Ft. Bridger State Historic Site

With the decline of the fur trade and the need to find a new way to make a living, mountain men Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez built a small fort. Consisting of only a few cabins and a stockade, Fort Bridger provided thousands of travelers each year with supplies, wagon repairs, and other assistance.

In 1855, the Mormon trader Lewis Robinson bought the place in order to serve the thousands of Mormon immigrants headed for Utah. The new owner built a stone wall around the fort, measuring as high as eighteen feet, but its wooden portions would not last much longer. As the U.S. Army approached during the Utah War in 1857, the Mormons burned the fort and retreated west.

The Army took over the fort and began rebuilding it as a proper military post, with fortifications and numerous timber and limestone buildings added over subsequent decades. Throughout its history, the fort was also a center of trade and negotiations with several tribal nations. In 1868, Shoshone Chief Washakie and Bannock Chief Tahgee negotiated the Treaty of Fort Bridger, which established both the Wind River and Fort Hall reservations.

The Army abandoned the fort in 1890, after which the land and buildings were sold at auction. While some structures were torn down for their building materials, other were repurposed, which enabled them to survive until they could be reincorporated into the state historic site that was dedicated in 1933.