Location
c/o Ft. Bridger State Park
P.O. Box 35
Ft. Bridger, WY 82933
(307) 782-3842 (Office)
Linda Newman-Byers, Superintendent
Site Facilities
Interstate 80 Exit 66; US Highway 30; within Granger City Limits.
Brief History
This adobe-covered stone structure was one of dozens of Overland Trail stage stations built in the 1850s. The original station, Ham's Fork, was a dugout affair built around 1850. It was replaced by the stone structure in 1856 and renamed South Bend Station. Horace Greeley and Mark Twain were just two of the thousands of passengers who passed through. Later, the Pony Express used the station as a stopover in 1861-1862. When Union Pacific Railroad construction arrived in 1868, the old stage station was overrun with workers who renamed the site Granger.
The first fort in Wyoming was started as a fur trade post in 1834, known as Fort John. Located near the Laramie River, it had become Fort Laramie by 1849 when the military took control. The fort's grounds just west of the town of Fort Laramie in southeast Wyoming have an open parade ground surrounded by military-era buildings. One structure, Old Bedlam, is the oldest standing building in the State of Wyoming. At or near Fort Laramie, fur traders, overland emigrants, the frontier army and Indians gathered as they came to trade, work and meet. read more
Built in 1858 as the first federally funded and deliberately constructed trail, the 256-mile Lander Trail was initially created for the purpose of moving military troops to the Pacific Coast for protection of those areas. read more
