Fort Fetterman Historic Site

In July of 1867, U.S Army Major William McEnery Dye and companies A., C., H., and I. of the Fourth Infantry started construction on a fort atop a bluff above the North Platte River. Fort Fetterman was named after Capt. William J. Fetterman, who had been killed in battle the previous year. In 1868, after the Fort Laramie Treaty between the United States, and the Sioux and Northern Arapaho Nations, closed the Bozeman Trai—which ran through Native American territory—and demolished the three military forts along the trail, Fort Fetterman became strategically crucial as a supply base. It continued to play an important role in western conflicts between the United States and Native Americans until the fort’s closure in 1882. Fort Fetterman then became Fetterman City and was renowned for catering to cattlemen who patronized its brothels and saloons. Eighty years after decommissioning the fort, the Wyoming Historical Commission acquired the land. They reopened the fort to the public in the 1990s, after creating a museum with artifacts as well as interpretive signs throughout the site.