Fort Laramie National Historic Site

Wyoming Fur Trading Post

As America expanded westward, this outpost in the Wyoming wilderness played a crucial role in the transformation of the West, first as fur-trading center, then as military garrison. For over five decades, it was a landmark and way station for the cavalcade of trappers, traders, missionaries, emigrants, Pony Express riders, and miners wending their way west. It was also an important staging point for the U.S. Army in its dealings with the plains tribes displaced by migration and settlement and the Indian raids which resulted.

Fur trader William Sublette, searching in 1834 for a site for a fur trading post, found it at "Laramai’s Point" on the Laramie River near its confluence with the Platte. From the palisaded Fort William erected by his party of mountainmen, Sublette sent runners to buy their buffalo robes. It was not until the American Fur Company bought the post in 1836, however, that it became a major fur trade center. The company enjoyed a monopoly until a new trading post, Fort Platte, was built in 1841 a mile away. This spurred the owners to replace the rotting wooden fort with a larger adobe structure. They named it Fort John, but it was usually called Fort Laramie.

Because it was near the old trappers’ trail through the Platte Valley in Wyoming, Fort Laramie had always hosted occasional traders and missionaries. In the 1840s, however, it became a well-known stopping point for large emigrant parties following the Oregon Trail. Owners of the post capitalized on its strategic location by selling supplies to travelers while its traders carried on a dwindling fur trade with the Indians.

Indian Raids

Early relations between Indians and whites were peaceful enough, but as immigration increased, young warriors began to harass wagon trains, leading to calls for protection. In 1849 the army bought Fort Laramie and made it a military outpost along the Oregon Trail. Though the old fort was still used, it was allowed to decay while the army laid out a new post around a large parade ground. Soldiers built stables, a bakery, and officers’ and soldiers’ quarters to house and support the fort’s first garrison, which consisted of two companies of mounted riflemen and one of infantry.

As the Indian troubles escalated in the 1850s and 60s, Fort Laramie became an important arm of the government, protecting emigrants and hosting major treaty councils. Its primary mission was to help maintain links across the continent. The Oregon Trail became the Nation’s major overland mail route when the Civil War eliminated the southern route. The Pony Express, with Fort Laramie as a major station, proved the superiority of this route during 1860-61. This dramatic but costly experiment came to an end after 18 months, its passing guaranteed by the completion of the transcontinental telegraph, which also had a station at the fort.

The stream of emigrants past Fort Laramie slowed during the 60s, diminishing the need for protection of travelers. The post became the staging area for Indian campaigns that eventually led to the tribes’ confinement on reservations. Later, Fort Laramie served as a buffer between whites and the few defiant Indians in the area and as a stopping place for travelers on the Cheyenne-Deadwood stage road to the gold fields of the Black Hills. With the end of Indian raids and hostilities, the post declined in importance and was abandoned in 1890, its buildings sold at public auction.