Fort Laramie
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Fort Laramie
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture/faa Watermark Will Not Be On Your Finished Photograph.
Description
Only the names have changed. Old Fort Laramie was first Fort William, then Fort John, long before it would take its final given name, Fort Laramie, in 1849. The original outpost was established, and built, by legendary trappers and fur traders, Bill Sublette and Robert Campbell, in 1834. It was the first permanent settlement in the state of Wyoming.
Then, Fort William became Fort John in 1841. The site was purchased by the American Fur Company, and named after John Sarpy, a major partner in the company. There were adobe walls and structures added, and it would function as a growing gathering spot for trappers and traders. In the years before the Great Migration, those trappers and traders, and the Plains Indians co-existed peacefully.
But as the traffic increased along the Oregon Trail, the need for a safe haven, and a command post for military-protection operations, was becoming more apparent. In 1849, the United States Military bought the fort, and gave it the name for which it is still known today. The name was taken from the well-known French-Canadian trapper, Jacques LaRamie, and Fort Laramie was born.
And for the next decade Fort Laramie was a critical destination point and welcome sight for hundreds-of-thousands of westward travelers and became a base for the military, and a supply post for emigrants moving along the Oregon Trail. And as the Indian Wars escalated, Fort Laramie would serve as the base of operations for U.S. Army troops in the area. There was a pony express stop at Fort Laramie, an Overland Stage stop, and links to the Transcontinental Telegraph system as well.
Fort Laramie was an important spot in the Wyoming Territory, and would function as such until 1890. Oddly enough, it was the same year that Wyoming would become a State, that the last garrison of the post at Fort Laramie marched off, and on April 20th, 1890, Fort Laramie was officially abandoned. An amazing run had come to an end. Fort Laramie wasn't just the first settlement in Wyoming, it was also the first military post, it had the first school in Wyoming, and the first post office. Old Bedlam, the oldest standing building in Wyoming, was built at Fort Laramie in 1849.
Image copyright 2014 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
July 9th, 2014
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