Fort Bridger

Founded in 1842 by Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez as a fur-trading post on Blacks Fork, Fort Bridger became a crucial resupply stop for travelers on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. It figured in western migration, including Lansford Hastings’s cutoff, and later in conflict with Mormon settlers, who claimed to have bought it before retreating forces burned it during the Utah War in 1857. Reestablished as a permanent United States Army post in 1858, it supported overland travel, mail, and railroad construction, hosted the 1868 Fort Bridger Treaty, and served until its final closure in 1890. Surviving remains preserve these intersecting frontier histories.

Fort Bridger, Wyoming · United States