monwealth. Brigham Young and William Gilpin are the two great characters who early located in the Rocky Mountain country. Gilpin was an explorer, a soldier, a pioneer, a statesman and a founder of empire. He was broad-minded, possessed clear sight-seeing far into the future-was a loyal American citizen, and has left a name untarnished. He died loved and honored by all. Young was a man of another sort-leading men to do things through religious zeal, compelling obedience because of his commanding nature, reaching success through well chosen methods and building up his people and church by making the cornerstone of success, industry. Love of country was not in his

nature.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

HISTORY OF FORT BRIDGER.

FIRST A TRAPPERS' AND TRADERS' RENDEZVOUS-BRIDGER BUILDS A BLOCKHOUSE-The Bridger and Vasquez PartnershIP-THE MORMONS SETTLE AROUND THE FORT IN 1853-REBUILT IN 1855-OccuPIED BY GOVERnment Troops, Winter of 1857-8-Troops ON SHORT Rations—CaptAIN MARCY'S WINTER JOURNey-Fort RebUILT BY THE GOVERNMENT-PRACTICALLY ABANDONED IN 1861-Judge CarTER ORGANIZES A COMPANY OF MOUNTAINEERS TO GARRISON THE FORT-CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA VOLUNTEERS OCCUPY THE POST FROM 1862 TO 1866-ARRIVAL OF UNITED STATES TROOPS TO REPLACE VOLUNTEERS Troops Protect Overland Stages and Engineers of UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY-ABANDONED IN 1890.

Fort Bridger is one of the well known trading posts in the Rocky Mountains. As early as Bonneville's time the locality was a rendezvous for fur traders and trappers. Even as early as 1834 a number of trappers made permanent locations in the vicinity. They married squaws of the Snake or Shoshone tribes and tried to induce the Indians to stay in the country. This was against the nature of these marauders, and the trappers who had been adopted into the tribe found that for safety they must, a part of the year, follow the Indians. One of the trappers who had fallen in love with the country along the Black Fork was Jack Robinson, a man who thoroughly enjoyed a home and had great influence among several Indian tribes. For many years he was the personal friend of Jim Bridger and a great admirer of that renowned trapper, trader, Indian fighter and guide. He it was who called Bridger's attention to the many advantages possessed by the little valley of Black's Fork. There was beaver in all the streams of that country, buffalo, deer and elk in the vicintiy, and besides, it was beginning to be a highway used by those going to and from the Columbia River. These talks between Uncle Jack Robinson and Jim Bridger finally resulted in the latter's erec

tion of a trading house at that point. This post was located in the valley of the Black Fork, a tributary of Green River, two and one-half miles above Smith's Fork.

Basil Lajeunesse, W. M. Anderson, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Captain William Sublette, Fontenelle, James Bridger and Jack Robinson all visited the Black Fork in 1834 and spent a part of the season in that vicinity. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, Captain Bonneville, Captain Stewart of the British army, Dr. Harrison, a son of the first president of that name, and a number of Catholic and Protestant missionaries who were on their way to Oregon, were also visitors at the rendezvous held by the Rocky Mountain and American Fur Companies at that place the same year. The whole country was filled with Snake Indians at that time, and these had many friends among the trappers.

In the spring of 1842, Jim Bridger built a blockhouse, or rather two houses joined together, surrounded by a fence eight feet high, made of logs set three feet in the ground and hewn to a touching surface. This served as a corral for the stock and also protected the blockhouse, which was located within the enclosure. During the next few years a large amount of business was transacted in furs at this point. In 1845, Auguste Vasquez became a partner of Bridger at this fort. The former had served under General Ashley as a trapper and later under Captain William Sublette. In 1843 he was chosen by Fremont and went with him to Oregon and to Northern California, and returned with him to the Great Salt Lake and was discharged at the Missouri River. Coming back to the mountains, he entered into partnership with Bridger as above stated. The firm of Bridger and Vasquez continued to do business at the fort until 1854, when, it is said, they sold out to Louis Robinson, but I do not feel certain that this transfer was made. Louis Robinson was a native of North Carolina and came to the west in 1832, locating at Taos, New Mexico. The Mormons claim that he was of their faith and that he went to Green River with Isaac Bullock and John Nebeker and fifty odd other Mormons in the year 1853, when the great Mormon

