Fort Bridger, WY
We left Salt Lake City and began our trek back toward the east. We drove about Three hours to Fort Bridger RV Camp in Fort Bridger, WY. We knew Fort Bridger was a small town, but we had no idea how small. Business Route 80 that runs through town is paved as are the streets to the north of Business 80. But Main Street and most of the other streets to the south of Business 80 are unpaved.
Fort Bridger RV has full hookups with 30/50 amp electric, cable and free Wi-Fi. The roads are a mixture of dirt and gravel, and the sites are all grass. Most of the sites are back-ins, but there are several pull-throughs down at the end where we were. The sites are all generously sized.
Fort Bridger RV Camp advertises they are quiet with no train and no interstate noise. Wow, are they right! It was a real contrast after being right next to an interstate at our last stop.
There are two drawbacks to Fort Bridger RV. One is wind. We should have known because we passed a couple of wind farms as we approached Fort Bridger. They just don't spend all that money to put up all those wind generators is it's not windy almost all the time. The wind begins to build by mid morning and gets to be downright strong by afternoon. The wind is quite annoying if you're doing anything outside, and we had trouble opening the door a couple of times. Fortunately, the wind dies down at night so we didn't have to listen to the slide toppers flap and keep us awake.
The other drawback is the number of bugs. Fort Bridger is near several small rivers, and apparently there is enough moisture for mosquitoes, midges and other flying things.
The town of Fort Bridger gets its name from a fort built there in the 1840s by mountain man, Jim Bridger. Jim Bridger was a trapper who roamed the area in the 1820s and 1830s. By the early 1940s, fashions in the east were changing and there was less demand for furs, and beavers were becoming more scarce. Bridger knew the days of the trappers and mountain men were numbered, and he realized he needed a new source of income. He and his friend, Louis Vasquez, built a trading post in 1843 near Blacks Fork of the Green River along the Oregon Trail with the intention of selling supplies to the pioneers on their way west and to trade with the local Indians.
Today, the site of Fort Bridger, which was only about two blocks up Main Street from the campground, is operated as a state park. The site has several historic buildings from the Army post that was on the site at a later date, and it also has a reproduction of Fort Bridger.
Inside the stockade were two cabins, one of which is shown below. The cabins had a blacksmith shop, the trading post and living spaces for Bridger and Vasquez.
Following the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in 1847, disputes arose between Bridger and the new settlers. Mormon leaders accused Bridger of selling guns and whiskey to the Indians. At the time, Fort Bridger was part of the Utah Territory, and Brigham Young was governor of the territory. In 1853, Brigham Young sent a militia to arrest Jim Bridger.
Bridger found out the militia was on its way and fled. Afterward, the Mormons built Fort Supply near Fort Bridger to supply Mormon pioneers. In 1855, they bought Fort Bridger from Louis Vasquez for $8,000.
Relations between the Mormons and the Federal Government deteriorated, and in 1857 the Army was sent to Utah to install a new governor. They had the authority to do that because territorial governors were appointed rather than elected. The Mormons set fire to Fort Bridger and Fort Supply as they withdrew. After some minor skirmishes, Brigham Young ended up relinquishing his governorship peacefully.
The Army spent a hard winter near Fort Bridger, and formally established an Army post there the following year.
William A. Carter was named the civilian supplier for the Army post. Some of the buildings that were part of his trading post remain today. The next photo shows the Carter store.
The inside of the Carter store is set up with antique and reproduction merchandise.
Fort Bridger was also a stop on the Pony Express route. There are stables behind the Carter trading post.
In 1861, the Regular Army was sent back east to fight the Civil War, and the fort was all but abandoned. Only a few volunteer units remained. After the war, the Regular Army returned.
A number of buildings from the Fort Bridger's days as an Army post remain, including the barracks in the photo below.
The building in the photo above that used to house a barracks is now a museum, and it has displays, photos and artifacts from the early days of Fort Bridger. Right inside the door was a mural that depicted the eras of Fort Bridger - old Fort Bridger (1843-1853), Mormon pioneer fort (1853-1857), military fort (1857-1890), and post-military era (1890-1930s).
The next photo shows Paul with some of the artifacts from the fur trade and the mountain men before Fort Bridger.
They also had a display of a Mormon hand cart. As we learned in Salt Lake City, pioneers who couldn't afford ox-drawn carts pushed their possessions across the plains in hand-built wooden carts.
The next photo shows the commanding officer's house. This house was built in 1884 and replaced a log house that had beens used since 1858.
In 1890, the military abandoned the fort and sold the buildings. Some buildings were moved, some were dismantled and the building materials reused, and some were used where they were. For example, the commanding officer's house was used as a hotel, and the barracks was used as a milkbarn.
The Lincoln Highway was the first coast to coast highway and ran from New York to San Francisco right past Fort Bridger. Lincoln Highway had its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s. Adjacent to Fort Bridger are the Black and Orange Garage Camp Cabins that were along the Lincoln Highway. The cabins, which represent the post-military era of Fort Bridger, were restored in 2009. They had a small carport for your car, but no indoor plumbing.
That concluded our tour of Fort Bridger State Park. We headed back to the campground and relaxed before our departure the next morning. We headed farther east to Cheyenne where we had scoped out a lot of sightseeing possibilities. Stay tuned.
Great layout and description of your journeys. Love the back history of the places you visit pulls your reader into reading more...........great job on pictures and explaining those pictures :).........so far best Travel Blog in terms of overall lay out, interest, back history, and pictures...........happy travels
Posted by: Tim Vasquez | January 15, 2017 at 12:14 PM