139 
Fort Bridger 
the region, but the story of that episode does not belong here, 
and may be found in any history of California. The same 
year in which the formal treaty of peace was signed (1848) an¬ 
other event occurred which was destined to have a vast influ¬ 
ence on the whole country and lead streams of emigrants to the 
new Dorado 
across the broad 
wastes of the Colo¬ 
rado Valley; gold 
in enormous quan¬ 
tities was discov¬ 
ered on Sutter’s 
California ranch. 
There were three 
chief routes from 
the “States” 
across the wilder¬ 
ness of the Colo¬ 
rado River basin: 
one down the Gila 
to the Yuma coun¬ 
try, another by 
South Pass and so 
on around Salt 
Lake and down 
the Humboldt, 
and the third also 
by South Pass and 
Salt Lake and 
thence south, by 
Mountain Mead¬ 
ows and west by 
the Old Spanish 
Trail. On the northern road Jim Bridger had, in 1843, 
established a trading post on Ham’s Fork of Black’s Fork 
of Green River, and this now was a welcome stopping-place 
for many of the emigrants,^ while on the southern trail a 
A Canyon in the Cliffs, Southern Nevada. 
Pencil sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. 
^ Brigham Young and his followers crossed to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. 
