The Oregon Trail's most famous stop - Fort Laramie
The Story
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In an enlightening episode of Talk with History, we embarked on a captivating journey through the past to uncover the profound history of Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and its integral role along the Oregon Trail. As a pivotal crossroads of exploration, Fort Laramie not only provided respite for pioneers braving the Oregon Trail's challenges but also served as a site of intricate diplomatic negotiations with Indigenous nations.
This exploration underscored the intertwined narratives of courage and cooperation, reminding us that history is a dynamic force shaping our present. The episode emphasized the importance of recognizing history's living influence and staying curious as we continue to Talk with History.
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<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:15</time>
<p>Welcome to Talk With History.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:17</time>
<p>I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:21</time>
<p>On this podcast, we give you insights into our history inspired world travels,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:25</time>
<p>YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:29</time>
<p>with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:35</time>
<p>I'm going to ask a favor that's a little bit different to our listeners today.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:40</time>
<p>I want you guys, if you're listening, To take a screenshot of your podcast</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:44</time>
<p>player right now, take a screenshot and then text that to a friend that you</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:49</time>
<p>think might enjoy this episode, because we're going to talk about an interesting</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:53</time>
<p>topic and I'm sure you saw it from the episode title today, but I bet there's</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:57</time>
<p>plenty of folks that probably played.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:59</time>
<p>Oregon Trail when they were kids.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:02</time>
<p>So take a screenshot real quick.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:04</time>
<p>You can text it to a friend later, tell them to look us up and</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:07</time>
<p>listen to this episode, because I think they're going to enjoy it.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:01:36</time>
<p>Now,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:36</time>
<p>today we're embarking on a journey to the rugged landscapes of Wyoming where</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:42</time>
<p>the echoes of the past still resonate through the walls of Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:48</time>
<p>Our spotlight shines on an iconic waypoint of the American West where</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:52</time>
<p>cultures collide, treaters were signed.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:55</time>
<p>And the dreams of a new life were kindled along the Oregon Trail.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:02</time>
<p>Nestled at the crossroads of adventure and opportunity, Fort Laramie holds within</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:07</time>
<p>its weathered bricks and timbers a saga that shaped the destiny of a nation.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:13</time>
<p>From its humble beginnings as a fur trading post in the early 19th</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:17</time>
<p>century, to its pivotal role as a military garrison and treaty ground,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:22</time>
<p>this historic site witnessed tales of hardship, Camaraderie and transformation.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:28</time>
<p>Now Jen, we got to walk for Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:31</time>
<p>It was a very windy day.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:33</time>
<p>Windy Wyoming.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:33</time>
<p>But tell us about it.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:35</time>
<p>So, Fort Laramie, it holds a special place in my heart because growing</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:39</time>
<p>up in Cheyenne, this was a, probably a yearly stop for your field trips.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:45</time>
<p>Sure.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:46</time>
<p>And as you age, you learn different stories of the fort.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:49</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:50</time>
<p>But, uh, You kind of went at a young age, I think fourth, fifth grade is when</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:54</time>
<p>I first went out there, and I remember learning, you know, about the families</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:02:58</time>
<p>that came through on the Oregon Trail, and as you got older, you learn more</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:01</time>
<p>about the cultures of the American Indian, and the soldier, and the treaties,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:06</time>
<p>and a lot of the survival, uh, that happened during that time and the change.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:11</time>
<p>But, um, yeah, Fort Laramie, I also played Oregon trail a lot and I</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:17</time>
<p>actually have a handheld game of it that I don't even let the kids play.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:21</time>
<p>I got that for you for Christmas.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:22</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:22</time>
<p>And so Fort Laramie is very significant cause it's a stop on the Oregon</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:27</time>
<p>trail, but also on the Mormon trail.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:30</time>
<p>And on the California trail, so there's like three trails that kind of go</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:33</time>
<p>through that area of people who were homesteading, making their way out West</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:39</time>
<p>and it would come through that area.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:41</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:42</time>
<p>And actually for the video, that's one of the things we show early</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:45</time>
<p>in the video was kind of a map showing the convergence of some of these</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:48</time>
