01Summary
Built in 1843 by mountain man Jim Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez. A mud-walled trading post and decision point.
02History
Mountain man Jim Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez built the post in 1843 on Black's Fork of the Green River, in what is now southwestern Wyoming. The original was a mud-walled adobe with a rough log palisade, and later versions of the post were larger and better built.
Bridger sold to the Mormons in 1855, under disputed circumstances, and they fortified it with a stone wall. The U.S. Army occupied it in 1858 during the Utah War and held it as a military post until 1890.
Throughout the trail era it served as the great branching point: Oregon-bound trains went north-west toward Fort Hall, California-bound trains who chose the Hastings Cutoff went south through the Wasatch Mountains (which proved disastrous for the Donner Party in 1846), and Mormons turned south-west into the Salt Lake Valley.
03Today
Fort Bridger State Historic Site preserves a reconstruction of Bridger's 1843 trading post, the 1858 Army officers' quarters, the post commissary, and a museum. Reenactors gather here every Labor Day weekend.
04People connected here
05Stops nearby
The Oregon Trail ran roughly 2,170 miles from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City. The stops immediately before and after this one are linked below; show Fort Bridger on the interactive map for the full route.