01Summary
Originally a fur-trading post, then a U.S. Army fort. The most important resupply on the trail.
02History
William Sublette and Robert Campbell built Fort William here in 1834 as a fur-trading post on the Laramie River. The American Fur Company bought it in 1836 and rebuilt it in adobe, renaming it Fort John. The U.S. Army purchased it in 1849 to protect emigrants and renamed it Fort Laramie.
From 1849 to 1869 it was the trail's most important stop. Emigrants repaired wagons, mailed letters home, bought flour and ammunition, and discarded heavy possessions to lighten loads before the mountains. It was also the only place between Missouri and Salt Lake where a doctor or a court might be reached.
In September 1851 the largest treaty council in U.S. history convened here. Roughly 10,000 Plains people from eight nations, the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, met U.S. commissioners to negotiate territorial boundaries and safe passage. The terms were broken on both sides within a decade.
The post remained an Army garrison through the Plains Indian Wars and was decommissioned in 1890.
03Today
Fort Laramie National Historic Site preserves 11 standing buildings and 11 standing ruins, including 'Old Bedlam' (the bachelor officers' quarters built 1849), the cavalry barracks, and the post trader's store.
04People connected here
05Stops nearby
The Oregon Trail ran roughly 2,170 miles from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City. The stops immediately before and after this one are linked below; show Fort Laramie on the interactive map for the full route.