<p>trails and how they, how everything really converged at Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:51</time>
<p>Yeah,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:52</time>
<p>it did because it was pretty much the last stop before it's going to get.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:57</time>
<p>Really rough.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:58</time>
<p>Yeah before the Rockies.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:59</time>
<p>Before the Rockies.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:00</time>
<p>Before the mountains.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:01</time>
<p>And so Fort Laramie started out and I want to talk about the name so in 1815</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:08</time>
<p>there it's along a river there and a lot of fur trapping is happening in the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:13</time>
<p>West for beaver pelts because everyone has their fur hats and there was a fur</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:19</time>
<p>trapper named Jacques Oh, interesting.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:24</time>
<p>And he went out to trap in like, um, 1918 or 1920 and he was never seen again.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:33</time>
<p>And the story goes that the Arapaho, who were one of the tribes out there</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:39</time>
<p>at the time, uh, killed him and put his body in a beaver dam in that river.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:45</time>
<p>Huh.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:46</time>
<p>And so they called it the Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:48</time>
<p>River.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:50</time>
<p>And so you're gonna get Fort Laramie, you're gonna get the city of Laramie, all</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:04:52</time>
<p>of that is named after that fur trader</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:55</time>
<p>of 1815.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:57</time>
<p>Wow, now that's an interesting one.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:58</time>
<p>That's a little bit different.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:59</time>
<p>It's not just named after some famous person who was out there first and</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:02</time>
<p>kind of planted their flag, so.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:12</time>
<p>At about the 1930s, so about 15 years later, this</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:16</time>
<p>becomes a very significant stop.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:18</time>
<p>for the fur trade.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:20</time>
<p>Yeah, 1830s.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:20</time>
<p>1830s.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:21</time>
<p>Oh, sorry.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:21</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:22</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:22</time>
<p>1830s.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:22</time>
<p>So about 15 years later, 1830s.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:24</time>
<p>So when you think of the remnant with Leonardo DiCaprio, right?</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:29</time>
<p>These fur trappers who are out there making their living by hunting</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:34</time>
<p>wildlife and buffalo and the hides.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:38</time>
<p>And the beaver pelt, and because it's right there along a river, and I talk</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:42</time>
<p>about with this river, there's life.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:44</time>
<p>This is a place where trading is happening between the white fur</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:48</time>
<p>traders and the American Indians that are out there at the time.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:52</time>
<p>And so it gets started as Fort William in 1830.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:56</time>
<p>And that's kind of what it is for a significant amount of time and</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:00</time>
<p>really until about 15 years later.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:04</time>
<p>when the U.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:05</time>
<p>S.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:05</time>
<p>Army will purchase it in 1849.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:08</time>
<p>And that's when it really becomes Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:12</time>
<p>And that's when the Army will come on and it's going to become, uh, you</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:16</time>
<p>know, a trading post, a diplomatic site, and then it's the military</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:20</time>
<p>installations that are there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:21</time>
<p>Well,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:21</time>
<p>and it makes sense to me that The military would kind of establish</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:25</time>
<p>itself there because, you know, us being in the military and the Navy, right?</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:30</time>
<p>Navy bases are on strategic coastal areas.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:33</time>
<p>Same thing with army, army forts, right?</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:36</time>
<p>So it makes sense to me that there, it's such a conversion,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:39</time>
<p>such a central point in that.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:41</time>
<p>Western part of what wasn't even the United States yet.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:45</time>
<p>No, you know, it was really just kind of a wild Western territories That they</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:50</time>
<p>would they would set up shop there because it was such a kind of a strategic spot.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:54</time>
<p>Sure.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:55</time>
<p>So if you watch 1883 or anything like that on TV you see how the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:00</time>
<p>wagon trains are very vulnerable as they're heading out west for attacks</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:05</time>
<p>from so Fort Laramie the military kind of set it up there for a stop</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:11</time>
<p>where you could be safe, you could</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:07:15</time>
