James Bridger

The board's word railroads has a particular September behind it. Returning from his survey of the Great Salt Lake in 1850, Captain Howard Stansbury hired Bridger at Fort Bridger to find a direct road east that avoided South Pass. Bridger led the party along Bitter Creek and Muddy Creek, over the Continental Divide on September 20 at the gap known since Stansbury's report as Bridger's Pass, and north of Elk Mountain to Fort Laramie. The expedition was meant to inform a railroad route; the Overland Stage moved onto Bridger's line in 1862.

What the plaque says

James Bridger Trapper 1844 He little knew that when he cut his name or had it cut in this stone, that it would be engraved in the annals of the history of the west deeper than that of any other man. As one of the world's outstanding explorers he guided emigrants, railroads and army in the expansion of a nation. Sublette County Historical Society Lincoln County Board of Commissioners Wyoming Highway Dept.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Names Hill State Historic Site — steps away
  The Sublette Cutoff's register cliff above the Green River crossing, where the most famous name, Jim Bridger's, is probably not his.

More markers nearby

• Names Hill — steps away