Thomas Bullock commented, “several brethren go to make trades with the French & Indians, but few succeeded, as they could not obtain sufficient for their goods.” Here the main Oregon-California Trail turned north toward Fort Hall, and the Mormon Trail/Hastings Cutoff continued west to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. The fort served as a Pony Express, Overland Stage and transcontinental telegraph station in the 1860s and was garrisoned by the U.S. Army between 1857 and 1890.

The Post Trader
The buildings in this area are virtually all that remain of the once thriving commercial empire of Judge William Alexander Carter and his wife Mary, Fort Bridger’s only two Post Traders. Carter arrived at Fort Bridger with Colonel Albert S. Johnston’s Army in 1857 and soon received the appointment as Post Trader. Selling to soldiers, emigrants, railroad builders, cattlemen, settlers, and Indians, William Carter amassed a fortune and became one of Wyoming Territory’s most influential citizens. His interest extended into lumbering, agriculture, livestock, mining, and politics. Carter’s “Bug” brand was known on the cattle ranges of four states. Carter County, Dakota Territory (antedating Wyoming Territory) was named for him as was Carter Mountain in northern Wyoming. The Carters entertained such notables as President Chester A. Arthur, James Bridger, Chief Washakie, Mark Twain, Jay Gould, Sidney Dillon, Generals Sherman, Harney, Crook, Augur and Bisbee.

After William’s death on November 7, 1881, Mary E. Carter assumed her husband’s position and carried on the empire he began in 1857. With Fort Bridger’s abandonment in 1890, Mary became the caretaker until the government auctioned off the buildings in 1895. The Carter family maintained the family business through the early Twentieth Century. Judge and Mrs. Carter’s contrbutions to the Rocky Mountain west, though of different nature, compare with those of James Bridger.

The Post Trader’s Store
Although Judge Carter dabbled in many areas, his main responsibility revolved around his activities as post trader at Fort Bridger. In this store he sold various items not supplied by the Army to the garrison, including limited amounts of liquor. A post council of administration set a ceiling on prices to make sure that the military received a fair deal. In addition to food, dry goods and other items regularly found in a general store of the period, Carter also provided a post office, as well as telegraph and even telephone service in the store’s many years of operation. When Judge Carter died in 1881, his wife, Mary, continued in her husband’s footsteps. She operated the store and its many facets, and when the government abandoned the fort in 1890, she became the custodian of the grounds until they were sold.

The building itself was an “L” shape with one wing of white washed wood running to the east and west for the store and a stone section which stood to the northeast for a tavern. The remains of this last section measures 25 feet 5 inches by 53 feet 4 inches. The walls rise 10 1/4 feet and the peak of the roof is 16 feet.

House, Warehouse and Mess Hall
At the northeast corner of Judge Carter’s complex rose the log chinked ice house. Three doors at the southern side appeared one over the other, allowing this tall building of 18 feet 7 inches by 14 1/4 feet to be entered at all levels as the ice stock began to grow lower with the coming of warmer weather. Ice could be taken to the stone building next door, the two story warehouse and butcher shop-meat storage area. The lower story contained the beef and included a type of walk-in freezer while the upper portion of this large 24 feet by 60 feet facility could hold stock such as dry goods. An “L” off the southeast corner provided space for Carter’s employees to take their meals. Two windows and a center door faced to the east to provide light and some additional warmth from the morning sun. This site measured 32 feet while the shorter ends were 18 feet.

School House, Milk House & Wash house
As an indication of his wealth and influence William Carter provided three buildings not commonly available to the average person on the American frontier. The first frame building served the family as a private school. It measured a mere 11 feet 3 inches by 14 feet 3 inches. Here the six children of Judge Carter received their rudiments of education. The adjacent stone structure was the milk house, an 11 feet by 16 1/2 feet processing and storage facility for luxury dairy products. The third building, the wash house, a 20 feet 2 inches by 11 feet 5 inches frame affair, made it possible for the Carters to bathe in relative comfort and also to have the servants do the wash. Inside this small edifice is a ‘washing machine,’ a new invention on the frontier. The walls of all these buildings rose less than 10 feet.

Post Trader’s House
Judge Carter began building his home in 1858 and continually added onto it as his family grew and his status improved. The house was a frame structure with board and batten siding. Two bay windows flanked the front porch. The Carter’s boasted one of the largest libraries in the region, and enjoyed several conveniences found in fine Eastern residences of the period. For this reason noted scientists, generals, railroad executives and other distinguished travelers welcomed an invitation to the house. A President of the United States and Mark Twain even visited the residence in its hayday. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the historic structure in the early 1930s.

