As the fur trade era ended, western American history began to take on a more permanent shape as people coming west shifted from exploration and hunting to farming, seeking gold, and building religious communities. Fort Bridger played a major role in this transition and has been credited as the first fort west of the Mississippi River built specifically to provide services to emigrants. After two unsuccessful earlier locations tried by Jim Bridger, this site flourished and has been steadily occupied and re-occupied from Bridger's time to the present. The remaining sill log segments inside the Mormon Wall foundation are all that survives of the trading post operated by Jim Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez. Built of logs and daubed with mud, the fort was described by some emigrants as "a shabby concern." In December 1843, Jim Bridger told Pierre Choteau Jr. that he had established a small fort with a blacksmith shop and a supply of iron on the emigrant road on Black Fork of Green River, where travelers who arrived with money often needed supplies, horses, provisions, and smith work by the time they reached it.