<p>regroup.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:07:15</time>
<p>Because there wasn't any</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:16</time>
<p>treaties yet.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:17</time>
<p>There wasn't any treaties yet.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:18</time>
<p>So the first treaty would happen in 1851.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:20</time>
<p>And that treaty does happen because of the unrest and the attacks that are happening.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:25</time>
<p>And there is a compromise where the American Indians won't attack, uh, and</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:33</time>
<p>over 10, 000 people from the Northern Plains gathered near the fort and they</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:37</time>
<p>pledged to allow, uh, the immigrants or the, um, the settlers to have safe passage</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:43</time>
<p>and return for 50, 000 in antiquity goods.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:46</time>
<p>But two years later, the piece is broken.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:49</time>
<p>I mean, this is just, you know, this is a time of unrest of</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:52</time>
<p>cultures clashing in America.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:54</time>
<p>Uh, and you're going to get during this time in just 1949 alone,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:58</time>
<p>like that one year where they first start the fort, you get.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:01</time>
<p>20, 000 to 40, 000, uh, people coming through there and we</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:08</time>
<p>show the ways they traveled.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:11</time>
<p>The Mormons had those carts, those hand</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:08:13</time>
<p>carts, hand drawn carts.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:08:14</time>
<p>I mean, it's not like they had a bunch of horse, horse drawn carts.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:08:18</time>
<p>I mean, they had some oxen, like you were pointing out in the video, but it was</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:08:21</time>
<p>mostly like, them carrying it by hand.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:23</time>
<p>Carrying it by hand.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:24</time>
<p>So when you think about this, I want people to think like it wasn't the horses.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:28</time>
<p>It's oxen.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:29</time>
<p>Oxen are a little more hardy.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:31</time>
<p>And not everybody has that because not everyone people are</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:35</time>
<p>trying to make their fortune.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:37</time>
<p>So they don't have really a lot of money to have those things.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:40</time>
<p>And plus I show the wagon and all the things that You would put in a wagon.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:46</time>
<p>It's just more weight.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:47</time>
<p>It's more time and people would leave those things along the way</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:08:52</time>
<p>And I thought it was interesting too that you pointed out</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:08:54</time>
<p>with kind of some close up shots of the wagon I didn't realize that the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:08:57</time>
<p>wheels had metal rims around them</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:00</time>
<p>Yeah, so they're made of wood but they have metal rims around</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:04</time>
<p>them and that's again for the sturdiness of the wheel and And it</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:08</time>
<p>gives you longevity of the wheel.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:09</time>
<p>But if you throw a wheel, just like if you play Oregon Trail, if you throw a</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:13</time>
<p>wheel, break a wheel, you have to fix the wheel or have another wheel, or you have</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:18</time>
<p>to leave the wagon behind, basically.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:20</time>
<p>And so a lot of people are walking.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:23</time>
<p>There's not, you know, some people are riding horses.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:25</time>
<p>And we've talked about different characters in history, Cody,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:28</time>
<p>Buffalo Cody, and people who are giving assistance to wagon trains.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:32</time>
<p>But a lot of people are walking and the handcart is just a remnant of that.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:36</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:36</time>
<p>And, and it was.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:37</time>
<p>It was pretty neat being at Fort Laramie because not only were</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:41</time>
<p>there the new, obviously the newer buildings like the visitor center</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:44</time>
<p>and things like that, but there were the remnants of these old buildings.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:47</time>
<p>Like one of the shots, some of my favorite shots that I was able to get that kind</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:50</time>
<p>of gave you the feel for what it must have looked like was the old hospital.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:54</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:55</time>
<p>You know, now is the old hospital is literally just some like ruins of like</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:59</time>
<p>four or five walls, but there, there are some pretty old structures that are still</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:03</time>
<p>standing there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:04</time>
<p>So they have kind of a mix of, uh, of ruins and restored structures.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:10</time>
<p>So there is, the hospital is ruins, but then they have some barracks that</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:15</time>
<p>have been restored, but there were more than just that one building of</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:18</time>
