Fort Bridger, WY - September 24th

 Today we visited Fort Bridger Historic Site.  This location had five different eras: Mountainmen, Mormon, Military, Milk Barn and Museum.  There was a film that told about the different eras.  If you google Fort Bridger Historic Site, the whole history is there.  I am going to give you things I thought were interesting, as I could not get all the facts down through the film.

While we toured the museum a couple things stood out to me in quirky ways.

1)   They had a “possibles bag” displayed with the definition it was a bag that holds anything you might need.

2) In 1802 an act was passed giving legal recognition to laundresses, the only women recognized by army regulations.  This allowed them one daily ration consisting of meat, bread and whiskey.  All other goods and food had to be obtained from other sources. There was one laundress on average for every 19 1/2 soldiers.  One of the laundresses who worked at Fort Bridger was Calamity Jane.  (I am glad they allowed the whiskey as part of the rations, probably the main way to get through doing 19 1/2 peoples laundry)

After touring the museum, we headed out to see the buildings on the site.  

During the Mormon Era they had erected a wall around the fort as shown below. 

When the military regained the fort, they used part of the wall as the back of the commissary.  The wall was a weak point and started deteriorating, so they had to build a new commissary and the old one, with the deteriorated wall became a practice shooting range.  This picture shows how deep the building was using the mormon wall as the back.

This was not the only building they went for quantity, not quality.  They built a jail so bad the prisoners could practically walk out.  The jail was right next to the commissary which also allowed them to get the supplies they needed when they escaped to move on.  They did build a better prison in short order.  One funny thing from that was the bed in the guard area was very slanted and there was a little note that said the bed is slanted to insure that the guards would not fall asleep while on duty.  I couldn’t get a picture of the bed due to the barrier reflection, but I would have just laid with my head at the higher part. Seemed such an odd thing to me.  If you want them to be awake, don’t provide a bed at all.

Jim Bridger built a trading post at this location.  This little trading center changed the economy of the area in ways never before seen, giving better access for trade and barter between tribal peoples and the explorers and pioneers.  Soon almost all trails going west included Fort Bridger as a major stop.  

One thing they had on display was a rope making machine.  Today we don’t even think about how things are made, just take it for granted.  Imagine having to figure out a way to make stronger rope.  3 hooks and a crank.

This building was the barracks during the military era.  During the Milk Barn era it was where the cows were housed and milked.  Waste not, want not.  This building was built in 1887 and abandoned by the military in 1890, so lots more cows lived there than soldiers.

This is the Commanding Officers Quarters.  After the military abandoned the location the house was moved closer to the road and made into a hotel.  In the 1950s it was disassembled and stored. Then it was rebuilt on the original site in 1980.  Interesting that the house was dismantled and stored for 30 years.   

One other interesting fact about this house is the back kitchen and servants quarters were designed to be able to collapse away from the rest of the home if a fire started in the kitchen.  

This home was one type of officers quarters.  There were also six other officers quarters at the time where each officer had a bedroom and sitting room with a hall between the other officer.  There was a shared kitchen and dining.  These were one story log buildings.

The Commanding officers quarters and the officers quarters were on the opposite sides of the creek from the soldiers quarters.  In the jail it said that soldiers could be jailed for crossing over the bridge to the officers side without permission.  Thought they were all on the same team?

William Carter who came with the army was a storekeeper and eventually became wealthy due to many businesses he started in the area.  Due to his wealth he built several buildings that were not common in the west at the time. 

 1) a school house - so his kids could be educated.  He hired a very good teacher and his kids were accepted to colleges in the east.  

2) a milk house - a processing and storage facility for luxury dairy products.  They did not state what luxury dairy products of the time were.

3) Wash house - this served two purposes, allowed the family to bathe in relative comfort and also housed the new fangled washing machine for the servants to use.

The other thing that was on the site is from when the Lincoln Highway was new and the major way west.  These cabins were built to accommodate all the new travelers.  The significant thing about the cabins is they each had a garage to store your automobile. 

Tomorrow is a travel day.

Til next time…