Statue of "mountain man" Jim Bridger outside Fort Bridger, a Wyoming state historical site in the tiny Uinta County town of the same name in the southwestern corner of that state. Established by Bridger and Louis Vasquez in 1843 as an emigrant supply stop along the Oregon Trail, the fort was obtained by the Mormons in the early 1850s, and then became a military outpost in 1858. (The Oregon and Mormon trails, which had followed the same route across Wyoming, diverged here, the Oregon Trail heading westward into what is now Idaho, and the Mormon Trail dipping southward into the Mormons' "New Zion" in Utah. The site features several restored historical buildings from the military time period, a reconstructed of the trading post operated by Bridger, and an interpretive archaeological site containing the base of the cobble rock wall built by the Mormons during their occupation of the fort. Photo by Carol Highsmith.