Fort Laramie (Goshen County, Wyoming)
Goshen County · Wyoming · Indian Wars
History & Significance
Fort William was founded by William Sublette and his partner Robert Campbell in 1834. Soon it changed into a post for the trade in buffalo robes, and for supplying emigrants bound west on the Oregon/California/Mormon Trail.
Through most of the 1840s it was the only permanent trading post for the 800-mile span between Fort Kearney in present Nebraska, and Fort Bridger in what's now southwest Wyoming. In April 1849, the Regiment of Mounted Rifles moved into the old adobe fort after the U.S. Army purchased it from the American Fur Company for four thousand dollars.
The fort then became a pivotal military and diplomatic center. The Grattan fight of 1854, which involved an incident with a wagon train near Fort Laramie, was the first major battle of the Indian Wars on the northern Great Plains.
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed on September 17, 1851 by leaders of the Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Crow, Gros Ventre, Mandan, Shoshone, and Lakota nations. The treaty was negotiated by members of the government-appointed Indian Peace Commission and signed between April and November 1868 at and near Fort Laramie, in the Wyoming Territory, with the final signatories being Red Cloud himself and others who accompanied him.
It established the Great Sioux Reservation including ownership of the Black Hills, and set aside additional lands as "unceded Indian territory" in the areas of South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and possibly Montana. Operating from Fort Laramie and neighboring posts, the Army eventually subdued the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho and other tribes in the area.
By Presidential Proclamation of July 16, 1938, the fort became Fort Laramie National Historic Monument. It was redesignated a National Historic Site in 1960 when the monument was enlarged by Congress.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- Preserved 19th-century military buildings and officer quarters from 1849–1890
- Trading post at the confluence of Laramie and North Platte Rivers
- Oregon Trail emigrant route landmark and staging ground
- Indian Wars conflicts including Red Cloud's War and Great Sioux War
- Historic artifacts and exhibits documenting frontier military life
Sources
- https://www.nps.gov/fola/index.htm
- https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/fort-laramie
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Laramie_National_Historic_Site
- https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/fort-laramie-treaty
- https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/treaty-fort-laramie