Fort Bridger State Park

Fort Bridger State Park is a historical site in southeast Wyoming. We paired this adventure with Fossil Butte National Monument and made it into a day trip.

Fort Bridger was built by Jim Bridger, a famous mountain man, who had explored a lot of the western United States. He built this fort as an outpost for those travelers heading west. It was a major stop on the Oregon trail.

Fort Bridger is mostly restored buildings. Some of the military buildings were sold off to private owners and the remaining buildings just sat in disrepair until people began to restore them. There are a few replicas such as the the original fort that Jim Bridger lived in.

The entire area is a large property with many buildings to walk through and some large grounds to explore. There is a store, a guardhouse, a jail, several barracks buildings, and a museum. In several of the buildings, you'll find a button to push to tell you about the room. We liked the jail best. There are three sloping beds in the guard room that are propped against the wall so that the guards couldn't fall asleep on duty.

Another building we liked was the store. It was like walking through a store from the 1800s with old tools, bottles, and furs arranged on the walls. An old cash register sits on the counter, and there is a volunteer here to answer questions. Our boys were fascinated with the old merchandise.

Outside the store

Inside the old store

There is a short walk across a small bridge to a replica of the original fort complete with lodgepole walls. Inside, you'll see a blacksmith shop, a small store with toys and other items, and another bunkroom. We also ran into a few different types of wagons parked around the grounds.

At the museum there is a small giftshop. There are displays showing what the inside of buildings at the fort would look like. Our kids were fascinated by the washer and dryer for laundry (a tin pail with a hand agitator and a wringer).

Fort Bridger replica 

Inside the museum

We had a lot of fun at Fort Bridger even though we were hurrying to see it all before it closed. You can walk to all the buildings and we pushed our stroller everywhere, even through the grass over to the fort replica.

Fort Bridger is a fun historical stop on your way through the Rock Springs area.

This was the biggest wagon any of us had every seen.

I'm not sure we could have made it as pioneers.