Fort Laramie National Historic Site

Fort Laramie National Historic Site
	Fort Laramie National Historic Site
Location	Goshen County, Wyoming, USA
Nearest city	Torrington, Wyoming
Coordinates	42°12′33″N 104°32′9.1″W / 42.20917°N 104.535861°WCoordinates: 42°12′33″N 104°32′9.1″W / 42.20917°N 104.535861°W
Area	833 acres (3.37 km²)
Established	March 4, 1931
Visitors	46,455 (in 2005)
Governing body	National Park Service

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Fort Laramie redirects here. For other uses, see Fort Laramie (disambiguation).

Fort Laramie was a significant 19th century trading post and diplomatic site located in the U.S. state of Wyoming. 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. In the 1840s it was taken over by the United States Army to protect travelers on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails.

Today, the remaining structures are preserved as the Fort Laramie National Historic Site by the National Park Service.

[edit] History

The fort was constructed in the 1830s during the fur trade. It was named Fort John after John B. Sarpy, a partner in the American Fur Company.^[1] The fort's location along the lower Laramie River near its mouth on the North Platte River made it a convenient stop for travelers on the overland emigrant trails following the North Platte River west from Nebraska. Over the years, the fort became commonly referred to as Laramie.

The fort was taken over by the Army in 1849 largely to supply and protect emigrants along the emigrant trails. In 1851, the first Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed, resulting relatively peaceful relations between the whites and the Native Americans during the 1850s, though troops from the fort made up the small force that was killed during the Grattan massacre of 1854 under the command of Second Lieutenant John Lawrence Grattan. 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 reached in 1868 was the second Treaty of Fort Laramie. After the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the fort's importance decreased rapidly until it was decommissioned in 1903.