--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Jenson, Andrew collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 9 published: 1921-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Jenson, Andrew, "Fort Supply," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 9 (July 1921): 800–804.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2409unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2409unse start_page: 800 end_page: 804 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2409unse publication_year: 1921 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Fort Supply Fort Supply By Andrew Jenson, Assistant Church Historian It is perhaps generally known that a "Mormon" settlement called Fort Supply existed at one time in the Green river coun- try, but it is not universally understood that Fort Supply was actually the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in what is now the *tate of Wyoming. Anumber of old settlers in Uinta county, Wyoming, not to speak of others, have confounded Fort Supply with Fort Bridger, though the two settlements are twelve miles apart. Fort Bridger, a mere trading post, is situated on Black's Fork of Green river, while Fort Supply, a farming settlement, was located on Willow creek, a tributary of Smith's Fork. At the General Conference of the Church, held in Salt Lake City, in 1853, Elder Orson Hyde, the senior member of the quorum of Twelve Apostles, was appointed by the voice of the conference to make a permanent settlement on or near Green river, and on the last day of said conference (October 7), lie read the names of 39 persons, selected to accompany him on that mission. This company of 39 men started from Salt Lake City November 2, 1853, and crossed the mountains eastward to the upper country. There were generally two men to a wagon, and 300 pounds of flour, 75 pounds of seed wheat, half a bushel of oats, 40 pounds of the seed ends of potatoes (nicely done up to be secure against frost) and a peck of barley to the man. There was also a milch cow and a beef creature to each wagon. Besides this the company brought along all necessary teams, arms and ammunition, for defense and game, and seed corn and every variety of garden and fruit seed, etc.: also var- ious kinds of tools and implements for farming operations. The company was organized in the State House, Salt Lake City, with John Nebeker as captain, John Harvey, first lieutenant, James S. Brown, second lieutenant, and the well known Elijah Barney Ward, pilot and Indian interpreter. This company arrived at Fort Bridger, Saturday, November 13, 1853, and was soon after- wards joined there by another company of volunteers (53 young men) who traveled with 26 wagons and carried with them tools, implements, clothing, blankets, leather, nails, etc. Most of the outfits of these men were raised in the Sessions Settlement (now Bountiful) Davis county, Utah, by voluntary donations. This second company got fully under way from Salt Lake City, Wednesday, November 16, 1853, led by Isaac Bullock, captain. FORT SUPPLY 801 The documents at the Historian's office contain the names of all the others. The two companies joined their forces and located a settle- ment which they called Fort Supply, on Willow creek, a tribu- tary of Smith's Fork about two miles above the confluence of the two streams and about twelve miles southwest of Fort Bridger. President Brigham Young, in establishing this out- post settlement, had in view the raising of grain and vegetables in a high altitude, which, if it proved successful, would make it possible to supply the incoming immigration from the plains with the necessary flour and other eatables, and thus save the expense of hauling supplies eastward from Salt Lake City, a distance of about 120 miles. The following winter (1853-1854) was a cold one: the thermometer on one occasion registered 25° Fahrenheit below zero and some of the cattle belonging to the settlers froze to death. A number of Shoshone Indians wintered with the settlers. In the spring of 1854 the settlers of Fort Supply went to work in regular pioneer fashion, ploughing, sowing and plant- ing. A small crop was raised that year, but in the fall it was still a question whether or not farming could be made success- ful in that high altitude. In 1855 seventy acres of wheat besides other cereals were put in, and while the crops in other parts of Utah were being destroyed by grasshoppers that year, these insects did but very little damage in the Fort Supply fields. Everything looked pros- perous for a good crop until September 17, 1855, when a severe frost killed nearly everything that had not fully matured. It cut down the potato tops and gave the trees and shrubbery a chill that turned the leaves down in humble submission. The wheat which