Ft. Caspar

Yesterday we went exploring. Our first stop was to visit Fort Caspar which is located on the outskirts of Casper. When we drove up into the parking lot, we were greeted by a lone mule deer. It must be used to being around humans as it didn't go running away from us. However, it wouldn't let me get too close to it either.This was one of the official "greeters" at the museum.
Joe getting a drink from the old well.
Joe and the beautiful Casper mountains in the back.

The area where Platte Bridge Station was located had been the site of various more or less temporary Armyencampments over a period of years before the establishment of the fort, or "station" itself. The fort was located on the south side of the North Platte, near the western edge of present-day Casper, at one several local points where the Emigrant Trail crossed from the south side to the north side of the river.

In 1847, during the first Mormon wagon train to present-day Utah, Brigham Young commissioned a ferry at the site for later emigrants. The ferry consisted of cottonwood dugout canoes and planking for a deck, with two oars and a rudder. On June 19, Brigham Young named nine men to remain to operate the ferry while the remainder of the party continued the journey westward. A group of Mormons returned to the site each summer between 1847 and 1852 to operate the ferry. The ferry was moved to a different spot on the North Platte in North Casper in 1849. It was eventually replaced with a rope-and-pulley system that could make the crossing in five minutes.

In the following years, trader John Baptiste Richard established a trading post several miles downriver of the crossing. The U.S. Army established its first presence in the area in 1855, erecting Fort Clay near Richard's trading post. In 1859, when the site was part of the Nebraska Territory, Louis Guinard built a competing bridge at the trading post, called the Platte Bridge Station, at the site of the old Mormon Ferry crossing. From 1860–1861, the Pony Express operated a station at the site.

By the middle 1860s, the increasing presence of emigrants and other white settlers in the region began to cause friction with the Lakota and Cheyenne. In response, and partly to protect the new telegraph line, the United States Army in 1861 began increasing its deployment of troops in the region, sending a detachment to guard Guinard's bridge. Many of these troops, who created a series of "stations" along the Oregon trail, were from various state units raised during the Civil War originally with that war in mind. In 1862 the Army purchased the Guinard's Platte Bridge station.

In July 1865, partly in response to the Sand Creek Massacre the previous November in Colorado, a party of several thousand Cheyenne and Lakota, surrounded Platte Bridge Station and demonstrated a hostile intent against it. Knowing that an eastern bound Army wagon train was due to come in, the officers of the post discussed attempting to relieve the post and drive off the Cheyenne and Sioux warriors, so that the wagon train could come safely in. Lt. Caspar Collins of the 11th Ohio Cavalry volunteered to lead the effort, with the troops involved in it being State cavalrymen from the 11th Ohio and 11th Kansas Cavalry. Amongst the Indian combats sometimes claimed as being present were the famous chief Red Cloud and a young Crazy Horse, although verification of the Indians present has not proven to be possible. Collin's command crossed the Platte Bridge into the present day town of Mills, Wyoming and attacked into the hills, where they were quickly repulsed and retreated back across it.

Collins and three other soldiers were killed during the battle, with Collins death sometimes being attributed to a spooked horse charging into the Indian combatants, and other accounts claiming he went back to rescue a wounded man. One of the other soldiers killed in the battle was killed due to being dismounted and losing his horse, and thereby being left with no means of escaping the advancing Sioux and Cheyenne. The Sioux and Cheyenne, while victorious, were prevented from crossing Platte Bridge into the fort due it being guarded on the south side by a mountain howitzer. The battle became known as the Battle of Platte Bridge Station. The Army officially renamed the post Fort Casper to honor Collins, using his first name of Caspar since an existing post in Colorado was already called Fort Collins, after Collins' father. In response to the attacks, the Army established a permanent garrison of 100 troops at the site.

The wagon train itself, commanded by a Sgt. Custard, was attacked the same day, with the soldiers attached to it being completely overrun, and only a few of them surviving. That battle became known as the Battle of Red Buttes.

The fort was abandoned two years later in August, 1867, with the garrison moved to Fort Fetterman at Douglas, Wyoming.