settlement was made on the western tributaries of Green River. It is said by some that this man Robinson directly represented Brigham Young and that he was acting under orders when he bought Fort Bridger and the land connected with it. All I can find on this subject comes principally from Mormon sources. There is a story, however, told by E. A. Curley, a special correspondent of the London Field, who wrote some letters to his paper from Wyoming in 1873. These letters were republished in 1874 by the Wyoming Board of Immigration, and from among them I select the following extract regarding a visit paid by the correspondent to Fort Bridger and the old mountaineer of that name. Mr. Curley seems to have secured the facts for this story, if facts they are, from Judge Carter, the post trader at Fort Bridger at that time.

"The post is nestled in a beautiful valley with babbling brooks running through and around it. It was named after a famous hunter, trapper and guide, Jim Bridger, who passed about fifty years of his life in the wild regions of the Rocky Mountains. He was a great favorite with the Indians, and, with a natural fondness for mountain scenery, he traversed the country in every direction, sometimes accompanied by an Indian, but oftener alone the beaver that he caught making his excursions as profitable as they were interesting to this wildest of mountain Nimrods. He familiarized himself with every mountain peak, every deep gorge, almost every hill and landmark, in an immense region of country. Few objects of interest to a hunter escaped his scrutiny, and he was said never to forget what once he had seen. By long intercourse with Indians, he learned their language, became familiar with their signs, adopted their habits, conformed to their customs, was imbued with some of their superstitions, and at length excelled them in strategy. In the course of his chequered life he saw marvels enough to have formed the stock in trade of a regiment of fair-weather travelers, and of novelists after-generally a long way after-Fenimore Cooper. But the actual marvels, of which he had seen so many, never satisfied Jim Bridger; he delighted in tough yarns, in which he was quite an artist, telling his most Munchausen-like stories with such an air of literal accuracy, and with such an appearance of honest indignation at the slightest shadow of doubt,

as generally enabled him to impose upon the credulity of the many. Mr. Hepworth Dixon, in his trip across the American continent, became the prey of artists far less skillful than old Jim; and it is almost a pity that he did not have the fortune to meet the greatest liar on the American continent and extend his very interesting book to three volumes in consequence. Bridger built a ranch on the site of the present post, where he had a few cattle in partnership with one Vasquez, who was, I believe, a Mexican halfbreed. When the Mormon pioneers first passed this way to Salt Lake, he probably acted as their guide. At any rate, he so far sophisticated President Brigham Young-who was even then an old bird not easily caught-that he bought out Bridger, who pretended to hold a stretch of thirty miles under a Mexican grant, paying him down $4,000 for the grant, the shanties and the cattle, and agreeing to pay $4,000 more at a subsequent time. The place became too hot for the Mormons; they had to leave, and Bridger rented his pretended grant to General A. S. Johnston of a military post for $600 a year, on a ten years' lease. Taking a copy of this provisional lease, he then journeyed to Salt Lake and succeeded in raising the other $4,000 from the Mormon prophet. But the contract, to be valid, must be confirmed at Washington. A diligent search revealed the fact that there was no Mexican grant, and that Bridger was kindly obliging the government for a substantial consideration with a piece of its own property. The bargain consequently fell through, and the post was established without payment of rental; but old Jim had the pleasure of spending the $8,000. President Young had made repeated applications to have his claim allowed; but, although it is quite as good as many another that had passed muster, it is very unlikely that the prophet will ever find profitable his $8,000 investment in Bridger. He still maintains, however, that he was never so unwise as to be outdone by old Jim; that his deeds are all right in his possession; and that it is nothing but the willful injustice of Uncle Sam that withholds from him this magnificent domain."

In corroboration of the sale by Bridger to Young, the War Department informs me that "The Mormons set up a claim to the land on which the post was located on the ground of a conveyance from James Bridger, who was said to hold a Spanish grant for the same." The land in that part of Wyoming was acquired from Mexico by the war of