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

ISBN: 0803272235

ISBN13: 9780803272231

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

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Format: Paperback

Condition: Very Good

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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 Fur Company and patronized by trappers like Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. Then it was a vital supply center and rest stop for a tide of emigrants--missionaries, Mormons, forty-niners, and homeseekers.

As more wagons rolled west and the Pony Express came through, the need for protection increased; in 1849, Fort Laramie was converted from a trapper's post into a military fort. Down through the years there were skirmishes with the Plains Indians, who sometimes came to the fort to barter and to treat. The peace council of 1851--one of the largest gatherings of tribes ever seen in the Old West--is here described in fascinating detail.

The cast of characters in this great historical pageant reads like a who's who of the American West.

Customer Reviews

1 rating

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.
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