<p>barracks, but the restored barracks, you get a sense for what it looked like.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:22</time>
<p>They, they put cots in there, they put the tables in there, they put places where</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:26</time>
<p>the men ate, and they show you also the tents because that also was overflow.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:32</time>
<p>And then they have officer housing, but they have ruins of officer housing.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:36</time>
<p>But one of the oldest structures.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:38</time>
<p>And I think it's the oldest structure in Wyoming is there at Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:42</time>
<p>It's old Bedlam.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:43</time>
<p>Yeah, that's right.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:44</time>
<p>So old Bedlam was a bachelor officer's quarters.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:48</time>
<p>It was built in 1849.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:50</time>
<p>And this is Wyoming's oldest documented building that is still standing.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:55</time>
<p>And like I said, it was bachelor officers quarters in the 1850s.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:58</time>
<p>And then it was a post headquarters 1860s.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:02</time>
<p>And they have it kind of recreated.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:04</time>
<p>So you can look in the window, you know, look in the doors and see what</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:08</time>
<p>And if I remember right you said it got the name Old Bedlam because of all</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:11</time>
<p>this noise and sound Yeah, kept coming out of all the rowdiness that kept coming out</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:16</time>
<p>because it was bachelors quarters, right?</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:18</time>
<p>So they're having a grand</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:19</time>
<p>old time which another thing I talk about is how Unless it was, they</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:24</time>
<p>say, the big two months of when people were really coming through Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:28</time>
<p>Probably summertime.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:29</time>
<p>It was boring.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:31</time>
<p>It really was a boring place to be stationed.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:34</time>
<p>And I think</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:34</time>
<p>when I did the research and I put it on the video, it was about</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:37</time>
<p>three to four hundred men that were stationed there at any given time.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:41</time>
<p>Probably, it probably fluxed a little bit there, but that's a</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:43</time>
<p>good chunk to just be sitting.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:45</time>
<p>And driving up to Fort Laramie was kind of my first time driving through Wyoming.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:51</time>
<p>Um, I may have driven in parts of Wyoming when I was really, really</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:11:55</time>
<p>young, but driving, you know, from there, we had drove up from Cheyenne</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:00</time>
<p>and it's just vast open spaces.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:04</time>
<p>Like I've never.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:05</time>
<p>So, driving out west in that part of the country, like you</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:08</time>
<p>truly feel smaller out there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:11</time>
<p>You get a real sense of how just grandiose everything is and then you get up to</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:17</time>
<p>Fort Laramie and like, man, Fort Laramie is relatively well known and a lot of</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:22</time>
<p>people kind of associate it with, with the Oregon Trail as a, as a stopping point.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:26</time>
<p>But there is nothing around</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:29</time>
<p>there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:29</time>
<p>So when you hit it.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:31</time>
<p>Think about how excited people were because this is</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:35</time>
<p>a like a communication hub.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:37</time>
<p>This is like The principal military post on the Northern Plains.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:41</time>
<p>So this is where it's stage lines are gonna come through Pony</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:44</time>
<p>Express is gonna come through The Transcontinental Telegraph, they're</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:48</time>
<p>all gonna pass through Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:52</time>
<p>And you saw how windy it was that day.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:55</time>
<p>It was so frustrating from a filming standpoint because it</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:12:58</time>
<p>was so windy it actually made it a little bit less pleasant to actually</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:13:02</time>
<p>walk around and try to enjoy it.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:13:04</time>
<p>Um, I mean, it's tough, but you were used to it, right?</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:13:06</time>
<p>Cause you grew up there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:06</time>
<p>That's typical Wyoming.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:08</time>
<p>And so we always would say windy Wyoming because it's the plains.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:12</time>
<p>So when you live on the plains, there's nothing stopping the wind.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:15</time>
<p>And so it can, the wind just whips through.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:17</time>
<p>Now it's not cold wind.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:20</time>
<p>It's like a warm wind.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:21</time>
<p>It's kind of like a Santa Ana kind of thing if you live in California.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:23</time>
