Fort Phil Kearny (Johnson County, Wyoming, Wyoming)
Johnson County, Wyoming · Wyoming · Indian Wars
History & Significance
Fort Phil Kearny was the largest of the three stockaded fortifications established along the Bozeman Trail in the Powder River Country to protect prospective miners traveling to present-day Montana, at an elevation of 4,700 feet above sea level. Its eight-foot-high log walls enclosed an area of 17 acres.
During construction, Carrington suffered about 50 Indian attacks, losing more than 20 soldiers and civilians. On December 21, 1866, Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors ambushed and killed Captain William J. Fetterman and his entire command of 80 men—the worst U.S. defeat at the hands of the plains Indians until the Battle of the Little Big Horn a decade later.
In the Wagon Box Fight on August 1867, 32 woodcutters and guards were attacked by forces of Oglala Chief Red Cloud but defended themselves with new breech-loading rifles, firing from a corral of wagon boxes and staving off the Indians until help arrived from the fort. By 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad had rendered the dangerous Bozeman Trail obsolete, and all three forts were abandoned as part of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868); shortly thereafter, Fort Phil Kearny was burned by Cheyenne Indians.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- Historic log stockade walls (reconstructed eight-foot-high fortifications)
- 1866 Indian Wars era outpost protecting Bozeman Trail miners
- Strategic site of Red Cloud's War conflict with Northern Plains tribes
- Museum exhibits on frontier military life and Great Plains history
- Scenic location in northeastern Wyoming foothills
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Phil_Kearny
- https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/fort-phil-kearny
- https://wyoparks.wyo.gov/index.php/places-to-go/fort-phil-kearny
- https://wyoarchaeo.wyo.gov/index.php/about/research/ongoing-projects/105-fort-phil-kearny
- https://www.fortphilkearny.org/
- https://wyoshpo.wyo.gov/index.php/programs/national-register/wyoming-listings/view-full-list/607
- https://www.fortphilkearny.org/fort-phil-kearny-history
- https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/new-perspectives-fetterman-fight