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"It's a Long Road That Never Turns"

From Fort Laramie to Fort Bridger

The air at sunrise is clear and pure, and the morning extremely cold, but beautiful. A lofty snow peak of the mountains is glittering in the first rays of the sun, which has not reached us. The long mountain wall to the east, rising two thousand feet abruptly from the plain, behind which we see the peaks, is still dark and cuts clear against the glowing sky. . . . The scenery becomes hourly more interesting and grand, and the view here is truly magnificent; but, indeed, it needs something to repay the long prairie journey of a thousand miles.1

Situated at the junction of the North Platte and Laramie Fork, Fort Laramie had been an ideal fur trading center since 1834, when Robert Campbell and William Sublette erected a fur trading post, a mere stockade of logs, on the now famous historical site. Campbell christened it Fort William after his friend and partner. The next year, Milton Sublette, Thomas Fitzpatrick, and Jim Bridger bought the post for the American Fur Company as an ideal rendezvous site with the Ogalala Sioux to purchase both beaver furs and buffalo skins.

In 1841, the company erected a more substantial post-a new fort made of New Mexican adobe on the original site-renaming it Fort John and improving on it in the year afterward. By 1847 it had become a well-established, fully fortified commercial trading post complete with high-timbered Fort Laramie, from an engraving by Frederick Piercy walls, corner towers, and two massive doors looking out over the vast plain before it. Though still officially referred to as Fort John by its owners, most travelers called it Fort Laramie after the river. This designation was not officially recognized until the fort was purchased by the United States in 1849.2

Fort Laramie marked the first sign of civilization in 600 miles. Beautifully situated on a small eminence on the banks of Laramie Fork, about 1 1/2 miles above its confluence with the Platte, the fort commanded an extensive view of the whole adjacent country, with the dusky outlines of the Black Hills towering far above the surrounding scenery. It measured 168 feet long by 116 feet wide, with 15-inch thick walls, and boasted 16 rooms, 10 for dwelling and the rest for storage, a trading room, and a blacksmith shop. Cattle and horses were secured within an interior corral. Over the main entrance stood a square tower and at two of the corners, diagonally opposite each other, were large square bastions.

Brigham and his pioneers were surprised to find there were already Mormons at Fort Laramie before they arrived. Since the middle of May, Robert Crow had been scanning the rugged North Platte landscape south of the fort with his looking glass, anxiously waiting for a glimpse of the first emigrants of the season to come up the valley. Finally, after two weeks of daily searching, on the morning of Tuesday, 1 June, he made out in the far distance four men on horseback who, on closer examination, turned out to be none other than Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, and William Clayton. Crow shouted out the news to his brother, William Parker Crow, his son-in-law, George W. Therlkill, and their wives and children. This company of 17 men, women, and children was part of the Mississippi company, whose 12-month, 1600-mile search for the pioneer camp was finally coming to a happy conclusion.3