<p>But it's very windy, but it just was interesting to to be there and to be</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:28</time>
<p>out there and to see it As an adult after coming so many times as a children</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:33</time>
<p>as a child but they they have again, it's a mix of restored buildings and</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:40</time>
<p>ruins, but they they had a demonstration where they fired a cannon And the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:45</time>
<p>Visitor's Center is like an old, um, warehouse, stores warehouse, so that's</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:50</time>
<p>where the Visitor's Center is now.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:51</time>
<p>And they have a, they had a teepee out there, so you could see the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:54</time>
<p>American Indians who would come there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:13:56</time>
<p>And I will say one thing before we move on to kind of</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:13:59</time>
<p>some of the other structures.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:00</time>
<p>The Visitor's Center, so for our kids, we tend to take, you know, our kids</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:04</time>
<p>to the Visitor's Center so they can do whatever kind of booklet that they have</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:08</time>
<p>for them to do for a Junior Ranger thing.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:09</time>
<p>It's usually some sort of scavenger hunt.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:11</time>
<p>The scavenger hunt at Fort Laramie is no joke.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:15</time>
<p>Freaking joke.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:16</time>
<p>I mean, we weren't able to finish the whole thing because it's because</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:19</time>
<p>everything's so spread out because there's so much space there They</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:21</time>
<p>don't have to be close and confined.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:24</time>
<p>So I'm tracking around with our eight year old daughter And we weren't</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:27</time>
<p>able to finish the whole thing.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:28</time>
<p>It's a lot because it was prayed ground there It</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:31</time>
<p>was so much there's so much that you could spend an entire</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:34</time>
<p>day there with you with kids</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:36</time>
<p>easily well and like You're thinking of all these families coming</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:40</time>
<p>through on the Oregon Trail and they're going to set up their little camps, and</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:44</time>
<p>so they're going to want a place along the river, they're going to want some</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:47</time>
<p>area, they're going to want some space, so that's kind of what it's set up for.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:52</time>
<p>We, some of the significant things that come out of Fort Laramie, we talk about</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:56</time>
<p>pretty often is the Treaty of 1868 and that treaty is the one that is going</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:02</time>
<p>to be controversial for the Sioux Wars.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:05</time>
<p>This is the one that sets up the actual reservation for the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:09</time>
<p>Black Hills for the Lakota Sioux.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:11</time>
<p>And when that's broken, when gold is discovered and the Lakota</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:15</time>
<p>Sioux leave, that is the treaty that they're trying to enforce.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:19</time>
<p>Uh, but they amend it and they break down that one reservation.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:25</time>
<p>in, on the Black Hills into the six other reservations leading up to Little</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:29</time>
<p>Bighorn leading up to Little Bighorn.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:30</time>
<p>So it's always the Treaty of Fort Laramie that they're talking about.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:34</time>
<p>So it is a diplomatic site in that regard.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:38</time>
<p>It's a well known area.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:39</time>
<p>It's where the American Indians would travel to, to meet with the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:42</time>
<p>government and the people who are representing the government there to, to</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:48</time>
<p>negotiate those treaties.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:49</time>
<p>Oh, yeah.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:50</time>
<p>I mean, and it was some relatively well known Native American leaders.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:53</time>
<p>I mean, I don't know if it was.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:55</time>
<p>Sitting bowl or red cloud.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:57</time>
<p>Yeah, so some very well known even even to us to the average.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:16:00</time>
<p>Yeah, you know Uh, American, you know, kind of growing up here,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:16:04</time>
<p>here in the states that, that met there to sign these treaties.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:10</time>
<p>That's kind of one of the things I really liked about Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:13</time>
<p>It's, it's tied to a lot of American history.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:15</time>
<p>We talked about calamity Jane was at Fort Laramie, she's actually</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:19</time>
<p>was at the hospital there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:21</time>
<p>Uh, this is where she's gonna meet with the wagon train with Wild Bill Hickok,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:25</time>
<p>and they're gonna leave from Fort Laramie on their way up to Deadwood.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:29</time>
<p>South Dakota.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:30</time>
<p>Uh, there's an old bordello that's about a mile from Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:35</time>
