7 Days Until Trek - Trading on the Trail

"On the trail itself, opportunities for trading were limited to within one's own company, except at Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger. Archer Walters, a member of the Willie Handcart Company in 1856, wrote: 'Camped 3 miles from Fort Laramie. Trucked away [traded] a dagger for a piece of bacon and salt and sold one for One dollar and one-fourth. Bought bacon and meal and Henry [his son] and me began to eat it raw we were so hungry.' John Jaques, who was traveling in the Martin Handcart Company the same year, recorded in his diary on October 8, at Fort Laramie: 'I took a cup of tea at Brother Haven's and another at Sister Dove's. Got a little salaratus from Brother Haven's and another at Sister Dove's. Got a little salaratus from Brother Haven an da little salt from another brother.' The next day, he and several men in the company went to Fort Laramie 'to buy provisions, etc. I went and sold my watch for thirteen dollars. I bought from the fort commissariat 20 pounds of biscuit at 15 cents, twelve pounds of bacon at 15 cents and 3 pounds of rice at 17 cents and so on.'

"West of the Missouri River, Mormon blacksmiths found their services in heavy demand, especially to reset wagon tires and shoe animals. In 1847 at Fort Laramie, for example, Appleton Harmon stayed for the winter of 1847-48, earned $300 as a blacksmith, and went back to Winter Quarters to get his wife."

Selection from Stanley B. and Violet T. Kimball's 2011 book, Villages on Wheels: A Social History of the Gathering to Zion.

AI image critique. Perhaps there would be a situation of a family of women and girls trading with a gentile in a fort, but if it happened, I suspect it would have been quite rare. But I haven't researched this topic and continue to learn more and more about life on the trail. However, we should be very critical and skeptical of what we see, especially in this world where it is so easy to create images.