was in the milk, or dough, froze stiff, and at least one half of the wheat crop that year was destroyed. Three acres of wheat, which had ripened was harvested before the frost. The Indian chief Tababooindowetsy and his band were annoying the settlement continuously, begging for food, and even insisted upon helping themselves to potatoes and other vegetables before they were ripe; in order to keep peace with the natives, the settlers were obliged to divide their scanty supplies liberally with them, true to the slogan, which perhaps first originated with President Brigham Young, that "it is cheaper to feed the Indians than to fight them." In the history of Fort Supply only one serious difficulty happened with the Indians and that took place in October, 1855, when the chief just mentioned got sulky and his band undertook to ride their horses through the fields of growing grain, to destroy everything in sight. The brethren, to the surprise of the Indians (who had thought the "Mormons" would not fight), armed themselves 802 IMPROVEMENT ERA and presented a bold front, which caused the Indians to run away. An express was immediately sent to Major Armstrong, an Indian agent, whose headquarter? was at or near Fort Bridger, and through his timely aid the difficulty was amicably adjusted, Indians and whites both wanting peace. Early in 1856 a number of other families were called from the older settlements in Utah to strengthen the young settle- ment of Fort Supply. In the spring of that year Edson Whipple brought a portable grist mill to the settlement, which proved a great benefit to the people. George A. Smith, who visited Fort Supply in April, 1856, reported that the very fine and rich bottom lands along Smith's Fork and Black's Fork were capable of producing the choicest grain and vegetables, though he was surprised to find that Fort Supply was 7,200 feet above the level of the sea, according to the best estimate that could be made of its relative position to Fort Bridger. He describes Fort Supply as a stockade, inclosing an area of about ten acres, and built by setting into the ground six feet deep, a double row of pickets 18 feet long, about 1 foot through, and pointed at the top. The workmanship of this stockade with its bastions, Elder Smith remarks, indicated creditable skill and union on the part of its projectors and occupants. A two story house, used for a court house and other public purposes (Fort Supply being the county seat of Green river county, Utah), 25 neatly constructed dwellings and substantially made corrals and stock yards evidenced further the energy and taste of the people and testified to the fruitfulness of the soil. Nine stacks of wheat were seen in one yard, and also several stacks of hay and oats. Judge Isaac Bullock showed the visitors his fine pigs, which were enough to make them fancy that they were in Berkshire, England. Cattle, horses and sheep had wintered over 7,000 feet above the level of the sea and north of latitude 41°. Some of these animals, which the previous fall were too poor to travel and had consequently been left by the emigration, were in fine condition in the spring of 1856, although the snow during the winter had been drifted so deep as to entirely cover the stock- ade. Elder Smith further stated that 25 families more had just arrived to strengthen the settlement. In the spring of 1857 Thomas B. Brown surveyed a city plat, three or four miles north of Fort Supply and seven or eight miles southwest of Fort Bridger, on the bench between Black's and Smith's Forks, but no improvements were ever made on this townsite. This year (1857) considerable wheat, barley, oats and potatoes were planted in the Fort Supply fields; but in September, 1857, the settlement was deserted by its inhab- itants on the approach of Colonel Johnston's army. George A. Smith on his way east with a military expedition reported FORT SUPPLY 803 that on the 29th of September, 1857, between Yellow Creek and Bear river he met some "fifty families fleeing from Fort Supply and Fort Bridger with ox and horse teams and their herds of cattle," bound for Salt Lake City. On the arrival of the army at Fort Bridger in the fall of 1857, Colonel Johnston, command- er of the army, took possession of that fort in the name of the United States and declared it to be a military reservation. The reservation, including an area of country 20 miles across from east to west and 25 miles from north to south, was also ex- tended over the settlement and farming lands of Fort Supply. Alfred dimming, who succeeded Brigham Young as governor of Utah Territory, subsequently made an attempt to restore the property to the citizens who had been dispossessed by military authority, but his efforts proved unsuccessful, he being over- ruled by John B. Floyd, then