Name: Fort Laramie National Historic Site

 

County: Goshen

 

Authority Name: Fort Laramie National Historic Site (Wyo.) 

 

GNIS Entry

 

Longitude:  1043332W

Latitude: 421205N

 

Legal Description:

 

Elevation: 4245/1294

(ft/m)

 

Feature Type:Park

 

Origin of Name: 

In 1834, Robert Campbell and William Sublette founded a trading post on the Laramie River about a mile and a half above its junction with the North Platte River.  They named it Fort William. In 1835 they sold out to a syndicate of trappers, who shortly afterward sold it to the American Fur Company. A post called Fort Platte is believed to have been built by rival trappers in 1841, about a mile and a half from Fort William and nearer the confluence of the Laramie and Platte Rivers. The owners of Fort William then enlarged the original fort and furnished it with bastions, blockhouses and loopholes. The rebuilt structure was named Fort John for John B. Sarpy, an officer of the company.

 

For a time, the names Fort William and Fort John were used interchangeably for the post; then, it is said, a shipping clerk by mistake marked a box 'Fort Laramie' instead of 'Fort John on the Laramie.' Robert Campbell thought the new name a good one and adopted it immediately.

 

When the Government, on Fremont's recommendation, bought and garrisoned Fort Laramie in 1849, it was already known as a major stopping place on the great Western trails and as the center of a mountain and plains region, hundreds of miles in extent. It was abandoned in 1890 as a military post.

Source: Wyoming Guide  

 

Other Names: Fort William, Fort John

 

Alternative Spellings:

 

History:

Fort Laramie Post Office was established in March, 1850. It was Wyoming's first post office.

Source: Wyoming Post Offices

 

In his History of Wyoming, I.S. Bartlett comments:

"The names Adams, John and Platte have also been attributed to Fort Laramie, but they are simply other trading posts in that vicinity and were independent establishments. Investigation shows that they were not located at the point where Fort Laramie stood and were not transferred with the old trading post when it was sold to the Government ...

 

To establish the separate identity of Forts Adams, John and Platte it is sufficient to say Fort Adams is described by Fremont as being two miles from Fort Laramie; that Fort John was built several miles away in 1839 and abandoned in 1846 and Fort Platte, three miles distant on the Platte was not built until 1840."

Source: Trenholm, Footprints

 

Stories:

 

Maps:

1:24000 Quadrangle: Fort Laramie

 

Newspapers:

 

More Information: 

Fort Laramie National Historic Site

http://www.nps.gov/fola/

 

Pictures: