Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez operated a trading post in 1846 in log buildings and corrals reconstructed from a post originally built in 1843, when the fur trade was rapidly dying because of changing Eastern fashions and the depletion of beaver from Rocky Mountain streams. Known as Fort Bridger, the post marked the end of the era of free-roaming trappers and the beginning of the westward movement of civilization. Thousands of emigrants stopped there for supplies, smith-work, or fresh animals as they traveled west in search of land, gold, religious freedom, or a fresh start. Jim Bridger's original fort consisted of two pole stockades: one measured 100' x 100' and contained two log cabins at right angles to one another, each divided into two rooms, with the proprietors and their families sharing one cabin and the other housing the blacksmith-carpenter shop and trade room; the other enclosure measured 100' x 80' and was used to corral livestock at night against theft. Fort Bridger was briefly occupied by the Mormons in the early 1850's. The reconstruction was based on diary accounts, made possible by a donation from former local resident George V. Caldwell and his wife Phila Caldwell, built during 1985-6, and according to archaeological evidence sits about 60 yards northwest of the original.
