Fort Bridger, Wyoming: Trading Post for Indians, Mountain Men and Westward Migrants

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McFarland, 2007 M01 29 - 200 páginas

For nearly fifty years, Fort Bridger played a role in all major events of the 19th century Rocky Mountain frontier and westering experience. Founded in 1842 by mountain man Jim Bridger, this southwestern Wyoming post was one of the most important outfitting points for travelers on the Oregon Trail, riders of the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, and the Union Pacific Railroad. Trappers, buffalo hunters, Forty-niners, soldiers and outlaws would pass through what is now the Fort Bridger State Historic Site.

This post, or fort, is used as a basis for an illustrated account of the Rocky Mountain West. The book explores reasons why American Indian behavior varied between helpfulness and aggression toward mountain men and emigrants. Also detailed are weapons of the frontier, Fort Bridger's role in the 1857 Mormon War, the 1867 Wind River Mountains gold rush, and the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872. Several appendices are presented, including a discussion of gender in the westering movement and a selected chronology of frontier history.

Interesting and highly detailed excerpts are taken from such primary sources as a trapper's journal and an 1850 account of buffalo butchering.

 

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Contenido

Introduction
1
Looking for the Frontier West
7
Westering
14
Indians of the Northern Rockies
23
Mountain Men and the Fur Trade
40
The Great Migrations
57
Crossroads of the West
77
Gold Silver and Diamonds
95
Soldier Cowboy Outlaw
106
Frontier Weapons
126
The West of Our Imagination
142
Gender in Frontier History
151
A Western Mining Engineer Henry Janin 8389
157
Endnotes
173
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Acerca del autor (2007)

Hunt Janin is an American writer living in southwestern France. He has written numerous nonfiction and scholarly books on a range of subjects, including medieval history and cross-cultural studies.

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