Fort Laramie and the Pageant of the West, 1834-1890

by Leroy R. Hafen and Francis Marion Young

Book Overview

To weary travelers on the Oregon Trail during the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Fort Laramie was a welcome sight. Its walls and flag-decked towers rose from the high plains, their solidity suggesting that the white man was gaining a toehold in the wilderness.

Hafen and Young present the colorful history of Fort Laramie from its establishment as Fort John in 1834 to its abandonment in 1890. Early on, the fort was controlled by the American...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803272235
• ISBN13: 9780803272231
• Release Date: September 1984
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 427 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Splendid

A noble piece of work on this legendary sentinel of the American west. From the initial founding of Fort Laramie as a trading post in 1834 by fur trappers William Sublette and Robert Campbell, to the demise as a military outpost in 1890, the reader is chronologically taken along on these fifty-six years as to the importance of this western safe haven. We read of the significance of Ft. Laramie to the traders and Indians, the transfer of it to the American Fur Company, then finally to the U. S. military in 1849. It was a beacon to the thousands of trail emigrants from the 1840's through the 1860's while stocking up on supplies, livestock and repairs to wagons. It also importantly served as a military safeguard to the emigrants, thwarting Indian insurgencies from the 1850's through 1870's, contributed to the principal mail line and Pony Express to California, to freighters going further west, etc. etc. The authors cover not only the history of the fort itself, but also the relationship of this stronghold to other geographical areas in its region. Excellent read and very presentable.