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Section 3 All Wyoming Area Codes are 307 inal buildings were improved or replaced over the life of the post. Some examples of these changes were the addition of brick chimneys, and the building of basement kitchens under the existing barracks and those newly constructed during 1867-1868, which not only helped save space in the cramped confines of the fort, but also provided some additional warmth for the barracks’ occupants. A List of the Structures 1. Gun Bastion 2. Infantry Barracks 3. Officer Quarters 4. Permanent Hospital 5. Bakery 6. Band Quarters 7. Sutler Store 8. Post Headquaters 9. Guard House 10. Main Gate 11. Warehouses 12. Laundry Quarters 13. Saddle Shop 14. Temporary Hospital 15. Powder Magazine 16. Commander Quarters 17. Flag Pole Bandstand 18. Artillery Park 19. Guard Stand 20. Chapel 21. Civilian Dwelling (Wheatley) 22. Cavalry Barracks 23. Cavalry Stables 24. NCO Quarters 25. Guard Stands 26. Sinks 27. Quartermaster Office 28. Civilian Dwellings The Post Headquarters: Administering Fort Phil Kearny and the Mountain District From this building the commander of the Mountain District of the U.S Army isssued orders to Forts Phil Kearny, C.F. Smith, and the Reno. The Mountain District was made up of the 2nd Battalion 18th Infantry until 1867 when it was reorganized into the 27th Infaantry Regiment. During this building’s existence, the 25 by 50 foot, one inch plank boxs and batten structure was an office for Colonels Henry B. Carrington, Henry Wessells, and John E. Smith. The building was also the commuynication center for Fort Phil Kearny. Flag signalmen located on a lookout stand attached to building received and sent messages to Pilot Knob and other points. In 1887, Quartermaster Captain George Dandy described the building as “needing torn down”. Yet it continued to function in a number of ways until the closure of the fort. One use was as a school house, in which Chaplain White taught classes for the 10 children of 17 families on post. The Quartermaster Corral: Civilian Quarters, Storage, and Shops While not as well built and fortified as the military stockade to the north, the quartermaster’s stockade provided protection for the Quartermaster Department’s supplies, draft animals, work shops and civilian employees. Most of the supplies brought to the fort, either by wagons up the Bozeman Trail or by contractors working local resources, came into the quartermaster’s corral. 154 Ultimate Wyoming Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia
By April 1867, the Quartermaster Department was employing 52 civilians, including mail carriers, guides, carpenters, wagon masters, coal miners, stock herders and others. Maintaining Fort Phil Kearny was expensive; laborers were paid $35-$45 a month, three times the salary of an Army enlisted man, while guides made from $5 to $10 a day, almost as much as an Army colonel. The Fort On July 13, 1866, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, leading four companies of the 18th Infantry, arrived at this site. Carrington, a competent engineer, immediately put his men to work. Through diligent labor they built, by October of that year, the basic units of what became an outstanding example of the complete, stockaded, “Indian Wars” military establishment. From here, as you face across this tablet, extends the ground where Fort Phil Kearny once stood. Replacement posts mark the original corners of the 800’ x 600’ stockade. Beyond, salient points of contiguous cavalry and quartermaster corrals are marked. At the southwest end an animal watering gap jutted into Little Piney Creek. The Bozeman Trail passed roughly parallel to the northeast side. Fort Phil Kearny was usually garrisoned by four to six infantry companies, plus one or two companies of cavalry. However, so slosely did Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, under the tactician Red Cloud, invest the post that these troops were frequently unable to perform Bozeman Trail convoy duty. Incidents of hostility were the daily rule and several of the most famous engagements of “Indian Wars” relate to this fort. The military abandoned the fort in August, 1868, and it was burned by a band of Cheyenne. The Flagpole: A Relief to the Traveler The sight of a 20 by 36 foot American flag flying atop a 124 foot flagpole came as a great relief to the traveler on the Bozeman Trail. It meant the viewer was in sight of safe haven, temporarily free from the rigors of the trail, and safe from Indian attak. The pole which supported the flag was constructed of two pieces in a design similar to a ship mast. Made of lodgepole pine hauled from the wood-cutting areas on nearby Piney Island, the round poles were carved into octagons, painted black and the two pieces pinned together under the direction of civilian builder William Daley. The flagpole was raised on October 31, 1866, with much fanfare. The first United States garrison flag to fly over the land between the North Platte and Yellowstone Rivers was hoisted. The band played on an octagonal stand erected at the pole’s base. Colonel Carrington addressed the post’s