Fort Laramie National Historic Site

The panel's several treaty negotiations began with one that left the fort. The 1851 council outgrew the grass here and moved to the mouth of Horse Creek, about thirty miles downriver, where some ten thousand people gathered; the Senate then cut the promised fifty years of annuities to ten. In June 1866 a second council was under way when Colonel Henry Carrington's troops camped four miles east, bound to garrison the Bozeman Trail, and the Oglala leader Red Cloud left the talks. The treaty finally signed here in 1868 is the contested one the panel names.

What the plaque says

Fort Laramie National Historic Site The epic story of America's western expansion played out on a grand scale at Fort Laramie, where the North Platte and Laramie rivers meet. Fort Laramie was first established in 1834 as a private fur trading post. By the 1840's, it served as an important way station for thousands of emigrants traveling the Oregon, California, and Mormon Pioneer trails. After purchase by the government in 1849, it rapidly became the primary military post on the Northern Plains. Stage lines, the Pony Express, and the telegraph all passed through the post. Fort Laramie hosted several treaty negotiations with Northern Plains tribes, including the still controversial and contested Treaty of 1868. From the fort, the U.S. military launched major campaigns against the tribes, who fiercely defended their homeland. As the Indian Wars came to a close, Fort Laramie's importance diminished. The post was abandoned and sold at public auction in 1890. The State of Wyoming purchased the property in 1937 and preservation of the site was secured in 1938 when the State donated Fort Laramie to the National Park Service. Fort Laramie National Historic Site is located 3 miles southwest of the town of Fort Laramie on State Highway 160.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Laramie National Historic Site — 1.9 mi
  Old Bedlam, the officers' quarters of 1849, survived the auction that scattered the rest of the post; an 1875 Army bridge still crosses the river.
• Register Cliff State Historic Site — 9.8 mi
  The first camp out of Fort Laramie, where the oldest date on the rock reads 1829 and three emigrants never left.
• Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site — 12 mi
  The clearest wagon ruts on the trail, worn by iron tires and cut deeper by travelers who hacked at the ledge to get their wagons over.

More markers nearby

• Mormon Pioneers at Fort Laramie — 0.5 mi
• Old Army Bridge Over the Platte River — 0.6 mi
• Fort Platte — 0.8 mi
• The Greatest Ride in History — 2.0 mi