Carriage House, Stables and Chicken Coop
This set of buildings completed the holdings of the Post Trader. The first board and batten building with the large double doors served as the carriage house. Judge Carter owned several animal-drawn vehicles which lent an air of wealth to the isolated frontier outpost. He also constructed a stable next to the carriage house for his teams, as well as for use by the Pony Express for the little more than a year that this service kept a station at Fort Bridger. A tack room connected to the stables, as did a crude low wooden shelter for such stock as milk and beef cows. Adjacent to this shelter is the frame chicken coop. The Carriage House is the largest of these buildings at 21 feet by 16 feet 3 inches while the enclosed stable measures 12 feet 9 inches by nearly 16 feet. None of these structures stand more than 10 feet high.

Commanding Officer’s Quarters—1884-1890
This structure was of frame construction and completed in 1884 during a period of extensive improvement at the Post. It supplanted the old log Commanding Officers Quarters which had been in use since 1858.

After the abandonment of Fort Bridger in 1890, the building was sold and moved to a new location a short distance to the northeast.

The structure subsequently served as a hotel for several years.

Post Commissary
The post commissary, erected in 1867, measured 28’ x 100’ and was built of cut stone quarried about two miles west of the fort. A portion of the old cobblerock Mormon Wall was utilized to form a section of the building’s north wall.

The commissary provided a vital service to the men of Fort Bridger. It was from this building that the men received their rations. In addition, a wide variety of supplies, including lighting devices, stationery, pens and ink could be purchased here by the troops as well as by certain civilian employees.

During 1983 and 1984 the remaining part of the commissary was restored. The interior now consists of a room that served as an office and sleeping quarters for the clerk, and the sales or issue room where the men were given their rations. The rear of the building, now missing, was the storeroom for the supplies. Since such storerooms were frequently targets of theft, the clerk’s sleeping quarters provide some extra security.

Due to the completion of a new commissary and increased concern regarding the building’s deterioration, in 1884 the army converted this building into an indoor shooting gallery. By 1887 it was serving as a storage area for rough lumber, and when the army left in 1890, the commissary building’s value had dropped to only $20

Bridger’s Stockade
These log buildings and corrals are a reconstruction of the trading post operated by mountain men Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez in 1846. The post was originally built in 1843 when the fur trade was rapidly dying due to a change in Eastern fashions and the depletion of beaver from Rocky Mountain streams. The establishment of this trading post, known as Fort Bridger, marked the end of the era of free roaming trappers and the beginning of the westward movement of civlization. Thousands of emigrants stopped here for supplies, smith work, or fresh animals on their way west to find land, gold, religious freedom, or a fresh start in a new land.

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 cabin was divided into two rooms. The proprietors and their families split one cabin and the other housed the blacksmith/carpenter shop and the traderoom. The other enclosure measured 100’ x80’ and was used to corral the livestock at night to guard them against theft.

Fort Bridger was brieflly occupied by the Mormons in the early 1850’s and then established as a military post by the U.S. Army in 1858. This reconstruction was based on diary accounts and made possible by a donation by former local resident and his wife, George V. and Phila Caldwell. It was built during 1985-6 and according to archaeological evidence, sits about 60 yards northwest of the original.

The Carter Cemetery
The decendents re-interred here in 1933 represent a very significant cross section of those individuals whose names and contributions will ever be associated with Fort Bridger’s early day history. Of particular interest are…….

“Uncle Jack” (John Robertson - an early mountain trapper who came to the vicinity in the 1830s and remained until his death. A colorful local character. It is said he was instrumental in convincing Jim Bridger of the wisdom of establishing a trading post on the Black’s Fork.

Virginia Bridger Hahn - born at Fort Bridger on July 4, 1849, daughter of the intrepid Jim Bridger by his second wife, a Ute Indian.

“Judge” William Alexander Carter who came to Fort Bridger with the United States Army in 1857, stayed to become a merchant -cutler, and with his family and associates went on to establish one of the most extensive business enterprises in Wyoming Territory.

This Cemetery was established on the Fort grounds through the efforts of William A. Carter, Jr. and the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming.

The Road to Zion
From the late 1840s through the 1860s, an exodus of more than 70,000 Mormons passed by here on their way to their “New Zion” in Utah. Starting from Nauvoo, Illinois in February 1846, the first group of at least 13,000 Mormons crossed into Iowa to escape religious persecution, then spent the winter in the area of present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska.

In 1847, Brigham Young led an advance party of 143 men, 2 women, and 3 children along the Platte River. At Fort Bridger, Wyoming they departed from the Oregon Trail to head southwest to the Great Salt Lake. Thousands of other Mormons soon followed. Today, a marked 1,624-mile auto tour route closely parallels their historic trek.

Many Mormon emigrants wrote diaries to describe their experiences. Appleton Harmon wrote his journal in 1847.

After arriving, the Mormon pioneers set up communities and ferry crossing along the trail to assist later wagon trains going to and from Utah.

From 1856-60, many European converts walked more than 1,200 miles to Salt Lake City pushing and pulling handcarts loaded with 500 pounds of supplies. After 1860, the Mormon church sponsored oxen-drawn wagons to bring emigrants to the “New Zion.”

