's nothing you could have done about this dead tree falling on our

barrel.

The street stood there for all those years.

Why couldn't it have just hung on for a couple hours more?

You can blame the devil's breath for this.

I tell you, that wind never blowed anything any good.

Blame it never got nothing done, Jack.

Holy jumping geocifrac.

Just because your roosting tree fell over don't mean you can start on me.

Now just go find somewhere else to roost.

Is it time for a drink of water yet?

Things weren't any better the next morning.

Jack, if we cut down to one small drink a day, I don't think it'll do it.

I know it.

We'd better get started.

We got a heap of a lot of work to do before this day's over.

Adams.

There ain't a harder working man in these mountains.

If I know what I'm doing, it's important.

Now, are you sure that what we're doing ain't all for nothing?

Jack, I can't tell you how many animals we're going to save.

But if we can save one, just one, it'll be worth twice the work.

Jack, it's a shame. It's a shame.

What do you mean, stay here, old man?

I can outwork you or Adams. Come on, Ben, let's go.

Or a 20 -mil team freight hitch. What do you think of that?

And then when I get home at night, I can do a jig like that. What do you think

of that?

I gotta say that once we got started, the going wasn't as bad as I thought it

would be.

It was just a whole lot worse.

That old sun acted like he was mad at us special and made it all the hotter for

spite. Everywhere we looked, the drought was already settling down like a weary

sickness.

And the critters, well, they couldn't change their instincts or their ways, so

theirs was even a more hurtful time.

And the mighty of the wilderness were took down as sorely as the shy and the

gentle.

Now, Adams' plan was for us all to dig whole flocks of them cisterns like

people did on all the animal trails.

Now, with Swallow Lake gone, there weren't no good chance, if any at all,

saving them critters up on Blueberry Ridge, but that didn't seem to make no

difference to Adams. As long as there was any chance at all, he wouldn't give

up. For Adams, they were his neighbors and his friends.

Even more important, they were like family.

And it made his heart heavy that he might be seeing so many of them for the

time.

But all that hard work was beginning to pay off, just like Adam said it would.

Ben, you see how good our drip bags are working?

Everywhere we've checked, the little critters are holding their own.

That's good.

Well, we best get to work.

Now, Nicoma was working hard and working alone, and that made it all the harder,

so he was mighty glad to find somebody to say hello to.

All of us was trying to do our best to help.

Some of us got carried away.

Now,

date

debit number seven, quit your laughing.

It ain't polite to laugh when somebody gets hurt.

Sounds like Jack, man.

He's catching up with us.

Let's go take a look.

I'm just plum tuckered out.

Oh, that hurts.

How's it going, Jack?

Howdy, Adams.

Well, I got her done.

Well,

what do you mean it's all wrong?

What does the bear know about digging a cistern anyways?

Well, Ben don't mean it's not right.

He's just saying it doesn't look quite like the one the Comas folks built.

They've been doing it a lot longer than you and me.

Well, yeah, there's...

inventing like they've done, and then there's improving like I've done.

I've built me some like Nicoma's, but this here is my new improved water

catcher. I call this the little Jack Dandy new improved water catcher.

You know, I think you've been out in the sun too long.

Out in the sun?

You wait till tomorrow morning.

We'll come up here, and them that are built like Nicoma's is going to have

that much water in them.

But this one here...

It's going to have so much water in it, you can jump in it and take a

teetotaling, full -over bath.

Yeah, the sun will be setting soon, and the coma will build a camp up on the

ridge. How about going up there?

Can't sit too soon for me.

Come on, Ben, let's go.

How's your lumbago?

It's dead.

Well, sir?

There I was up on the high ridge during the year of the big drought, and there

was a whole herd of fish following me along the trail.

And, uh... Look at him.

Down to sleep, just plum -tuckered out, and here I am, ready to go again.

Uh... Where was I?

About the fish following you up the hill.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Well, sir, there was this one big fish, and he was a, uh...

He was a... Of

course, I was just dozing off

a little bit, mind you.

Because I had every intention of getting back up and finishing my fish story and

then doing some more work.

It being cooler at night.

I guess Adams must have had the same idea.

Adams and Ben spent the whole night digging one well after another.

They had no intention of stopping until the sun come up.

Good morning, Ben.

All right.

Sun's up.

Everybody rise and shine.

Well, it's a sad thing to see a full -grown man lollygagging around in bed

the day half gone and... Get her work to be done.

Having a hard time waking up, are you? Oh, no, Jack. No.

Jack, look how strange all the animals are acting.

I smell it, too.

Jack, the woods are on fire.

In a matter of minutes, things was going from a calamity to a catastrophe.

How's it look? How bad is... Oh, jumping.