<p>We didn't happen to hit that, but that is, uh, a, a, a national site and, uh, that</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:42</time>
<p>Calamity Jane worked out of that bordello.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:44</time>
<p>So, I mean, of course, where there's soldiers, there's,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:16:48</time>
<p>there's business, there's old</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:49</time>
<p>doves.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:50</time>
<p>Um, and so the Fort is just very.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:54</time>
<p>busy and prosperous during these Oregon Trail years, but by 1890 it's</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:01</time>
<p>when it's it's closed It's not there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:04</time>
<p>No one's coming through much anymore.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:06</time>
<p>It's it's sold at auction I mean,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:09</time>
<p>is that largely because had the railroads kind of gotten set up by</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:12</time>
<p>then was it just taking it past them?</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:14</time>
<p>Sure.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:14</time>
<p>So after the railroad was complete It, it kind of passed Fort Laramie, so the fort's</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:20</time>
<p>importance is going to be diminished.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:23</time>
<p>Uh, the last soldier is going to leave April 20th, 1890, but, um, in</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:27</time>
<p>1938, President Roosevelt is going to proclaim Fort Laramie a national</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:32</time>
<p>monument, and then it's designated a National Historic Site in 1960.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:37</time>
<p>So it really doesn't look so much different from that.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:41</time>
<p>You can tell that they're working on some things and preserving some</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:43</time>
<p>things, but really when you go there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:46</time>
<p>It really is a snapshot of probably what it looked like</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:50</time>
<p>when it closed there in 1890.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:51</time>
<p>And that</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:52</time>
<p>really was a lot of these places we got to visit in the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:55</time>
<p>West was really neat because you really got to have that feel right.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:00</time>
<p>It didn't they haven't built up Fort Laramie that much and</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:03</time>
<p>there's nothing really around it.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:04</time>
<p>And I can't really think of any like brand new structures that probably weren't.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:09</time>
<p>Where a former structure would have been you know, so there was a lot of the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:13</time>
<p>officers quarters Those ones were still built up and then they had some ruins</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:16</time>
<p>for other kind of you had pointed out in the video some Administrative buildings.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:20</time>
<p>Yes that were near the officers quarter one building that looked like there</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:24</time>
<p>was there had been a theater there Was it there a school like a school</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:27</time>
<p>at one point and actually they talk I don't think it made it into the</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:32</time>
<p>video, but they had talked a little bit about, um, the schooling there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:35</time>
<p>It wasn't standardized.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:37</time>
<p>And so they were kind of like fighting for their own things.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:39</time>
<p>And that was something that, that led to standardization</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:41</time>
<p>in the future within Wyoming.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:44</time>
<p>Um, so there, you really got, got a snapshot being there</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:48</time>
<p>because it's just so spread out.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:50</time>
<p>It's like, you feel like you're in the middle of the plains.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:52</time>
<p>You can</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:53</time>
<p>tell that, uh, land is not an issue.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:55</time>
<p>Not at all.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:56</time>
<p>There's, so the guardhouse is there, the old guardhouse and the boys got</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:00</time>
<p>a kick out of that, our boys, because it was built to hold 40 prisoners,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:04</time>
<p>but it often held a lot more.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:07</time>
<p>So you can imagine people getting rowdy and things like that.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:11</time>
<p>Very long, like makeshift.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:12</time>
<p>beds just to like, uh, basically, uh, put people in, in one cell and</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:17</time>
<p>lock them all in there together.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:18</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:19</time>
<p>I</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:19</time>
<p>did enjoy some of what they did to kind of preserve and kind of recreate,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:23</time>
<p>you know, like the post office and the general store, because you even said</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:27</time>
<p>like the men there would be so bored sometimes that they were writing a</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:30</time>
<p>letter every day or every other day.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:33</time>
<p>And the Pony Express coming through there, they could deliver mail on a,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:36</time>
<p>I assume on a fairly regular business.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:38</time>
