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Fort
William
(Fort Laramie) In late 1832, William Sublette and
Robert Campbell formed their own fur company, the St. Louis Fur Company
with the goal of challenging the American Fur Company along the Upper
Missouri River. During the
summer and autumn of 1833 they established a dozen or so trading posts
located in proximity of American Fur Company Posts. One of Sublette
and Campbell's posts was the
original Fort William. Fort
William was established near the mouth of the Yellowstone River, about
three miles below the American Fur Company’s Fort
Union. Larpenteur described the
original fort as follows: "I
will here describe the construction of However, the partnership of
Sublette and Campbell would remain in effect, and they would continue
packing goods and supplies to the mountains to the annual rendezvous for
the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. As
part of the takeover agreement between the St. Louis Fur Company and the
American Fur Company, Sublette had indicated that the Rocky Mountain Fur
Company, who they were supplying, was on the brink of failure. Due
to debts owed by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to Sublette and Campbell, the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company would be forced out of business at 1834
rendezvous. The successor
company, Fontenelle, Fitzpatrick and Company would also include the
partners Lucien Fontenelle, Jim Bridger, Milton Sublette,
and Andrew Drips. Also in
1834, while en route to the Rocky Mountains with the annual supply train
for rendezvous, William Sublette would assign a party of men to establish
a new post, again to be named Fort William.
Located at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers,
the advantages of the site were readily apparent to William Sublette and
Robert Campbell. The earliest
Fort William on this site was constructed of cottonwood logs. In 1835, in a three way deal,
between Sublette and Campbell, the American Fur Company and Fontenelle,
Fitzpatrick and Company, Sublette and Campbell sold Fort William to
Fontenelle, Fitzpatrick and Company. Although
never highly successful, Fort William would injure the fur trade with
other American Fur Company Posts, a fact which would cause the latter
company to attempt to purchase the fort.
A year later Fontenelle, Fitzpatrick and Company would sell their
interest in the fort to the American Fur Company (The American Fur Company
was purchased by Pratte, Choteau and Company in this year after John Jacob
Astor retired from the fur business. The successor company continued to be
generally known as the American Fur Company.) Rev. Samuel Parker and Dr. Marcus
Whitman, early missionaries to Oregon, traveling with a supply caravan
bound for the annual mountain rendezvous, paused at "the fort of the
Black Hills" in July 1835. Reverend
Parker has left a vivid description of activities at the fort, including
near-fatal fights between drunken trappers, a council with the chiefs of
2,000 Oglala Sioux which had gathered at the fort to trade, and a buffalo dance, Marcus Whitman again traveled
westward in 1836 with a fur traders'
caravan, this time accompanied by his bride Narcissa and Rev. and Mrs.
Henry H. Spalding. The ladies, the first civilized women to travel the Oregon
Trail (for more information see Narcissa
Whitman and Eliza Spalding), were
extended all possible hospitality at Fort William.
Especially remembered were chairs with buffalo skin bottoms, no
doubt a most welcome change from the ordeal of saddle or wagon box.
To an artist, Alfred J. Miller, who traveled with
Sir William Drummond Stewart, we are indebted for the only known pictures of Fort William.
Made during his visit to the fort in 1837, these paintings depict a
typical log stockade which Miller's notes describe further as “being
of a quadrangular form, with block houses at diagonal corners to sweep the
fronts in case of attack. Over the front entrance is a large blockhouse in
which is placed a cannon. The interior of the fort is about 150 feet
square, surrounded by small cabins whose roofs reach within 3 feet of the
top of the palisades against which they abut. The Indians encamp in great
numbers here 3 or 4 times a year, bringing peltries to be exchanged for
dry goods, tobacco, beads and alcohol. The Indians have a mortal horror of
the "big gun" which rests in the blockhouse, as they have had
experience of its prowess and witnessed the havoc produced by its loud
"talk". They conceive it to be only asleep and have a wholesome
dread of its being waked up”.
The fur traders came to be more and
more dependent upon Fort Laramie as a base of supplies and a refuge in
time of trouble. Similarly,
early travelers and missionaries found it a most welcome haven in the
wilderness. Supply trains and
the travelers who accompanied the caravans would often stop here for
several days to rest, repair equipment, and trade for fresh horses or
other needed supplies. Abandonment of the rendezvous
system after 1840 increased the importance of fixed trading posts.
