Fort Laramie, WY
Fort Laramie National Historic Site


Cheyenne, Wyoming
Wyoming State Capitol Building and Grounds
National Historic Landmark






Cheyenne, Wyoming

"Big boy"the world's largest steam locomotive No. 4004 built in 1941. Designed especially for use by the union pacific railroad on its rugged Cheyenne to Ogden, Utah run. Retired from service October 1958. Weight 1,208,750 lbs. overall length 132 ft. 9-3/4". Fuel capacity 28 tons water capacity 25,000 gallons, cost of locomotive
$265,000.00. 440,545 miles run.

Guernsey, Wyoming
Oregon Trail Ruts
Registered National Historic Landmark

Wagon wheels cut solid rock, carving a memorial to Empire Builders. What mariner of men and beasts impelled conveyances weighing on those grinding wheels? Look! A line of shadows crossing boundless wilderness.

Foremost nimble mules drawing their carts, come poised Mountain Men carrying trade goods to a fur fair the Rendezvous. So, in 1830, Bill Sublette turns the first wheels from St.-Louis to the Rocky Mountains! Following his faint-trail, a decade later and on through the l860's, appear straining twisting teams of oxen, mules and heavy draft horses drawing Conestoga wagons for Oregon pioneers. Trailing the Oregon-bound avant garde but otherwise mingling with those emigrants, inspired by religious fervor loom footsore and trail worn companies -- Mormons dragging or pushing handcarts as they follow Brigham Young to the Valley of the Salt Lake. and, after 1849, reacting to a different stimulus but sharing the same trail, urging draft animals to extremity straining resources and often failing, hurry gold rushers California bound.

A different breed, no emigrants but enterprisers and adventurers, capture the 1860's scene. They appear, multi-teamed units in draft -- heavy wagons in tandem, jerkline operators and bullwhackers delivering freight to Indian War outposts and agencies. Now the apparition, fades in a changing environment. Dimly seen, this last commerce serves a new. pastoral society: the era of the cattle baron and the advent of settlement blot the Oregon Trail.





Guernsey, Wyoming
Register Cliff

The wayfarer's penchant for inscribing names and dates on prominent landmarks excites the interest of his descendants. Regrettably marks of historic value are often effaced by later opportunists.

Along the Oregon Trail famed transcontinental route of the 19th century pertinent dates are from the 1820's through the 1860's..Three outstanding recording areas exist within Wyoming Registe Cliff here, Independence Rock 180 miles west and Names Hill a .further 175 miles along the Trail's wandering course. Register Cliff and Names Hill are self evident titles, Independence Rock derives from a July 4th, -1825 observance which according to some authorities was staged by Mountain Men of Fur Trade fame.

Register Cliff invited emigrants because .broad river bottoms offered pleasing campsites and excellent pasture. Hardship and illness were inevitable to Trail travel of 55,OOO emigrants during a peak year some 5,OOO died en route. Cliffside graves attest to the high mortality. This being their lot travelers eagerly sought and singularly valued recuperative lay overs. Here rest offered the opportunity to register.

But not all who registered were worn and grieving emigrants. Early inscriptions were by Mountain Men inured to wilderness life many descendants of two centuries of French Fur Trader. One reads: "1829 This July 14" Does it denote an observance?. If the American Independence Day was celebrated in 1825 at Independence Rock could the French trappers have noted Bastille Day at Register Cliff in 1829?














Fort Laramie National Historic Site

Crossroads of a Nation Moving West
Fort Laramie was perhaps the single most important location in America's expansion into the west. Founded in 1834 as a trading post, it became a military fort in 1849. Until it closed in 1890, Fort Laramie influenced major evens in the history of the Trans-Mississippi West. From the eras of the fur trade, the Oregon Trail and the Indian Wars, the fort served as an American foothold in a rapidly changing west.

Electrical Engineering Milestone
Transcontinental Telegraph

Between July 4 and October 24, 1861. A telegraph line was constructed by the Western Union Telegraph Company between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento California. Thereby completing the fires high speed communications link between the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts. This service met the critical demand for fast communication between these two areas, This telegraph line operated until May, 1869. When it was replaced by a multi-wire system constructed with the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad line.

The Transcontinental Telegraph reached Fort Laramie from the East on August5, 1861. From then until May 1869 Fort Laramie was a major station on the telegraph line. Soldiers from Fort Laramie protected the line, made repairs, and operated remote repeater stations from Julesburg, Colorado (150 miles to the East) to South Pass, Wyoming (300 miles to the West).

"Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860"

"An Act to Facilitate  Communication between the Atlantic and Pacific States by Electric Telegraph"

 



Old Bedlam

This graceful old structure, built in 1849, is the oldest standing building in Wyoming. It was nicknamed "Old Bedlam" because of boisterous sounds supposedly heard while it was occupied by bachelor officers.

Shown in an 1889 photograph, "Old Bedlam"is generally regarded as a Bachelor Officers Quarters. However, the left half was used as Post Headquarters and Commanders Apartment in the 1860's and, at various times, the building was occupied by married officers.




Fort Laramie Army Bridge

This bridge was constructed in 1875. It is believed to be the oldest existing military bridge west of the Mississippi River.

Once the then-broad and turbulent North Platte River was spanned, the Cheyenne to Deadwood Route was considered the best road to the Black Hills gold fields. The bridge also influenced the establishment of the famous Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Line. The bridge remained in use until 1958.

 

 

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