Days 92 and 93 - Fort Laramie

Day 92 - Monday - From Fort to Fort

Time to move on.  We head into the nearby small town to fill up with propane, which is getting low.  Need to keep the fridge running and have heat for the cats (and ourselves) on these cold nights.

It's supposed to be a relatively easy trip as we head west on US20 through the farm and ranch country.  We soon get to an area where it's obviously considerably dryer since the grass is much less lush and is beginning to go brown.  Still, there are plenty of buttes to see and we're enjoying the drive - until we get to the Wyoming State line!

For exactly 9 miles they have the road up and we're driving along a dirt road.  In some places there are ruts similar to what the wagon trains must have experienced.  The posted speed limit is 45mph, but in the RV with the new car being towed behind I keep it down to 20-25, probably annoying people behind me since there's nowhere to pass.

All things must end, even the construction, and it does, giving me the minor satisfaction of passing a train that breezed by us while we were going slowly.  Another 11 miles takes us into the small ranching town of Lusk, where we join US85 - the same road we took up to Medora last month!

About 40 miles later we're in the even smaller town of Lingle and almost at our destination - Pony Soldier RV Park, which is full service at a reasonable price.  We hook up and get to turn on the a/c for the first time since the replacement (it works!) as it's in the 90's.  Like many parks we've stayed at, this one is right next to the BNSF railroad line.  We love the sound of trains and are used to it from our days in Sun City.  This is a good thing since this line has trains at least every half hour and each engineer sounds the horn for the crossroads!

After lunch we drive another 5 miles to the town, and National Monument, of Fort Laramie.  Named for a French trapper, Jacques Le Remee, it's over 100 miles from the city of Laramie which we'll visit next.  In contrast to Fort Robinson, this fort has a detailed walking tour (and an optional audio tour we may take tomorrow) around many buildings - some restored, some reduced to foundations, but all clearly identified.

There's a ranger talk in progress as we arrive so we join it.  Ranger Eric covers the history of the plains from the time before the white settlers arrived through the end of the 19th century.  He gives us a different perspective on the tragedy of the bison.  Conventional wisdom is that the Indians only killed the buffalo they needed for food and shelter, and had the white man not started uncontrolled hunting the animals would never have been close to extinction.

We learn today that the buffalo hunts, although they exterminated huge numbers of bison, do not in themselves account for the majority of the deaths.  The Native Americans quickly learned that bison hides could be traded for things they "needed" at the white men's trading posts.  I put the words in quotes because they traded for cotton shirts and horses, neither of which they had in previous centuries, as well as firearms and other new (to them) items.  While in earlier days a warrior might kill 6 bison per year, this number increased to 44 by the mid nineteenth century!

This certainly doesn't excuse the wanton killing during the buffalo hunts, but it does give us a new perspective on the whole issue.

We spend a couple of hours in the Visitor Center (until it closes).  This fort started as a fur trading post, became a supply point for the settlers in the 19th century on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails, as well as a station for the Pony Express which, despite its place in the hearts of Americans, only ran for 19 months and never made a profit.  For me, the highlights are the many quotes from settlers who walked the trails (literally - the wagons were for goods).  These really give you a vivid picture of the difficulties - and the joys - that these people experienced.

We do walk around the park for a while, finding the guardhouse, a barracks for the enlisted men and the ruins of an administrative building that included a theater. Towards sunset the temperature drops so we had back to the cats who are hungry (until they eat the obligatory 2 bites) and glad to see us.  Once again the door doesn't close properly as Vicky goes out to cook chicken on the grill, so we spend a half hour looking for Cosette, who is nowhere to be seen.  Soon after we give up the hunt we hear a meow and she turns up, ready to come home!  The door is a pain, but the cats do seem to know that this is where they are loved (or at least fed).

After devouring the jerk chicken, with anaheim peppers (no poblano around here) and salad, we spend a couple of hours devouring the brochures we picked up on the various trails.  We learn a lot, including the fact the Pony Express riders could weigh no more than 120lbs!  Wonder if they got fired for gaining weight?

More to discover tomorrow, so we have an early night.

Day 93 - Tuesday - more time at the fort

I have a 2 hour class in the morning, so Vicky spends time on an online class of her own and the cats choose to sleep.  After lunch we drive back to Fort Laramie, minus Quill and Cosette.

Over the next 4 hours we complete our tour of the buildings and attend 3 different ranger talks much to the surprise of Ranger Eric who says people don't usually stick around for more than one!

We learn that while you couldn't legally join the army until age 18 in the 19th century, buglers were recruited at age 10 and received an education as well as training in the over 300 bugle calls.  They could also learn to play the fife (a flute without valves) or drums.

From age 15 onwards they saw service.  Although the fife was sometimes used to entertain soldiers, and the drum marked time on the march, the bugle was only used for the many calls that divided up the soldiers' day.

Ranger Will demonstrates 4 different models of bugle and explains their evolution as well as the career progression for a bugler.  For a poor family, this was a way to ensure your son had a solid career.

After an hour exploring the cavalry barracks, the ground floor of which has an exhibit on the many treaties the US Government signed with the various tribes and then ignored, causing the Indian wars, we find Ranger Will in the post store.  He explains that this was a meeting place of cultures.  Crazy Horse, whose time at Fort Robinson was a disaster, spent many happy hours in this store which he referred to as home.  The original counter, that Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Sitting Bull and many more famous characters leaned on, is still there, as are the walls.  I lean on it.

The storekeeper would trade a $2 pot for two buffalo hides that he could sell for $20.  While this sounds like cheating the Native Americans, they saw it differently.  The pot had many uses for them, while the hides were essentially scrap.  So everyone was happy with the deal.

Before joining Ranger Eric to pick up the parts of his bison talk we missed yesterday, we visit the quarters of bachelor officers, the camp surgeon and a captain and his wife.  It's clear that, although Fort Laramie was literally in the wilderness, they were able to live a comfortable, even genteel life here.  Unfortunately the same can't be said for the enlisted men who slept in crowded barracks with no privacy and spent most of their time on "fatigues" - hard work from hauling ice from the river to working on building crews.

This fort, which was a place of peace, was never attacked during its history.  For us it's been another meaningful glimpse into history.

Tomorrow, we drive from Fort Laramie to the city of Laramie, almost 100 miles away.  There are 7 features in Wyoming named after Jacques La Ramee, but not much is known about him!

As we prepare supper, both cats escape again.  Vicky picks up Cosette easily but Quill spends a lot of time outdoors and even hisses at me when I pick her up (then immediately looks up lovingly at me - go figure!).  Cosette gets out again later and this time is out for almost an hour before walking up behind me when I'm calling her.

We need to do something about that door!