Category:Fort Laramie: Difference between revisions

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Fort Laramie (1834-1890) - First known as Fort William, then as Fort John and finally as Fort Laramie. This fort was established by fur traders in support of their commercial operations.

On May 30, 1834, Sublette and company reached "Laramee's Fork." On the following day they laid the foundation logs. One of the party, William Anderson, reveals that the name "Fort William" was in honor of the common name of himself and Sublette. En route to St. Louis later in the season Lucien Fontenelle reported to Pierre Chouteau Jr. of the American Fur Company the completion here of a substantial palisaded fort as a "central place for the Sioux and Cheyenne trade in buffalo robes."

Also in 1835 Sublette and Campbell sold Fort William to Jim Bridger, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Milton Sublette. Within a year these veteran mountain men were persuaded to relinquish their interest to the American Fur Company, which would thereafter be represented locally by such fur trade stalwarts as Fontenelle, James Bordeaux, and Andrew Drips. Pierre Chouteau, Jr. at St Louis headquarters became the guiding spirit of this famous enterprise.

The 1836 overland caravan, led by Fitzpatrick, escorted the first white women to cross the continent, Narcissa Whitman and Elizabeth Spalding, missionary wives who enjoyed the hospitality of the fort. They considered chairs with "buffalo skin bottoms" a special luxury. At the Green River Rendezvous the genteel ladies caused a sensation among the wild trappers and Indians.

Prior to 1841 Fort Laramie visitors consisted exclusively of trappers and traders, Plains Indians, missionaries bound for the Northwest, and random adventurers. That year, however, saw the arrival of the Bidwell-Bartleson expedition, the first avowed settlers bound for the west coast. They were followed in 1842 by the White-Hastings expedition to Oregon, the journalist of which mentions "Fort Laramy, the great central trading post of the American Fur Company." Both of these expeditions utilized the services of Thomas Fitzpatrick, veteran mountain man, as guide.

Though Oregon (present Oregon, Washington, and Idaho) was still British territory, it was claimed by the United States, and Americans interested in settling there were spurred by stories of its natural wealth. The year 1843 saw the first great migration to Oregon, about 1,000 persons led by the zealous Marchus Whitman and Peter Burnett, who would become the first American governor of California. They crossed the swollen Laramie by improvised ferry, and obtained supplies at the post.

Another 1,000 Oregonians paused here to camp in 1844. Among them was James Clyman, one of Fitzpatrick's starving trappers who had visited the virgin site in 1824, and now beheld "the white battlments of Fort Larrimie."

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Lat: 42.21374 Long: -104.55421

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