Fort Laramie National Historic Site

Fort Laramie National Historic Site , 833 acres (337 hectares), SE Wyo.; est. 1938. Founded in 1834 as a fur-trading post by William Sublette and Robert Campbell, it was bought by the American Fur Company in 1836. In 1849 it became a U.S. army post, which later served as a major stopping place on the Overland Trail . The fort was garrisoned until 1890. See National Parks and Monuments , table.

Fort Laramie a fort in eastern Wyoming that was a private fur-trading post from 1834 to 1849 and a U.S. military post from 1849 to 1890. Two fur traders, William Sublette and Robert Campbell, established the post because of its useful setting in prime beaver-trapping country. Many settlers and migrants to the West Coast used the post in the 1830s and 1840s. In 1849 the U.S. Army bought the fort in order to protect settlers and migrants from attack by Native Americans. In 1890 the fort was abandoned and partly dismantled, but in 1938 it was named a historic site under control of the National Park Service.