residents, and soldiers, dressed in newly issued uniforms. He spoke of their haardships, losses, and tribulations, and he didicated the new fort after nearly four months of occupation, naming it for a fallen Civil War hero. The Hospital: Any Attempt to Relieve the Suffering… at Fort Phil Kearny was seldom successful at either of its two hospitals. The original hospital was a 24 by 84 foot structure similar to the barracks in construction. During this hospital’s short service it sadly served as the morgue for Fetterman’s command. During most of its existence the building functioned as an officer’s www.ultimatewyoming.com Little remains of old Fort Kearny. The interpretive signs along the fort’s grounds do much to give the visitor an idea of what the original fort was like. quarters and was home to Captain Powell during his time at the post. The second and primary hospital was built in 1867. It was an L—shaped structure incorporating panel construction and was 25 by 156 feet. The building either replaced or was attached to the bakery which was also located in this corner.The bakery attachment would have provided additional warmth and soothing aromas for the occupants. Little else is known abut this building. Suffering at the post was considerable. There was constant skirmishing with the Indians ouside the post resulting in numerous battle injuries. In addition to combat wounds the occupants might be suffering from disease including dysentery, scurvy, or tuberculosis which, records indicate, were prevalent at the fort due to poor diet and sanitation. The Band: For Conflict or Comfort The 18th Infantry’s 40-piece Regimental Band was housed at Fort Phil Kearny in a 24 by 64 green log, panel constructed, dirt roofed barrack. The band provided drummers and buglers for drill, ceremony, and combat commands during the day. In the evening they would gather at an octagonal bandstand surrounding the flagstaff to serenade the post with martial or popular music of the day. On special occasions they would orchestrate waltzes at post dances. Their duties were truly ones of extremes; besides sounding commands or music to march by, members might also be called on to act as messengers, medical orderlies, or combat soldiers. Band members at the fort also built Colonel Carrington’s house in addition to serving as clerks or supply personnel. There is more historical information on the band at Fort Phil Kearny than some of the other units. It is known that the band members carried Spencer Carbines even though the men seldom went into combat as a complete unit. Following the December 6, 1866 skirmish Colonel Carrington transferred these weapons to the cavalry, hoping to increase their fire power. All these weapons were lost in the Fetterman Fight two weeks later. Sadly, it is also known that the first death at Fort Phil Kearny was the Bandmaster, Master Serveant William Curry,who died of typhoid and pneumonia, leaving behind a wife and two boys. ”As we passed the Fort some distance we came to a halt for nearly an hour and a half…crossing the stream and ascending the bluffs beyond. As we lay there the brass band at the Fort commenced playing. Such sounds in such a scene! There was something in the wild, sweet strains that filled and floated through the deep reechoing valley that spoke of home; yet so far distant and in so wild a place that it partook of the nature of the scenes around it. It was like looking through the ‘glass of time’ into the dim Past…’ From the diary of Davis Willson, August 7, 1866, near Fort Phil Kearny The Land The land under view, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, was once the Red man’s land of milk and honey. Then, as now, teeming with wildlife, it was most productive— thus favorite—hunting ground. But it was also a natural route for north-south travel, used from time immemorial by nomadic men and migratory beasts. Lying hundreds of miles beyond the 1860 frontier it was treaty-confirmed Indian Country. Here came a frontiersman, John Bozeman, pioneering a wagon road which followed buffalo, Indian and trapper trails. His time and energy saving short cut led to the booming mining fields of western Montana. This interloper was followed by others whose habitual frontier callousness easily stifled any scruple over trespass of an Indian passageway. Faint wheel marks soon became a beaten road known as the Bozeman Trail. High plains and mountain Indians, notably Sioux and Cheyenne, watching this transgression, resented both the physical act and the implied contempt of solemn treaty. They made 155 Section 3 NORTHEAST AREA INCLUDING SHERIDAN, BUFFALO, DAYTON, GILLETTE, AND NEWCASTLE
Page 1 and 2: Devils Tower near Sundance. 1 Food,
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Page 39 and 40: T Keyhole State Park 353 McKean Rd,
Page 41 and 42: T Anna Miller Museum 401 Delaware i
Page 43 and 44: BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST The Bla
Page 45 and 46: BOMBER MOUNTAIN: A MYSTERY IN WYOMI
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Page 59 and 60: Dining Quick Reference Price Range
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