June 7, 2024 @ 09:00 MDT
Site Visit #153
I’ve visited several frontier forts over the past few years, and Fort Laramie is another such fort. However, unlike the others I’ve visited, Fort Laramie was far more involved in the conflict and violence between the native tribes and those from the east.
Originally built in 1834 as a small private trading post, serving trappers, explorers and native peoples, the original fort was replaced twice and ultimately purchased by the U.S. Army in 1849. It had been serving as a stop on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, and continued to do so under Army management. The Pony Express stopped here as did stage coaches and telegraph lines.
Although relations with the native populations were good in the early days, they deteriorated as treaties were broken or ignored, and pioneers veered off the agreed routes through the native lands. A huge gathering of over 10,000 people from several tribes negotiated a treaty in 1851 allowing safe passage for travelers across their lands, in return for annual payments from the U.S. government. The treaty lasted less than two years as payments never materialized.
After the Civil War, the fort was active in the wars between the Army and native tribes. When the wars ended, the fort was deemed unnecessary and closed in 1890. Buildings were removed or repurposed over the next 50 years, until President Roosevelt designated the site as a national monument. Restoration efforts brought several buildings back to how they looked in the 1880s.
Today, several original buildings remain and have been staged to look as they might have when the fort was active. This fort covered a much larger footprint than prior forts I have visited, and having “overdone it” a bit yesterday, walking a bit too far on my new knee, I limited myself to seeing a few buildings around the visitor center. After all, the various buildings of one fort look a lot like any other fort – stocked with barrels of food, or ammunition, or a bed and table! When you have seen one, you have pretty well seen them all!
What I look forward to in these visits is the specific history of that fort. That is what makes each location unique and interesting. Why is it here and what happened while it was active. The history buff in me wants to know these things.
My daughter, who is accompanying me on this trip, did wander around the entire fort, so I do have photos of some of the more remote areas of the site that my knee did not want me to visit myself.
It was an overcast morning, but except for about two dozen raindrops it stayed dry. We headed out after a few hours, beginning a long drive across Wyoming into Utah for our next visit at Dinosaur National Monument.
Steve
