Fort Laramie National Historic Site Landscape: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Fort Laramie National Historic Site, National Park Service

Keohan, Thomas

Fort Laramie National Historic Site is located in Goshen County, WY, near the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers. Goshen County is a high plains environment in the southeastern quadrant of the state. The lands surrounding the site are open and unobstructed, evoking a sense of the historic periods when the site served as a fur trade post, military post, and a Native American and emigrant encampment. Most of the land surrounding the park is in private ownership, although parcels of federal land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management are located to the northwest, south, and southeast of the park. The land surrounding the fort site is largely open grassland, although there are stands of cottonwood, ash, and willow along the riverbanks. The site’s flora has changed significantly since the nineteenth century, due to grazing, agriculture, and the importation of exotic species. The fort site and remaining structures are located below the surrounding high plains on the floodplains of the North Platte and Laramie rivers. Wetlands are located south of the Laramie River and in some other isolated pockets. The park supports a varied wildlife population including numerous bird species, deer, coyotes, rabbits, beavers, muskrats as well as many fish species. Overall, the Fort Laramie cultural landscape retains historical integrity from the early and late military eras. While no physical remains of the fur trade era are exposed, the landscapes still convey a feeling and association with that period. Significant physical portions of the early and late military eras remain on the site. Individual components may be gone, deteriorated, or altered, but the system as a whole remains recognizable. While there have been periods of dramatic change in land use at Fort Laramie, some activities have remained constant. These activities include grazing, which has occurred on the site since the nineteenth century, low density residential use, intermittent and temporary habitation from prehistory through the military period, and permanent settlement in the homestead era. Landscape disturbances from agricultural use, grazing, and structural development have left few native plant communities. The reestablished riparian edges along the Laramie River reflect a more prehistoric composition, as these areas were used in differing intensities by various groups during the site’s history. Ranches and farms dot the landscape within the vicinity of the fort, but wide expanses of land have been left open and undeveloped providing undiminished views from the site to the plains landscape. Part of Fort Laramie’s historic significance lies in its juxtaposition with trails and roads that played important roles in western transportation through the end of the nineteenth century. These routes include: the Trapper’s Trail from Taos to forts William and John; the Oregon, California, Mormon, Cherokee, and Pony Express trails; the Central Overland Stage Route; the Bozeman Trail; the Cheyenne Deadwood Stage Road; and the Fort Laramie Fort Pierre Road. Some of the early patterns of circulation established at Fort Laramie are in use today. The main route of the Oregon Trail is reflected in County Road 15, which runs north about 1 1/2 miles east of the fort. This road crosses the Laramie River at or near the site of the first emigrant wagon bridge, built by two traders in 1851. The bridge was washed out and rebuilt in 1853 and remained in use until circa 1868. The route of County Road 160, officially named Grayrocks Road, has historical precedent in the emigrant trails that tied into other main trail systems. This trail connected the Platte River crossings with the fort and rejoined the Oregon Trail northwest of the fort. Its maximum use came after 1876 when travel shifted to the north, crossing the North Platte at the Iron Army Bridge. Fragmented sections of the Oregon Trail remain in the ruts found on the site.

Fort Laramie National Historic Site Landscape: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Fort Laramie National Historic Site, National Park Service

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