July, Thursday, 1st. Spent the day in passing over the river to the north side of it. The water ran very rapidly, and it was with considerable difficulty that we forded it. One mule was drowned, and one waggon upset in the river. The water in the N. fork is not so muddy as the South fork.

They are somewhere in the vicinity of present-day Casper, Wyoming. There is a bridge to cross the river there now, and a display at historic Fort Caspar, with this typical pioneer wagon. This is about the size of wagon John Bidwell would have had — small enough to be pulled by a single yoke of two oxen and just big enough to carry the food and few possessions he was taking along.