Bed & Breakfast Inns and Ranches of Wyoming

Wyoming's earliest settlement, Fort Laramie (see map) was built in 1834 by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and originally named Fort William for partner William Sublette.  The site passed through several owners before being sold to the American Fur Company in 1841.  The log stockade of Fort William was then replaced by an adobe fort (named Fort John for partner John Sarpy) that became an important Indian trading center.  Eastern shipping clerks, tired of writing "Fort John on the Laramie", shortened the name to Fort Laramie.  Its location gave it a key role in the transporting of furs to the east and people to the west.  More than 80,000 eastbound buffalo robes came through Fort Laramie between 1841 and 1849.  In the years of the California gold rush, more than 50,000 westbound emigrants passed through Fort Laramie each summer.  These travelers counted on it for rest, repairs, supplies, and fresh stock.

In 1849, as the flood of emigrants triggered increasing conflict with Wyoming's native peoples, Fort Laramie was purchased by the Army, which expanded it dramatically and stocked it with soldiers.  For the next 40 years it would be at the heart of the Army's efforts to control the Indians.  The fort was the site of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868 and served as a vital outpost, providing supplies and repairs for emigrants and military expeditions.

Though strategically important, Fort Laramie was hardly a pleasant or healthy place.  By the 1880's its sanitary conditions were so bad that soldiers could hardly find an uncontaminated spot to dig a latrine.  In 1864 a little emigrant girl named Ada Magill picked up dysentery at the fort.  Her grave can be seen 35 miles down the trail, just west of Glenrock. Her parents piled stones on it to keep the wolves from digging up her body.

Today, Fort Laramie National Historic Site is a must see, especially in the summer when a living history program brings it back to life.  A wide variety of restored and refurbished buildings speak tellingly of the realities of the not so distant past, such as the relatively luxurious "Old Bedlam" -- the bachelor officers' quarters for many years, famous for its raucous parties.  In the cavalry barracks, tightly packed rows of cots give another dimension to togetherness.  At the bottom end of the housing scale, visit the guardhouse, whose basement jail lacked water, toilet, heat, furniture, and even light.  Discipline at the fort was very strict -- one might end up here for even minor infractions.

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