<p>But we got to walk through some of the officers quarters and captains quarters.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:42</time>
<p>And they had a lot of artifacts that looked, if not from the period,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:48</time>
<p>you know, very well recreated.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:50</time>
<p>You know, dresses and, and.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:52</time>
<p>You know, kids toys and rocking horses and all the stuff.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:56</time>
<p>Well,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:56</time>
<p>because there were, like, the Lieutenant Colonel and the post</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:59</time>
<p>surgeon brought their families.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:02</time>
<p>So, there was, you know, women there with their children, so they did,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:05</time>
<p>they showed what that would look like if you had your family there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:09</time>
<p>And I even think the post surgeon, he had lived there for something</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:12</time>
<p>like, uh, 10 years with his family.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:15</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:15</time>
<p>So they spent a long time at Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:18</time>
<p>What's neat about Fort Laramie too is the river kind of hugs it like a U.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:24</time>
<p>So the fort is inside that so you can imagine there's lots of riverbank</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:29</time>
<p>for people to wash their clothing and get water for cooking or you know for</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:36</time>
<p>cleanliness and so that is what is so useful about the fort with all of these</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:41</time>
<p>homesteaders, immigrants, you know trail People coming through is all that</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:46</time>
<p>access to water along the the river.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:50</time>
<p>So, uh, yeah It's it's it's very neat.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:53</time>
<p>I definitely say visit.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:55</time>
<p>It's free National Park Service and They have people again who are recreating</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:21:00</time>
<p>it if you watch something like dances with wolves Something like that.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:21:03</time>
<p>Like it gives you the very much the feel of that era.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:21:07</time>
<p>It,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:07</time>
<p>it absolutely does.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:08</time>
<p>And if you were kind of in that neck of the country where you're kind of venturing</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:13</time>
<p>up towards Little Bighorn or in the Black Hills, South Dakota, Mount Rushmore area.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:19</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:19</time>
<p>You're coming from Denver.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:20</time>
<p>Coming from Denver.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:21</time>
<p>Heading up.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:22</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:22</time>
<p>It's, I mean, it's, and, and, you know, by the way, like all this,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:26</time>
<p>the speed limits on the freeways out there are like 80 miles an hour.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:29</time>
<p>80 miles an hour.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:30</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:31</time>
<p>That, that I've.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:32</time>
<p>I guess I should have expected that, but that was just a funny aside.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:35</time>
<p>It's like, it's literally 80 and people are doing 85,</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:38</time>
<p>almost 90 everywhere out there.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:40</time>
<p>Cause you're like, the roads are huge.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:42</time>
<p>You're just smacking, you're driving through like these vast expanses.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:44</time>
<p>It was, it was very interesting.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:51</time>
<p>I hope that you've enjoyed our brief journey through the storied past of Fort</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:56</time>
<p>Laramie, Wyoming and the indelible mark it left on the history of the American West.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:03</time>
<p>From the brave pioneers who ventured forth on the Oregon</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:06</time>
<p>trail to the complex interactions between cultures at Fort Laramie.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:11</time>
<p>These narratives remind us that history is not a distant echo, but a living force</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:17</time>
<p>that continues to shape our present.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:20</time>
<p>As we stand in the footsteps of those who came before, we're reminded of</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:25</time>
<p>the challenges they faced, the bonds they forged, and the decisions they</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:29</time>
<p>made that resonate across generations.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:33</time>
<p>Thank you for listening to the Talk With History podcast, and please reach out</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:36</time>
<p>to us at our website, talkwithhistory.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:38</time>
<p>com, but more importantly, Remember, take a screenshot of your podcast</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:42</time>
<p>player, send that picture to a friend that you think had played Oregon</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:46</time>
<p>Trail at one point in time and died of dysentery or broke their leg, or made</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:54</time>
<p>it to Fort Laramie, which I think you said was the halfway point in the game.</p>
<p></p>
<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:58</time>
<p>We rely on you, our community, to grow and we appreciate</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
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