Old Fort Bridger-Pioneer Trading Post
The Fort was established about 1842 by Jim Bridger, discoverer of Great Sale Lake; notable pioneer, trapper, fur trader, scout and guide. Bridger was born at Richmond, Virginia, March 17, 1804, and died at Westport, Missouri, July 17, 1884. His unerring judgement regarding problems of trappers, traders, soldiers, emigrants, and gold seekers, bordered on the miraculous, and his advice was universally in demand in the early history of this state.

Bridger has been prominently recognized as America’s greatest frontiersman and the west’s most gifted scout.

Sutler’s Store
The Post Trader’s or Sutler’s Store, shown as it appeared about 1871, was owned and operated by Judge W. A. Carter, a prominent citizen in Territorial Wyoming. The east-west wing on the left was removed sometime after the fort was abandoned by the Army in 1890. The Carter family is buried in the cemetery on Officer’s Row.

Thornburgh was a dog…
Named after Major T. T. Thornburgh who was killed in a fight with the Ute Indians near the White River Agency, September 29, 1879. The dog was a survivor of a wagon train burned during the battle and grew up as a military camp follower. Eventually he ended up at Fort Bridger.

On several occasions Thornburgh distinguished himself by his heroic deeds including catching a commissary thief, warning a sentinel of marauding Indians, saving the life of a soldier in a knife fight and rescuing a small boy from drowning.

At fort Bridger, Thornburgh became the devoted companion of a freighter, “Buck” Buchanan, and the favorite of many who frequented the Post. Thornburgh died September 27, 1888 as the result of being kicked by one of Buchanan’s mules.

It is said that Thornburgh’s master lies in an unmarked grave in the city cemetery at Salt Lake City.

Fort Bridger in 1889
Above is a copy of a watercolor of Fort Bridger done by Merritt D. Houghton (1845-1918) known for his historic illustrations of Wyoming towns, ranches and mines. The view is toward the south and the Uinta Mountains.

In 1889, the date of this painting, the fort had but one year remaining in its existence as a United States military post. The following year, as a result of the vanishing frontier and the lack of a need for forts such as this one, the army abandoned Fort Bridger.

A number and name description is listed locating all of the sites at Fort Bridger.

Mormon Occupation
The involvement of the Mormons in the affairs of Fort Bridger constituted a short, but eventful period. A few remnants of their industry may still be found.

After the establishment of Fort Supply, twelve miles to the south, in 1853, Lewis Robison acquired Bridger’s trading post in 1855, supported in his endeavor by Brigham Young. Under Robison’s proprietorship, trade with the emigrants, trappers and Indians continued much as usual around the post for the next two years.

Early in 1857, Brigham Young instructed Robison to fortify his property for protection from the Indians. Brigham was probably also apprehensive about the clouds of discontent gathering between the Mormons in Utah and the United States government. Throughout the summer, as a punitive force of Federal troops marched westward across the plains toward Utah, Robison worked hard with cobblestone and mortar to construct a walled enclosure. The main Fort, was 100 feet square with walls 16 feet in height and 5 feet at the base. Attached was a horse corral, 80 feet by 100 feet, with walls 8 feet in height and 2 1/2 feet wide at the base.

Robison completed the walls in August of 1857, just before “Johnston’s Army” reached Fort Bridger in November, the Mormons instituted a “scorched earth” policy and deserted and burned both Fort Bridger and Fort Supply. The fire-gutted stone walls then became a quartermaster storage facility. Subsequent military construction resulted in most of Robison’s fort being leveled to the ground.

The Mormon Wall
On August 3, 1855 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints concluded arrangements for the purchase of fort Bridger from Luis Vasquez, partner of James Bridger, for $8,000.00. final payment was made October 18, 1858. A cobblestone wall was erected in the fall of 1855, replacing Bridger’s stockade. A few additional log houses were built within the Fort. The place was evacuated and burned on the approach of Johnston’s Army September 27, 1857. A portion of the wall is here preserved. In 1855, Fort Supply was established by Brigham Young six miles south where crops were raised for the emigrants.

1st Commanding Officer’s Quarters
From 1858 to 1890 the area in the foreground was occupied by the log and frame structure shown in the photograph. The building was the fourth log Officers’ Quarters in a row of six constructed shortly after Fort Bridger was declared a military post in 1857. For sixteen years it served as the Commanding Officer’s residence with frame extensions added in 1868 and 1873 to provide a kitchen, servants room, parlor and two bedrooms. A new frame Commanding Officer’s Quarters was completed in 1884 after which this building was divided into an Officers’ Quarters and into Court Martial and Military Board rooms.

The First School House in Wyoming
In 1860, Judge Wm. A. Carter erected this school house for the education of his four daughters, two sons and other children of the fort. Competent instructors from the East were employed and the students of this school were permitted to enter eastern colleges without further preparation. Thus, the way was paved for future education in Wyoming.