National & State Parks Wyoming
Between 1840 and 1870 thousands-some experts say maybe as many as half a million-emigrants went West, following the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express Trails that took them across the Grain Plains and to settlements in Oregon, Utah and California.
Visit the grounds at Wyoming’s Fort Bridger State Historic Site and it’s like wandering along a trail of history, a tributary of the great American West where explorers, fur trappers, Oregon Trail emigrants and Pony Express riders coursed by on their way to settling and taming the frontier.
Fort Bridger’s beginnings go back to 1843 when mountain man Jim Bridger set up a trading post on the Black Fork of the Green River, close to the Oregon Trail. Bridger, and fellow trapper and adventurer Louis Vasquez, built a small pine-log stockade which included two log and mud buildings and a coral for horses. The buildings housed Bridger’s trading post, blacksmith shop and living quarters.
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