Wyoming, Goshen County, Fort Laramie
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In 1834, Robert Campbell and William Sublette established the first fort at the confluence of the North Platte and Laramie Rivers. Christened Fort William, the post was rectangular, measuring only 100 by 80 feet. Hewn cottonwood logs 15 feet high formed the palisade. At diagonal corners were log blockhouses. A third blockhouse with a cannon mounted in it was located over the front gate. Against the inside of the stockade were a series of cabins, workshops, and storehouses whose flat roofs reached to within three feet of the top of the fort’s wall.
The “beaver trade” was already in decline at the time of the post’s founding. Campbell and Sublette recognized that the future of the fur trade lay not in trapping beaver but in trading with Native Americans for buffalo robes. Each spring, caravans arrived with trade goods at the fort. In the fall, tons of buffalo hides and other furs were shipped east.
Fort William’s exact location is not known. Certainly, it was within a mile of this site and perhaps even occupying the same ground that you are standing on. Efforts to find what remains of Fort William continue.
The TrapperIn the early part of the 19th century, a colorful, eccentric group of bold adventurers emerged on the American frontier. This was the time of the legendary “mountain man,” an adventurer, explorer, and part-time diplomat. Their heyday would last less than 30 years, yet these rugged individualists would leave a lasting mark on the history of the west.
Trappers lived hard lives, spending months wading in cold mountain streams trapping beaver and other fur-bearing mammals. Beginning in 1825 and continuing for the next 16 years trappers met at an annual “rendezvous” to exchange their year’s catch of furs for supplies and trade goods and celebrate a successful trapping season.
The river below, once abundant with beaver, was named for French-Canadian trapper Jacques LaRamee. Reportedly killed in the early 1820s on the stream that now bears his name, LaRamee remains an enigma. Little else is known about the man who has no less than seven geographic features in Wyoming named after him.
(Forts, Castles • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
In 1834, Robert Campbell and William Sublette established the first fort at the confluence of the North Platte and Laramie Rivers. Christened Fort William, the post was rectangular, measuring only 100 by 80 feet. Hewn cottonwood logs 15 feet high formed the palisade. At diagonal corners were log blockhouses. A third blockhouse with a cannon mounted in it was located over the front gate. Against the inside of the stockade were a series of cabins, workshops, and storehouses whose flat roofs reached to within three feet of the top of the fort’s wall.
The “beaver trade” was already in decline at the time of the post’s founding. Campbell and Sublette recognized that the future of the fur trade lay not in trapping beaver but in trading with Native Americans for buffalo robes. Each spring, caravans arrived with trade goods at the fort. In the fall, tons of buffalo hides and other furs were shipped east.
Fort William’s exact location is not known. Certainly, it was within a mile of this site and perhaps even occupying the same ground that you are standing on. Efforts to find what remains of Fort William continue.
The TrapperIn the early part of the 19th century, a colorful, eccentric group of bold adventurers emerged on the American frontier. This was the time of the legendary “mountain man,” an adventurer, explorer, and part-time diplomat. Their heyday would last less than 30 years, yet these rugged individualists would leave a lasting mark on the history of the west.
Trappers lived hard lives, spending months wading in cold mountain streams trapping beaver and other fur-bearing mammals. Beginning in 1825 and continuing for the next 16 years trappers met at an annual “rendezvous” to exchange their year’s catch of furs for supplies and trade goods and celebrate a successful trapping season.
The river below, once abundant with beaver, was named for French-Canadian trapper Jacques LaRamee. Reportedly killed in the early 1820s on the stream that now bears his name, LaRamee remains an enigma. Little else is known about the man who has no less than seven geographic features in Wyoming named after him.
(Forts, Castles • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Left marker:
Chaplain Spence Grayson
Upper left marker:
Revolutionary Soldier
La Cité des Peintres
Aujourd'hui Honfleur reçoit plus de 3,5 millions de visiteurs chaque année. C'est la 13ème ville française la plus visitée.
The lumber companies which created many of the communities in northern Wisconsin have passed from the scene, but the villages remain, monuments to the hardihood and persistence of the residents who worked and lived in these communities. Goodman was a company town founded in 1908 by the Goodman Lumber Company which owned 100,000 acres of woods surrounding the village. Unlike other company towns now gone, Goodman continues to flourish. Many wood and brick buildings were erected. The first building, a hotel, was built in 1908. A large steam driven sawmill was completed in 1909. In subsequent years, the company built a department store, office, clubhouse with bowling alley and movie theater, back, high school, grade school, and over 100 homes. Unlike some former sawmill towns, now ghost towns, Goodman survived by adapting to change. Selective cutting replaced clear cutting. The company sawmill still exists. A veneer plant was built in later years. The original stand of trees and the people who cut them are gone, but the town, mill and surrounding woods remain.
The area around Falls Road and Twelfth Avenue was originally known as Milwaukee Falls. The location of the dam and millrace, which were removed in 2000, attracted several manufacturers through the years. A chair factory was built in 1848, the same year Wisconsin became a state. It continued to operate as a furniture manufacturer until 1873. In 1893, the Sheboygan Knitting Co. began producing yarn in the plant for its parent firm, the Wisconsin Chair Co. of Port Washington, which was established in 1888.
Area Catholics held religious services in their homes beginning in the mid-1920s until a donation of money and two lots here in 1938 enabled the congregation to construct this modestly detailed structure known as Christ the King Catholic Church. Although the building was expanded in 1954 the congregation relocated in 1961. In 1965 the building became the Sands Art Center for art workshops, exhibits, craft shows, and occasional community theatre.
Formed from Tom Green County
Began as division point, 1881, on T. & P. Railway, with shops, roundhouse, hotel, cafe. Water was hauled from Monahans and sold by the barrel. Stage took passengers and mail to Brogado. 1882. Cattle shipping brought cowboy-detective Charles Siringo here to look for rustlers.
