Fort Supply

July 2013:
Recently, we discovered that one of my pioneer ancestors was instrumental in establishing a fort right here in Bridger Valley called Fort Supply.  It was my great great great great great grandfather (at least I'm pretty sure it's 5 "greats"), Christopher Merkley.  I had never even heard of Fort Supply, but after learning about him, we did a little research and found its location.  We even found that there was a historical marker there and so we decided to go find it while my parents were staying with us.  There is no longer a fort there because the Mormons burned it down when Johnson's army came marching for Utah.  But it was cool to know that Christopher Merkley was involved in these historical events. 

It's a very picturesque place.  In August, we went there again with Tim, Tam and William; and Daniel and Kelsey Merkley who had come up for the weekend.

Family sad face!

All William wanted to do was run.  Little did he know at the end of that lane was a rancher pulling his hay who pulled his huge tractor out onto the road and offered to give us a hayride! He gave us some more information about the fort too.  Apparently it was about ten times the size of Fort Bridger!

All of us hopped on and he gave us a ride through the field and showed us the old fashioned pioneer hay gathering equipment.  It was really cool to see.  Then he took us through the willows, which was beautiful and fun!

We were so thrilled by the impromptu hayride!! All of us loved it! Also on our drive, we saw lots of cranes and even a fox in one meadow.  It's fun to see so much wildlife!