The deterioration of Fort William as well as competition from a
rival post constructed on the North Platte River caused the American Fur
Co. to replace Fort Laramie in 1841 with a more pretentious adobe-walled
post which cost some $10,000. Christened Fort John, presumably after John
Sarpy, a stockholder, the new fort, like its predecessor, continued to be
popularly known as "Fort Laramie."
The rival post, known as Fort
Platte was constructed in late in 1840 or early in 1841 by Lancaster
P. Lupton, a veteran of the fur trade in what is now Colorado, but later
operated by at least two other independent trading companies. Competition in the declining fur
trade led to open trafficking in "fire water," and the
debauchery of the Indians around Fort Platte and Fort Laramie and was noted by
many travelers of the early 1840's. Rufus
B. Sage vividly describes the carousals of one band of Indians which ended
with the death and burial of a Brule chief.
In a state of drunkenness, this unfortunate merrymaker fell from
his horse and broke his neck while racing from Fort Laramie to Fort
Platte. Trade goods for the rival posts
came out in wagons over the Platte Valley road from St. Joseph or over the
trail from Fort Pierre on the Upper Missouri River. On
the return trip, packs of buffalo robes and furs were sent down to St.
Louis. In addition to wagon
transportation, cargoes were sent by boat down the fickle Platte, which
often dried up and left the boatmen stranded on sandbars in the middle of
what would be Nebraska. Up to 1840, trappers and traders,
dominated the scene however adventurers, travelers, missionaries and even
tourists passed through the fort, while accompanying the annual supply
trains to rendezvous. The
first party of true covered-wagon emigrants, whose experiences were
recorded by John Bidwell and Joseph Williams, paused at Fort Laramie in
1841 and after that year increasing numbers of immigrants would pass the
fort. In 1841, Lt. John C.
Fremont visited the fort on his first expedition to the Rocky Mountains.
Recognizing its strategic location along what would become the
Oregon Trail and foreseeing the covered-wagon migrations, Fremont added
his voice to those recommending the establishment of a military post at
the site. While Fort
Platte was abandoned in 1845 due to declining profits in the fur
trade, trade continued to be brisk at Fort Laramie during the winter of
1845-46, and it is recorded that during the following spring a small fleet
of Mackinaw boats, under the leadership of the veteran factor P. D. Papin,
successfully navigated the Platte with 1,100 packs of buffalo robes, 110
packs of beaver, and 3 packs of bear and wolf skins.
However, despite a moderately brisk business with the emigrants,
trading at Fort Laramie continued to suffer from the general decline of
the fur markets and in competition with independent dealers in "Taos
Lightning." For some years the Government had
considered establishing military posts along the Oregon Trail for the
protection of emigrants, and this site at confluence of the Laramie and
North Platte Rivers had often been recommended.
In December 1845, such action was proposed by President Polk and in
May 1846 the Congress approved "An Act to provide for raising a
regiment of Mounted Riflemen, and for establishing military stations on
the route to Oregon." Funds
were provided to mount and equip the troops, to defray the expenses of
each station, and to compensate the Indian tribes on whose lands these
stations might be erected. The
Mexican War delayed the projected building of forts on the Oregon Trail. As news of the discovery of gold in
California in 1849 was published throughout the nation, and the resulting
fevered preparations to trek westward the next spring increased the
urgency of completing the chain of forts.
In March, United States Adj. Gen. Roger Jones directed Gen. D. E.
Triggs at St. Louis to carry out establishment of the second post "at
or near Fort Laramie, a trading station belonging to the American Fur
Company." Lt. Daniel P.
Woodbury, of the Corps of Engineers, was authorized to purchase the
buildings of Fort Laramie "should he deem it necessary to do
so." On August 31,
1889 the usefulness of the installation for military purposes had ended
and an order to abandon Fort Laramie would be issued.
On March 2nd the last garrison of the post would leave.
A public auction was held on April 9th to sell the
remaining property and buildings.
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In
1838 the fort continued to be generally known as Fort William, however,
references to Fort Laramie are beginning to appear.