OCR Text |
Show Commanders quarters. Commissary storehouse. Fort Bridger, Wyoming A LCc At Our Past Fort Bridger was originally established as a trading post by Jim Bridgerand hispartner, Louis Vas-quin 1843. Built near Black's Fork on the Green River in what is now southwestern Wyoming, the post offered a blacksmith shop and supplies to travelers on the Oregon Trail. Jim Bridger was born in 1804 in Richmond, Virginia, and moved to St. Louis as a young boy. In 1822 he came west as a member of the Ashley-Flenr- y Fur Company and soon established his reputation as a trapper, trader and guide during the height of the beaver trapping era. As the supply of beaver dwindled. the number of emigrants passing through increased steadily, therefore Bridger built his trading post primarily for the emigrant trade rather than the fur trade. It consisted of several crude log buildings and a corral enclosed by a z, log stockade. Among the early emigrants who stopped at Bridger's trading post were Mormons fleeing persecution in the East. Since Brigham Young and other church leaders needed a place where their people could rest and obtain supplies, they built Fort Supply in 1853, located approximately twelve miles south of Bridger's Post. In 1855 the Mormons purchased the trading post from Vasquez, and with Fort Supply PHOTOS and they were able to provision the Mormons as well as other emigrants heading west. Mormon occupation of the post lasted only two years. Friction developed between the newly-establishe- d Mormon state and the federal government. As a result. President Buchanan dispatched U.S. troops to the area in 1857. Because of the advance of an army led by Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston and guided by Jim Bridger. the Mormons burned their forts and retreated (o Salt Lake City. In October. 1$?7, jjvhen Johnston and his men rdrriveJ at the fort they found only tjhe charred i cmains. Johnston ordered his men toselupatempor-- ' ary cimp, known., is Camp Scott, about J ': mites south of the present site of. Fort Bridger, where they remained fof the winter. In the spring of 1858, Johnston continued on to Salt Lake City. The soldiers remaining behind began to build a permanent fort, utilizing the cob-y- , blestone wall built by the Mor- mons. By 1859 a total of 29 build ings had been constructed. During the early 1860s the fort served as a station on the Pony Express and Overland stage routes. With the out? military personnel at Fort Bridger were ordered east. For nearly a year, the post was without troops until W.A. Carter, post sutler. . organized a volunteer militia of local citizens. Volunteer regiments from Nevada and California garrisoned the fort from 1862 until 1866. tlarly in April, 1866, a company of Galvanized Yankees (former Confederate prisoners of war allowed to serve in the Union Army on the Western frontier) were sent to Fort Bridger. of 1866 the last By of the volunteers were mustered out. and the fort was garrisoned by two companies of regulai infant) y under Brevet,-MajoAndrew S. Burt,, Like most frontier military instaIlations,-ForBridger re-- . mained primarily an infantry post. At one point it garrisoned 350 mid-summ- - t troops. .In the late'. 1860s, detachments from the fort were assigned to escort work crews from the Union , ; , i Pacific Railroad as they made their way west. After the completion of the railroad the fort also served as a supply center for troops campaigning in the western portion of Wyoming- Territory 'In addition to military duties. Fort Bridger served as the Shoshone Indian Agency where in August, 1868. an important treaty strategic supply center for geological and paleontological surveys and mining expeditions w hich were active in the area in the 1870s. A period of relative peace settled upon the valley in the 1870s. despite the Indian Wars" taking place on the Northern Plains. As a result, the post was abandoned in 1878. Because of an uprising by Ute Indians in Colorado. Fort Bridger was reactivated on June 28, 1880. Additional barracks and quarters w ere constructed and general improvements made. Further construction occurred in 1884. at which time a.structures were c laid, and the added, a post commander s house built. As the frontier became settled, the military significance of Fort Bridger waned, and the last detachment of soldiers left on November 6. 1890. After its abandonment the fort remained a community center and the home of he family of Judge W.A. Carter. After his death in 1881, his wife Mary succeeded him as post trader and was appointed caretaker of the empty fort. Many buildings were sold at auction. Some, though remodeled, are still in use in the Fort Bridger area. In the late 1920s the state of Wyoming acquired the site through the efforts of the Wyoming Histor-- : ' ' Mission. Since that tiiav i in, uiiJger has been preserved and maintained as a lasting reminder of Wyoming's colorful past. PAGE DESIGN Marty Lee Medical tools of the day. L4 1 Typical army revolver. ft Remnants of original fort wall. |