Fort Fred Steele PlanFort Fred Steele Reconstructed Traders PostFort Fred Steele Enlisted Quarters RuinsFort Fred Steele State Marker.Fort Fred Steele Railroad Bridge at the Fort.
One of three military forts designed to protect the Union Pacific Railroad route through Wyoming. Fort Fred Steele was established at a strategic point where the railroad crossed the North Platte River.
Original military structures at Fort Steele included a commanding officer's quarters, officers quarters, two large warehouses, a powder magazine, two enlisted barracks and a number of smaller structures.
After the post closed in 1886 a small community grew up in and around the abandoned fort. In 1922 the transcontinental Lincoln Highway was routed right along the edge of the fort but it was rerouted in 1939 and the town faded away.
Current Status
Fort Fred Steele Entrance Sign.Fort Fred Steele Information Kiosk.
Fort Fred Steele State Historic Site. An 1881 Powder Magazine is one of the few remaining original buildings but a reconstructed traders post is under construction presumably for use as a visitor's center. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places 16 Apr 1969.
Roberts, Robert B., Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States, Macmillan, New York, 1988, 10th printing, ISBN 0-02-926880-X, page 858-859.
Frazer, Robert W., Forts of the West, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK, 1965, ISBN 0-8061-1250-6, page 186.
Barnes, Jeff, Forts of the Northern Plains - Guide to Historic Military Posts of the Plains Indian Wars, Copyright 2008, Stackpole Books, ISBN 13: 978-0-8117-3496-7, ISBN 10: 0-8117-3496-X, page 184-189.
