Fort Laramie National Historic Site

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Fort Laramie National Historic Site

Location

Goshen
County, Wyoming, USA

Nearest city

Cheyenne,
Wyoming

Coordinates

42°12′33″N 104°32′91″W / 42.20917, -104.55861

Area

833 acres (3.37 km²)

Established

March 4, 1931

Visitors

46,455 (in 2005)

Governing body

National Park
Service

Plan of Fort Laramie, 1874

Fort Laramie National Historic Site, located in present-day Goshen County,
Wyoming in the
United States, was a
significant 19th century trading post
and later a military outpost of the United States Army.
Founded in the 1830s during the fur trade,
it was taken over by the Army in 1849 and emerged as one most
important centers of white settlement in the American
West. During the middle 19th century, it was a primary stopping point on the
Oregon
Trail and the Mormon
Trail and was, along with Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River, the most
significant economic hub of white
commerce in the region. Many of the Army's military campaigns in the Indian
Wars were conducted from the headquarters at the fort, and it gave its name
to two treaties, the Treaty of
Fort Laramie (1851) and the Treaty of
Fort Laramie (1868); each was an important agreement between whites and
Native Americans regarding white settlement. Decommissioned and abandoned in
August of 1889, the fort contains historic military structures on its grounds,
which are operated by the National Park
Service.

Grounds of Fort Laramie

The fort is located along the lower Laramie River near its
mouth on the North Platte River,
across the river from the modern town of Fort Laramie in
Goshen County,
Wyoming. The Army took over the fort in the late 1840s largely to supply and
protect emigrants along the Emigrant Trail. During
the 1850s, relative
peaceful relations between the whites and the Native Americans meant that the
fort served mainly as a supply post. During the increasing strife of the 1860s, the fort took
on a more military posture. In the late 1860s, the fort was the primary staging
ground for the United States in the Powder River
Country during Red Cloud's War. The
resultant peace agreement was known as the Treaty of Fort Laramie. After the
completion of the transcontinental
railroad, the fort's importance decreased rapidly until it was
decommissioned in 1903.

In the 1950s, a
fictionalized account of life at the fort during the 19th century was depicted
in the CBS radio program Fort
Laramie.

To visit Fort Laramie, travel to Cheyenne, Wyoming,
then drive via U.S. Route 87 northwards 82 miles to the intersection with U.S.
Route 26, then turn right and drive 27 miles to the town of Fort Laramie,
Wyoming. Follow the well-marked gravel road two miles to the old Fort
Laramie National Historic Site.

[edit]
External links

Official NPS website: Fort Laramie National Historic Site

v • d • e

U.S.
National Register of Historic Places

Keeper of
the Register · History
of the National Register of Historic Places · Property
types · Historic
district · Contributing
property

List
of entries
National
Park Service · National
Historic Landmarks ·
National Battlefields · National Historic Sites · National Historical Parks · National Memorials · National Monuments

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Laramie_National_Historic_Site"

Categories: 1931
establishments | Forts in
Wyoming | Goshen
County, Wyoming | Museums in
Wyoming | National
Historic Sites in Wyoming | Oregon
Trail | Landmarks in
Wyoming | Wars
between the United States and Native Americans | Federal
lands in Wyoming | Military
and war museums

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This page was last modified on 19 May 2008, at 22:07.

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