THE OYEELAND EOUTE COUXCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEX. 



77 



man to settle in 



. 88) was named for James Bridger,^ 

 this section. Near the station the 

 rocks of Upper Cretaceous and Jurassic age that 

 underlie the Tertiary beds of the Bridger Basin begin 

 to appear at the surface. About 3 miles north of the 

 station^ where the raiboad turns south, the hills 

 formed by these older rocks are visible at the right (west), and the 



formed by them lie nearly parallel to the road as far south as 

 the Aspen tunnel. Throughout this distance the route traverses the 



Bridger. 



Elevation 6^622 feet- 

 Omaha S93 miles. 



m 



W 



which here dip gently to the east. 



The original route of the railroad from Leroy up the valley of 



Muddy 



abandoned. It was difficult 



Leroy. 



Elevation 6,702 

 Omaha S98 milt 



mes 



for all heavy trains. The new route follows the 

 valley used by the Mormon pioneers in crossing 

 This ridge is pierced by the Aspen tunnel, which is 

 5;900 feet long and is the largest single piece of tunnel work per- 

 formed by the Union Pacific Railroad Co. In order to hasten 



Aspen Ridge. 



"wild West." 



ger was a weU-known pio- 

 much toward taming the 

 Although he called Fort 

 Bridger his home, he may more properly 

 be spokea of as a citizen of the West, for 

 he was at home beside the camp fire 

 wherever night overtook him, whether on 

 the plains or in the mountains, whether 

 alone or surrounded by hostile savages. 

 He was bom in Richmond, Ya. , in 1804, 



as a guide for the Army in the several 

 campaigns against hostile Indiana, and 

 also by companies of emigrants, espe- 

 cially by the gold seekers of 1S49. He 



I mi 



vance company of Mor^nons 



by 



Brigham Young, were on their Avay to the 



it 



'mi, 



was 



employed by the Rocky ifountain Fur 

 Co. So rapidly did he become familiar 

 with the wilderness and with its savage 

 inhabitants that before he was 30 years 

 of af^e he was known as "the old man of 

 the mountains." He discovered Great 

 Salt Lake in the winter of 1824-25, and, 

 because of the salinity of its waters, 

 thought it was an arm of the Pacific 

 Ocean. Two years later men under his 



Lake 



the supposed diflSculty of ripening crops 

 there. He said to Young: *'I will give 

 you a thousand dollars for the first ear of 



Youn 



pletely 



skins. 



explored the lake, pa^sm^ 

 £tround it in boats ma 



or 



originated 



post 



miles southeast of the Bridger station, he 

 built the fort that bore his name and 

 wliich wai later used by United States 



soldiers. 



Bridger 



was 



long 



employed 



corn that ripens there. ^' 



claimed divine ^lidance, replied; '*Wait 



and we will show you." 



^Aspen Ridge is the easternmost of a 

 series of north-south ridges that are sepa- 

 rated by troughlike depressions, of which 

 Mammoth Hollow is a type. These ridges 



in mountain-making move- 



^....^ .,^oh probably begim at the close 

 of the Cretaceous -pervA and resulted in 

 the uphea\^l of the Uinta and Wasatch 

 mountains on the south and the group of 

 mountains extending southward from 

 Yellowstone Park on the north. The^ 

 ridges connect the groups of mountains 

 and may be regarded as incipient moun- 

 tain ranges. The rocks were broken or 



