Ft. Laramie, Wyoming

This unique area was first noted in 1812 by the Stuart party that were taking dispatches from the new post near Astoria Oregon (founded by Lewis and Clark) they traveled through South Pass Wyoming and wintered in the area where Fort Laramie now stands.

Fort Laramie then Fort William was founded in 1834 at the convergence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers.  It was one of the main locations for civilization in the frontier west along the Oregon Trail.  From the time of trappers moving west and the discovery of the Oregon Trail through American Indian uprisings stretching from the Dakotas to Colorado the Fort's area of influence was huge in such a wilderness. 

The history of this area and the fort is rich and includes famous names like Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, the American Fur Company (owned by Astor), Red Cloud, Kit Carson, the explorer-missionary Father De Smet, and Augustus Johann Sutter and countless other noteworthy frontier icons.

Interestingly the Fort was at first not a military fort but a convenient location about half way from the rich beaver area of the Green River and the last steamboat landing on the Missouri river. a place where traders could take rest and libations; trade with others or even make their way deeper into the frontier or head back to known civilization.  In 1841 a competing entrepreneur built a second fort, not of log and timber but of adobe and was named at first Fort John, honoring John B. Sarpy the captain of the party working for Lancaster P. Lupton of Colorado the names Fort John and Fort William waned to the more popular Fort Laramie as we know it today and the American Fur Company finally dominated the trade in the area.

After a long and colorful history and the steady migration toward Oregon and California President Polk and congress sent the military west to protect the travelers along the Oregon Trail (1846). It wasn't until 1849 that the military purchased the buildings at Fort Laramie. Just in time for the gold rush migration to California where 50,000 migrants traveled west each year.

Of course compounding issues were the American Indians and that is a story of itself.  By 1890 with the railroads by-passing the fort, the Indians pacified, and the general progress and change of migration the fort was finally abandoned.

I'm glad I've been to the fort a few times; I always learn something new about our history with each visit.