Historical Marker
Fort Stambaugh, 1870-1878
Fremont County · Wyoming
Erected by Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming, 1956
The stone gives the lieutenant's killers no name and leaves out the month before. Black Bear, the Northern Arapaho leader whose Tongue River village Connor's troops attacked in 1865, had brought his band to the Wind River country with Washakie's leave. In April 1870 a party of miners caught him and a small group riding to trade at Camp Brown and killed him with more than a dozen men and two women. Four weeks later Stambaugh was shot defending hay freighters near Miner's Delight. The post named for him closed in 1878.
What the plaque says
Fort Stambaugh, 1870-1878, was established to protect from Indians the gold mining camps of South Pass City, Atlantic City, Miners' Delight, and others. It was named for 1st Lt. Charles B. Stambaugh, 2nd Cavalry, U. S. A. who was shot from his horse by Indians when defending a freighting party, May 4, 1870. Site about 6 miles East. Erected by the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming 1956
Where it stands
42.52662, -108.72296 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- South Pass City State Historic Site — 5.7 miThe Carissa lode built the town in a year; the mine outlived the boom by eight decades, and its mill runs again for visitors.
- Sinks Canyon State Park — 16 miA river that vanishes into a limestone cave and comes back a quarter mile on, slower than it should, warmer, and with more water than went in.