Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, The Bridger Trail, Bridger Creek Inscriptions

Once across Badwater Creek, the trail headed due north up Bridger Creek. There is substantial evidence that supports this particular portion of the trail route along Bridger Creek. Just east of Bridger Creek emigrant names are incised on a sandstone cliff face located east of the ranch house on Herold Day's Bow and Arrow Ranch. The ranch is depicted on the Arapahoe Butte, Wyoming, 7.5' USGS quadrangle. The 1907 GLO plat shows the Bridger Trail passing on the east side of Bridger Creek, which is the route between the present - day Bow and Arrow Ranch and the cliff face. The emigrant names help to validate the route of the Bridger Trail in this location.

These inscriptions were photographed during the 1966 Bridger Trail Trek and re-photographed in August 1996, to compare their current integrity with that of 1966.


Photograph of the W.D. Walden Inscription in 1966. The name was traced in Charcoal. It is very hard to determine the change in condition of the inscription because of the charcoal tracing.	Present day photograph of the W.D. Walden Inscription.

One of the emigrants, W. D. Walden, most likely accompanied Bridger in the first train. Walden inscribed a June 1, 1864, date on the rock, along with his name. Bridger departed on May 20, allowing just eleven days to travel from Red Buttes to the location of the cliff on the east side of Bridger Creek. Although no day-to-day record of the first trip is known to exist, Major Owen's diary mentions that it took 9 days (September 18-26) to reach Bridger Creek, and on the 10th day, they passed this point along the trail. Walden may have been with the small train of "independents" that left the cutoff a few days behind Bridger but they would have had to hurry to arrive at that location by June 1. Jacobs' train left on May 30, which rules out the possibility that Walden would have been a member of that train. At least 3 other names were left on the rock face in the same location during 1864 -- Sam Scott, J. Davis, and T. C. or T. G. Manning; however, it is not known if they were with Walden because they failed to provide an exact date.