Wyoming Genealogy

The Shoshone or Wind River Reservation was established by the treaty concluded at Fort Bridger on July 3, 1868, and on June 28, 1869, an order was issued for the establishment of a garrison at some point upon the reservation. A site was selected near the junction of Trouth Creek and the Little Wind River and a post was established under the name of Camp Augur, in honor of Gen C. C. Augur, one of the officers who had negotiated the treaty the year before. On March 28, 1870, the name was changed to Camp Brown and on December 30,…

Fort Fred Steele Plan This fort was located at the point where the Union Pacific Railroad crosses the North Platte River, in Carbon County, and was established by Col. Richard I. Dodge on June 30, 1868, as a protection to the builders of the railroad. It was named in honor of Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele of Civil war fame. Withinforty-eight hours after the completion of the fort, camp followers to the number of five hundred or more had established the town of “Brownsville” nearby. Five days later the population of the town was estimated at fifteen hundred. On June 28,…

On July 19, 1867, Fort Fetterman was established at the mouth of the La Prele Creek and was named in honor of brevet Lieut. Col. W. J. Fetterman, captain in the Twenty-fourth Regular Infantry, who was killed near Fort Phil Kearny on December 21, 1866. By 1872 it had been enlarged to a post of four companies and was one of the best equipped military establishments in the state. At that time the nearest Indians were the Ogallala Sioux, 385 lodges; the Cheyenne, 300 lodges; the Arapaho, 150 lodges; and a few straggling bands of other tribes. A small garrison…

Plan of Fort Kearney from Indian Fights and Fighters (1904) This is one of two forts established by order of Maj. Gen. John Pope on the Bozeman Road in 1866. Col. H. B. Carrington was commissioned to select the sites and build Forts Phil Kearny and C. F. Smith. The former was staked off on July 15, 1866, and the latter, ninety miles northwest, in Montana, early in August. Fort Phil Kearny was completed on the 21st of October and for several months the posts and the country immediately surrounding it were the scene of several conflicts with the hostile…

Buffalo, elk, pronghorn, deer, mountain sheep and wolf skulls and bones at Fort Sanders, 1870 By orders from the war department, Fort Sanders was established on July 10, 1866, three miles south of Laramie City, and was at first known as “Fort John Buford.” On September 5, 1866, the name was changed to Fort Sanders, in honor of W. P. Sanders, captain in the Second United States Cavalry and later a brigadier-general of volunteers. It was established as a protection for the Denver & Salt Lake stage line and the emigrant trains passing over the Oregon Trail. The Union Pacific…

Fort Reno On August 11, 1865, when Gen. P. E. Connor reached the Powder River, 23½ miles above the mouth of Crazy Woman Fork, he established there a small post which was named Camp Connor. In the latter part of June, 1866, Col. H. B. Carrington repaired and garrisoned the fort and the name was changed to Fort Reno, in honor of Gen. Isaac Reno, a hero of the Civil war. It was abandoned under an order issued by General Grant on March 2, 1868.