Fort Laramie - Protecting the West

In 1834, it was Fort William named after post founder, trapper/trader William Sublette.By 1841, the post was owned by the American Fur Company and renamed  Fort John. In 1849, with gold rushers heading west, it was purchased by the United States Army for $4,000. With so many folks heading west, the government was convinced it needed to start protecting the trails.

Barracks at Fort Laramie

In 1849, the first three companies of cavalry arrived at the fort, including Company G, 6^th Infantry, which would become the permanent garrison at Fort Laramie. Many of the forts early enlistees, spoke broken or no English. Even in those days it was tough to find workers for $13 a month. The good news was reenlistment would add another two bucks a month. Not only were many of the new recruits recent immigrants, most had never ridden a horse. Fort Laramie had a large number of foot soldiers, so this was not much of a problem.

Across Parade Ground to Officer Quarters

Something I have always found of interest, the army had companies of men into the 1880s then they became troops. Same group, different name. I often run across these terms used incorrectly when I am reading in my favorite genre, historical fiction.

Here is the makeup of a troop/company.

1     Captain

1     First Lieutenant

1     Second Lieutenant

1     First Sergeant

5     Line Sergeants

4     Corporals

2     Trumpeters

2     Farriers (horseshoers and

           Horse doctors – army trained or self-trained veterinarians)

78    Privates (more or less, at Fort Laramie normally a few less)

 

Jail Cells - solitary at the Fort

In the new research I am doing for a future book on Fort Laramie, I have found several instances where the Fort Commander held a rank lower than Captain – must not have been a very popular place.

Remains of the old Fort Hospital on the hill

Although they were never close to having a full regiment of men, it was discussed when the Indian wars escalated along the Oregon, Mormon and Bozeman trails. That would have been quite a change as a regiment was made up of ten troops, meaning the number of soldiers at Fort Laramie would have gone from a normal 300 or so to 1,000.  Note – After the Civil War a  regiment was increased to 12 troops, not sure why.

There was always plenty of action around the fort

Laramie River near the fort

The Jim Bridger Trail

In 1862, gold was discovered in Virginia City, Montana Territory. Gold seekers, businessmen, thieves and get rich schemers quickly followed. The fastest and most efficient way to reach the fields from the east was to travel along the Bozeman Trail. To do so, travelers would follow the Oregon Trail to present-day Douglas, Wyoming where the trail turned north and went into present day Montana then turned west. Today a driver could take I-25 north to I-90 then turn west. From my little village of Guernsey, it is a drive of 603 miles and can be made in about 9 hours, in today’s world.

The road may have been fast, but there was trouble, Indians along the way did not want people traveling it. The entire Powder River Basin had been long held by local tribes, and they were not about to give it up for a white man’s road to gold. Bozeman was a great promoter of his road, and many lives were lost because of it, but there was another way.

The Jim Bridger Road, or Bridger Trail, was much less known, but it was safe and as fast to Virginia City as the Bozeman Trail.

Old Gabe - Jim Bridger

This trail, instead of turning north at Douglas, continued another 100, or so, miles along what is today Highway 20/26, then turned north at the Waltman crossing and worked its way north and west through Thermopolis and up into Montana. Not a difficult area to traverse and safe all the way to the gold.

Sign at the Waltman Wyoming Reststop

So why was it never use? Difficult to say other than the fact the government did not attempt to sell this better way. If settlers and miners would have used Bridger’s road Western history would have been forever changed. Battles like the Hayfield fight, Wagon Box fight, and the Fetterman Massacre may well never have happened. It is also possible that Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh may have never been sent to Montana if not for the Bozeman Trail and the trouble it caused.

Still a desolate area - this shot from a few miles east of the crossing

Jim Bridger - The Rest of His Story

Jim Bridger may well be the most celebrated of all the mountain men who lived and worked in the mountain west. So famous that today, roads, streets, trails, bridges, a power plant, schools, a fort, museum collections and many more things were named after the famous, hunter, and fur trader.

The inscription on his tomb stone reads (in part) – “Celebrated as a hunter, trapper, fur trader and guide. Discovered Great Salt Lake 1824, the South Pass 1827 [1823]. Visited Yellowstone Lake and Geysers 1830. Founded Fort Bridger 1843. Opened Overland Route by Bridger's Pass to Great Salt Lake. Was a guide for U. S. exploring expeditions, Albert Sidney Johnston's army in 1857, and G. M. Dodge in U. P. surveys and Indian campaigns 1865-66."

But that is not all the man was. For decades a popular American radio host, Paul Harvey, aired a program called, “The Rest of the Story,” – well here is a bit of the rest of the story of James Felix Bridger, a most remarkable man.

Today Wyoming is known as a ranching and oil producing state. Guess who was the states first cattleman and first oilman? Jim Bridger. Bridger was not the first to have cattle in Wyoming but he may, very well, have been the first to buy and sell cattle, a thriving part of his business from his fledgling trading enterprise at Fort Bridger. And along with his buddy, Kit Carson, he skimmed oil from a seep just west of present day Casper Wyoming. What did they do with it? Well, they mixed it with flour and sold it as axel grease for wagons heading west – and it worked pretty good.

 Bridger also took on special projects for the government. At the request of the army he blazed a new trail from near his Casper oil seep, up though Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin and into the gold fields of Montana. - (The Bridger Trail) - This trail allowed people a chance to avoid the bloody Bozeman Trail. If people would have listened to him and used his new trail maybe a large part of the Indian wars of the west could have been avoided.