01Biography
Trapper, scout, and storyteller, Bridger ranged the Rockies and the Great Basin for half a century. He is generally credited as the first non-Native to see the Great Salt Lake, in late 1824 or early 1825, though historians contest the priority, and he was a central figure of the fur-trade rendezvous era. With his partner Louis Vasquez he founded Fort Bridger in 1843, an emigrant resupply post on the way to South Pass. Though functionally illiterate, he carried an extraordinary mental map of the West and could draw an accurate route in the dirt with a stick.
02Why they matter
Built the supply post that anchored the trail's mountain section and guided countless emigrant parties and U.S. Army surveyors.
03How they died
Died of natural causes (likely a goiter and old age) on his daughter's farm in Westport, Missouri, on 17 July 1881, aged 77. He had retired east in 1868 after his eyesight and health failed.
04Legacy
Bridger, Wyoming, the Bridger-Teton National Forest, and the Bridger Range in Montana all bear his name. Fort Bridger is preserved as a Wyoming state historic site.