Fort Bridger

thumb|right|250px|Fort Bridger
 
Fort Bridger was originally a 19th-century fur trading outpost established in 1842 on Blacks Fork of the Green River and later a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail, California Trail and Mormon Trail. The Army established a military post here in 1858 during the Utah War until it was finally closed in 1890. A small town, Fort Bridger, Wyoming, remains near the fort and takes its name from it. 
==Bridger's Trading Post==
The post was established by the mountain man Jim Bridger, after whom it is named, and Louis Vasquez.J. Cecil Alter, Jim Bridger (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962).
==Mormons and Fort Supply==
With the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in 1847, disputes arose between Bridger and the new settlers. By 1853, a militia of Mormons was sent to arrest him for selling alcohol and firearms to the Native Americans, a violation of Federal Law.http://www.legendsofamerica.com/wy-fortbridger.html He escaped capture, temporarily returning to the East. Near the existing fort, the Mormons established their own Fort Supply the same year. In 1855, Mormons took over Fort Bridger, reportedly buying it from Bridger for $8,000 in gold coins.Fred R. Gowans and Eugene E. Campbell, Fort Supply: Brigham Young's Green River Experiment (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1976).
==Utah War==
Relations deteriorated between Mormon leaders in Utah Territory and federal authorities in Washington, D.C. Following the election of President Buchanan, the Army was ordered to Utah to install a new governor, replacing Brigham Young, as well as to establish a military presence. As the Army advanced, the Mormons in the Green River valley withdrew, burning Fort Supply and Supply City. On the night of October 7, 1857, "Wild Bill" Hickman set fire to Fort Bridger to keep it from falling into the hands of the approaching United States Army during the Utah War. The army wintered near Fort Bridger. In June 1858, as the majority of Johnston's Army set off for Salt Lake City, two companies of troops remained behind and established Fort Bridger as an official Army post. The other troops continued on and eventually established Camp Floyd south of Salt Lake City.R. S. Ellison, "Fort Bridger: A Brief History," (1931).
William A. Carter was appointed as post sutler at Fort Bridger in 1858. Perhaps more than any other individual, the history of the post revolves around this civilian merchant who remained at the center of the post's activities for its entire history. 
At the end of the hostilities, the United States Congress rejected Brigham Young's claim to the fort, nor did it recognize Jim Bridger's continuing claims to the fort.
==Civil War==
Following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, all the federal troops in Utah Territory were withdrawn to fight the Confederate Army in the east. The following year, Colonel Patrick Edward Connor was sent to Utah with a column of California Volunteer Cavalry and Infantry, establishing Fort Douglas near Salt Lake City. Connor later sent two companies and reestablished Army presence at Fort Bridger. A variety of volunteer units were stationed at Bridger during the Civil War. 
==Return of the Regular Army==
In 1866 with the muster out of the volunteer units, the Regular Army returned to man Fort Bridger. The first were companies of the Eighteenth Infantry. The isolation of the post decreased some in 1869 when the Union Pacific Railroad was built through the area. Ultimately, the expanion of the railroads in the west made this and other forts obsolete.
Fort Bridger was first abandoned in 1878 but then re-established two years later. The post was finally closed by the army in 1890.
==Town of Fort Bridger==
After the departure of the Army, the buildings were sold off and the site soon became a cattle town in southwest Wyoming. A hotel was established in the old Commanding Officer's Quarters and the large stone barracks eventually became a milking barn. 
==Fort Bridger State Historic Site==
In 1928, Fort Bridger was sold to the Wyoming Historic Landmark Commission for preservation as a historic monument, now designated as Fort Bridger State Historic Site. Several original buildings remain and have been restored. The 1888 stone barracks contains a museum with artifacts from different time periods in the fort history. Visitors can also tour a reconstructed trading post and an interpretive archaeological site. 
==Photographers at Fort Bridger==
Photographers had been passing through this frontier military post since almost the inception of the art form. Daguerreotypist John Wesley Jones visited the garrison in 1851 and Samuel C. Mills, traveling with the Army bound for Utah, produced at least one image of Fort Bridger in 1858. Salt Lake City photographer Charles W. Carter came during the winter of 1866-67 and his former mentor, Charles Savage, visited a number of times between 1866 and the early 1870s. The noted Union Pacific Railroad photographer Andrew J. Russell also stopped here in 1869. Census records show a photographer named Simeon Pierson at the post in 1870. In 1876-77, a soldier, Private Charles Howard ran a studio at the post. 
==Archaeology==
Dr. Dudley Gardner began work at Fort Bridger in 1990. Over the past fifteen years, he and his students have uncovered a portion of Bridger's original post, the Mormon fortification and the Army's subsquenent occupation. Work is currently advancing on the official excavation reports.
== Notes ==
==External links==
* Fort Bridger page, Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources
* Fort Bridger info from the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office
*Fort Bridger - Legends of America information
Category:1842 establishments
Category:California Trail
Bridger
Category:Fur trade
Category:Military and war museums in Wyoming
Category:Mormon Trail
Category:Oregon Trail
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming
Category:Uinta County, Wyoming
Category:Utah War
Category:Wyoming state parks
Category:Museums in Uinta County, Wyoming