Secretary of War. The loss and damage sustained by these "Mormon" pioneers at Fort Supply and Fort Bridger were about $300,000. During the years that the Fort Bridger country was occu- pied as a military post it was looked upon as the center of a sportsman's paradise: antelope and deer were plentiful on the foot hills, while herds of elk occupied the higher ranges, and the streams were filled with trout. In the course of time the military reservation was cut down to a strip of country extend- ing north and south about six miles, and east and west two and a half miles; but it was not until 1890 that the military post was discontinued altogether and the land opened for settlement. Several years before that, however, a number of squatters, by permission of the military authorities, had chosen and occupied some of the best localities for stock ranches. That particular part of the country in which Fort Supply was situated was homesteaded by one John C. Bond, who re- ceived a government patent for the same March 25, 1902. He afterwards sold to the Pugh, Pond Land Company, who in turn sold to Charles Pate, who, in 1909, deeded it to Joseph A. Johnson, who executed a deed December 29, 1919, to Hyruro Jones, the present owner of the land. On Monday, August 2, 1920, accompanied by Bishop H. Melvin Rollins, of Lyman, and others, I started out from Lyman to learn the exact location of old Fort Supply. We traveled by way of Mountain View and the Tipperary bench and crossed Smith's Fork to the residence of Hyrum Jones, where we made the object of our visit known. Harold Guy Jones, a sturdy son of the family, who volunteered his services as guide, took us straight to the site of the old Fort, which is partly in the Jones homestead. Pushing our way through the tall grass of a pro- lific meadow, we soon succeeded in finding the southeast corner of the original picket fort, where there are still remnants of a 804 IMPROVEMENT ERA bastion. From that corner we had no trouble in tracing the east and south lines of the fort as the stumps of the cottonwood logs were still sticking in the ground where they were origin- ally placed by the "Mormon" settlers. According to the government survey the site of Fort Supply is mostly in the southwest quarter of the north-west quarter of section 25, township 14 north of range 116 west of the 6th principal meridian of Wyoming. It is about eleven miles in a straight line or fourteen miles by round-about road southwest of Fort Bridger and about eighteen miles by nearest road south- west of Lyman, in Uinta county, Wyoming. The famous Gilbert Peak, the highest mountain peak in the Uinta range and also the highest peak in Utah, is in plain sight from the fort, about 25 miles distant to the south. In looking north, the well-known Bridger Butte is visible while the view to the west and east is cut off by the hills or low mountains bordering on Smith's and Black's forks. Fort Supply was originally built on the bench land between Willow Creek and Smith's Fork, but the present owner, by turning water on to it from a higher elevation, has changed the bench into a beautiful meadow, and we were com- pelled to wade through water in several places, while tracing the lines of the old fort. The farming land utilized by the original "Mormon" settlers extends up and down Smith's Fork and Willow Creek for several miles, and is at present owned by a mixed population of "Mormons" and non-"Mormons." The Church members residing in that district of country belong to the Millburne ward, and there is a Latter-day Saint Sunday school of that ward which holds regular sessions every Sunday morning in the Robertson schoolhouse, situated about one and a half miles north of the site of old Fort Supply. Since Fort Supply was first settled by the "Mormon" pioneers, in 1853, the climate in what is now generally known as Bridger Valley, has modified considerably, and there are good opportunities for people, who are looking for land, to make good homes for themselves, and who are not afraid of a high altitude. Though all the land in the immediate neigh- borhood of Fort Supply is taken up, a number of the present settlers, several hailing from the East, are selling out on easy terms, and it might be suggested that the founding of a flourish- ing "Mormlon" settlement on the site of Fort Supply might not be averse to the public sentiment of the people of Wyoming, who have always exhibited the most friendly feelings towards the Latter-day Saints. But it would perhaps be better still, if the state of Wyoming would decide to follow the example of Idaho (referring to Fort Limhi) and make the site of Fort Supply a state reservation or park, in consideration of the fact, that it is ooth historic and sacred ground, where Anglo-Saxon civilization began sixty-seven years ago.