Later others operated ferries, and the valley vied with Yuma in the matter of human activity.

Fort Bridger was a place for rest and repairs, for there was a primitive blacksmith forge and carpenter shop.

Here lived Bridger with his dark-skinned wife, chosen from a native tribe, and Vasquez, also a famous hunter.

The fort was simply a few log cabins arranged in a hollow square protected by palisades, through which was a gateway closed by timber doors.

Simple though it was, its value to the emigrant so far away from any settlement can hardly be appreciated by any who have never journeyed through such a wilderness as still existed beyond the Missouri.