Cheyenne, Ft. Laramie, Deadwood Trail

Isaac Newton Bard, who opened the road ranch here in May 1875, was born in Boonville, New York, in 1842 and came west as a working hand. His diary of 1868, now at Yale, follows him to Oro City in Colorado, where he worked for his brother Andrew at going wages; the magazine that printed it in 1956 titled it Isaac Newton Bard Dug Potatoes, Not Gold. He later worked for John Phillips, the 1866 courier, at Chugwater before Little Bear. The stone's cutter left the n out of Wyoming in its last line.

What the plaque says

Cheyenne, Ft. Laramie, Dead- wood Trail, 1867-1887, started from Camp Carlin and Ft. D. A. Russell on the west edge of Cheyenne. This road first ran to Ft. Laramie and in 1876 was extended to Deadwood, Dakota Territory, and the Black Hills gold fields. It also joined the Bozeman Road to Montana. Little Bear stage station, 150 yards east, was opened as a road ranch by Isaac Bard, May 4, 1875. It became a stage station in 1877. Erected by the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyomig 1956

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cheyenne Frontier Days — 24 mi
  A railroad agent's excursion scheme for a town with no crop to celebrate, which became a six-hour show in 1897 and the Daddy of 'em All.
• Wyoming State Capitol — 25 mi
  A sandstone capitol set to face the Union Pacific depot down one long street, its copper dome gilded in 1900 when the copper tarnished.

More markers nearby

• Pole Creek Ranch — 11 mi
• Chugwater — 18 mi
• Fort Laramie Trail — 24 mi
• The Cheyenne-Ft. Laramie-Deadwood Trail — 25 mi