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We did not make very much headway east today. We got a somewhat late start because we spent some time at the visitors center in Montpelier. Of interest there were a series of paintings based on imagined scenes at various places along the Oregon Trail. Some of those places we had seen like Striker's Rock Creek store, signature rock, massacre rock, and a couple of others. Then there was an interesting train museum and some other history items in the downstairs area. It is not quite clear why they call the place the National California and Oregon Trail Visitors Center. I suspect it has something to do with congressional pork. The paintings - probably at least 2 dozen of them, were displayed on the outside wall of what I think was an auditorium where they do living history presentations. They also have a third floor there which we did not visit.
We did not leave Montpelier until at least noon heading down Highway 30 along west side of Bear Lake to the small down of Paris. There we spotted a "Historical Marker" sign in front of a beautiful church with a tall tower of a red sandstone building. When we stopped we found that it was the Montpelier Mormon Temple. A rather imposing edifice in a small town. When we started to walk across the lawn to inspect the monument in the center of the lawn we were interrupted by a women who started telling us about the church, its history, its significance and a few (!!) other details relevant to a Mormon Temple.
Some interesting tidbits include the fact town was founded by a group of Mormons from Salt Lake City and one of the men involved in the original town design was named Perris. Apparently, the docent said, the Post Office thought that the name was misspelled and the name of the town was changed in official documents to Paris. But designing Paris did not end Mr. Perriss' career as a city planner. He next went to San Bernardino where he was responsible for the layout of San Bernardino and finally got his name in print in the town of Perris - adjacent to San Bernardino.
The architect of the church was a nephew, I think she said, of Jospeph Smith. The sandstone was locally quarried, the wood is white pine that has been treated by an old antiquing process using some tools that she showed us in the reliquary in the back room. The church was renovated a few years ago. She made sure we were clear protruding mortar between the sandstone blocks was intentional - not a sign of poor or lazy workmanship. There is a reason the mortar between the sandstone blocks protrudes rather than being recessed. The reason is that if water accumulates in the recessed mortar, then freezes, the freezing may crack the mortar, so the integrity of the structure is damaged. So, the tour was not without some new information. She then proceeded to tell us a little about the history of the Mormon Church. The revelations to Joseph Smith, the tablets, and the fact that when Jesus was crucified in the time between Good Friday and Easter Jesus visited the United States. Also some Mormon people had come to America either before or after that.
After the visit to the Temple, we proceeded along Bear Lake area, droving along the west side then down through a little but of the northeastern corner of Utah, then into Wyoming. We went south on US89 from Paris, then east at Laketown on State Route 30 to Kemmerer. Along this route we saw occasional signs that this was the Oregon rail Auto Route. It apparently approximates on the the various routes taken by emigrant going to Oregon after they had crossed through South Pass and crossed the Continental Divide. Some went in a more northerly route, either Lander Road or the Sublette Cut-of. But the majority went on the more southerly route through Bear Lake valley and over the route we have been driving the past few days.
When we stopped just east of Kemmermer for fuel I asked a young man at the next pump if there was a good restaurant nearby for lunch - it was about 3:30. He said the Log Cabin down the road is pretty good, "It's Mexican but the food is pretty good." So we drove down the street a block and saw a log cabin building with a big sign "Jalisco Restaurant" and deduced that is what he was talking about. His directions were very good small town talk - the directions are not by road or number of blocks, but are by landmarks familiar to the person giving the directions. Everyone knows where he log cabin restaurant, it's "right down there" with a gesture int he general direction. We had a good lunch there then continued on.
We arrived about an hour later in Wyoming at Ft. Bridger, pop. 319, As we approached the Ft. Bridger State Historical Park there was a sign, of the same design as the trail marking signs we have seen for the past several days and which mark all of these historical trails. The sign noted that this was the intersection of four historical trails: Oregon Trail, California Trail, Pony Express Route, and the Mormon Pioneer Trail. Not to mention the Ft. Bridger and training post and other trapper activity prior to the arrival of wagon trains. It is a bit strange that a town at the cross roads of so many historical trails and events is hardly a town at all.
When we got to the Historical Park we were not surprised to learn that the park was closed, and the museum would be closing within half an hour. So we pulled into the RV park next to the Historical Park and got a spot among immense behemoths about 4 times the size of our little vehicle. We then had to drive 6 miles to the shopping mall near here where there is a Benedicts - a real grocery store with actual produce and meat (as opposed to the supplies available in the little market in Ft. Bridger), and next door a Shopko (said by our informant as if I'd certainly heard of such a retail giant) where I bought a deck of cards and a couple of bandanas to replace my shirt sleeves.
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