Bridger's fort a middling supply station

FORT BRIDGER -Hundreds of wind-swept, dry, dusty miles separated Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger, two of the main provisioning stops on the western trails. By the time ovcrlanders arrived at Jim Bridger's fort on the Black's Fork of the Green, they needed to rest and recuperate. And they needed supplies.

Jim Bridger said in a letter written for him and dated December 1843:

I have established a small fort with a blacksmith shop and a supply of iron in the road of the emigrants on Blacks Fork of Green River, which promises fairly.

Joel Palmer described the fort as a shabby concern built of poles and daubed with mud.

Unfortunately, the supplies emigrants needed often weren't available and Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez also became scarce. Vasquez, with his delusions of grandeur, went for prolonged rides in the countryside in a coach and four, while Old Gabe, as Bridger was known, had a wanderlust that never ceased.

In August 1843, John Boardman wrote:

Arrived at Bridger & Vasquez's Fort, expecting to stay 10 or 15 days to make meat, but what our disappointment to learn the Sioux and Cheyenne had been here, run of all the buffalo, killed 3 Snake Indians and stolen 60 horses.

Sources: The Oregon Trail Revisited by Gregory M. Franzwa and Historic Sires Along the Oregon Trail by Aubrey Haines, used with permission.