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| Clouds and Bakery Ruins
Fort Laramie National Historic Site. Wyoming. August 11, 2014.
Copyright © 2016 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
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Photo of the Day by A. F. Litt: Day of Several Photos - July 19, 2016
We were really only at Fort Laramie for a few minutes. In fact, every photo I took there is in this post. It was a quick stop on a long day's drive across Wyoming, generally following the route of the Oregon Trail from Chimney Rock in Nebraska on through to southwestern Wyoming. But we were there, I took these photos, checked out the visitors' center, got our NPS Passports stamped, and rolled on our way. We were the worst sort of auto tourists that day, but seeing a little was still better than seeing nothing.
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Sagebrush and Hospital Ruins
Fort Laramie National Historic Site. Wyoming. August 11, 2014.Copyright © 2016 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved http://www.aflitt.com/fortlaramienhs |
The National Park Service brochure explains that the hospital, pictured above, was built in 1873 had 12 beds, a dispensary, a kitchen, a dining room, isolation rooms, a surgeon's office, and was the first lime-concreted building built at the fort.
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| "Old Bedlam" at Fort Laramie
Fort Laramie National Historic Site. Wyoming. August 11, 2014.
Copyright © 2016 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
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First established in 1834, the fort was obtained by the U.S. Army in 1849 to provide military support for the emigrant trails. "Old Bedlam," the largest building in the above photo, was built at this time and is the oldest known building in the State of Wyoming. According to the National Park Service brochure, "the right side is restored to bachelor offices' quarters in the 1850s; the left side to post headquarters in 1863-1864, when fort commander Lt. Col. William and his wife lived on the second floor."
1875 Fort Laramie Bridge (Platte River)
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| 1876 Fort Laramie Bridge
Fort Laramie, Wyoming. August 11, 2014.
Copyright © 2016 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
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On the National Park Service map for Fort Laramie, a bridge very similar to this one is shown, though I do not think it is the same, since that one is over the Laramie River right at the old fort itself. However, the one shown on the map looks almost identical to this one.
While this location is not within the NHS, its history is so closely tied to that of the fort's, that I feel comfortable including these images in the park's gallery.
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| Fort Laramie Bridge and Plaques
1876 Fort Laramie Bridge. Platte River. Fort Laramie, Wyoming. August 11, 2014.
Copyright © 2016 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
http://www.aflitt.com/fortlaramienhs |
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1876 Fort Laramie Bridge
Fort Laramie, Wyoming. August 11, 2014.
Copyright © 2016 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
http://www.aflitt.com/fortlaramienhs |
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Fort Laramie Bridge and Plaques
1876 Fort Laramie Bridge. Platte River. Fort Laramie, Wyoming. August 11, 2014.Copyright © 2016 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved http://www.aflitt.com/fortlaramienhs |
As I posted earlier, today I planned on burning through several photos, filling in some of the gaps in the National Parks section of the website (http://aflitt.com/NationalParks). I was not sure how many I could get through, but apparently the number of posts I can churn out in one afternoon is three!
Links
NPS - Fort Laramie National Historic Site
National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Fort Laramie National Historic Site (Bad OCR or something going on here...)
http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/66000755.pdf
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Laramie_National_Historic_Site
Bridgehunter: Fort Laramie Bridge
https://bridgehunter.com/wy/goshen/fort-laramie/