Well, the main fire's down there in that hollow, Jack.

It's a ways off yet, though.

There's some smaller blazes down there to the south and east.

It's not moving too fast, but it's coming right up through Blueberry Ridge.

Yes, I'll doubt.

Rabbit? There's nothing worse than rabbits in a forest fire.

The sparks will get in their fur and they'll panic and run into the bushes

spread the fire.

Come on up here, little badger, to higher ground.

That's a good boy.

Ben, you stay here.

That block down there will make a natural fire break.

Let's head down that way.

We get down here in a coma and try and get in front of the little critters and

drive them up out of the woods.

I want you to take the drought of the east, and I'll take the granite spine to

the west.

I'll go down and work my way back up the middle. That way we can drive the

little critters up to the barren rocks.

They'll be safe up here in the rocks.

Now, number seven, you do like Adams told that badger fella.

You get back up yonder into them barren rocks and you stay there.

Now,

number seven, there's two things that make me lose my temper.

One of them is a slab -sided, knock -kneed, lop -beard, spival -legged, blue

-nosed, mule -headed burl.

That don't do what he's been told to do.

Now you get back up there into them rocks and you stay there.

Until I come for you.

Now, go on.

That's right.

I'll be back.

With the fire worsening, each of us was trying to get as many animals to safety

as we could.

Come on, fellas.

Come on.

That's it.

Get going, old guy.

Scoot. Scoot, all you fellas. Get on up to the ridge like Adam said.

Get on out of here now.

Get up to the ridge. Well,

I'll be dag -nabbed and plum -buttered now.

What you doing standing there barring my way?

First you drank up all the spring water up yonder.

Now here you are.

stopping me from doing my duty. Now, this is no time to be arguing with no

lizard.

You get under there, or you're going to be safe. Come back here.

That's the way.

Now, watch it.

We tried beating out the flames as best we could, but it were next to

impossible. That fire were a spread that fast.

griddle -fried brown.

If you're trying to get on my good side, you're coming the wrong way around.

Now, I put you under that rock so you'd be safe there. Now, I'm going to put you

back and you stay there.

Twitch the smoke and the noise that fire was making. It was hard to see or hear

anything. But then sharp ears of Nokoma told him a cougar cub had got himself

trapped.

All right, you stay up here.

Don't be frightened.

Nokoma had saved the couple, but that fall he took knocked him unconscious,

he was surrounded by a wall of flames.

Now you stay put this time, and don't you come and follow me.

That's the way now you stay up here, too You all right in there all right

You're

safe up here You

stay up here in these high rocks, that's good

Seven, you keep both eyes on this critter this time.

He's a sly one.

I've been putting him under this rock all day long, and he just keeps

me around.

Now you stay there this time.

You seen Nikoma? I ain't seen him for a long time. I ain't seen him in longer

than that. Why don't you go back down, look in the draw, and I'll go up here

along the top of the ridge and look for him. All right.

The coma was still unconscious, and them planes was a closing in fan.

When Adam seen the coma, he didn't know if he were alive or dead, but he knew

for sure them trees was about to come tumbling down.

My lungs was so full of smoke I could barely breathe, let alone move.

I figured that I was about done for.

Number seven.

Am I glad you didn't do what you're supposed to this

one time.

Now let's get out of here.

Come on.

That's a good girl.

Keep moving.

Follow me down there once more, and I'm just going to leave you there.

Just stay jumping catfish.

Stay six of them.

These old twins.

And I thought it was the same one following me all the time.

Adam, I just...

Got me a crick in my rain shoulder.

It's raining, Jack.

It's raining.

You feel that, number seven?

Well,

all fine that ends fine.

The rain put out the forest fire.

And Adams is going to make us a big batch to stir around, made with carrots

onions and turnips. And you know what you ought to do?

Put some garlic in it. I like garlic. I could eat a big hunk of garlic. Just

raw.

We know.

Well, what do you mean you know?

It's a little hard to keep tickets like that out here.

Yeah, Nekoma, I hope we never see another drought like this again out

Me neither.

But you know something?

This ain't the worst drought that I ever was in.

Why, we had droughts up here in the old days that the water on my knee would

just plumb evaporate.

We're all grateful for the rain, Nekoma.

It's just a shame we never appreciate the worth of things until they're gone.

It's a shame to waste water.

I hope this is a lesson we'll never forget. I ain't never going to forget

You know, I'm so happy about this rain, I might just take myself a plum tea

total and all over bath.

Well, now, I... Not now, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Hold it. I was...

Deep inside the forest is a door into another land.

Here is our life and home.

We are staying here forever in the beauty

of this place all alone.

We keep on hoping.

Thank you.