The altitude has continued to increase although it is still not apparent as you drive west. From Council Bluffs IA at 984 feet, elevation increased by almost 1000 feet at Grand Island NE to 1862 feet. North Platte NE added nearly another 1000 feet to 2809 feet high, and Scottsbluff NE stands at 3880 feet.
Almost immediately after Mitchell Pass the land becomes flat again, and Hwy 92 leads me through very rural country.
(Click on the photos to see a larger image)
While some of the landscape appears to be high desert, other areas are farmed and still show the spring green brought about by abnormally high rainfall.
Hwy 92 meets Hwy 85, which comes north from Cheyenne WY, about twenty miles east of Fort Laramie WY—my next stop.
The Fort Laramie Army Bridge, one-half mile from the highway, originally spanned the wide North Platte River as you can see by the flat land under most of the bridge. Constructed in 1875, and believed to be the oldest military bridge west of the Mississippi River, it remained in use until 1958.
Fort Laramie, originally a trading post, had been operated by various mountain men, including Jim Bridger, prior to becoming a military post in 1849 just two months before Alonzo arrived.
On September 4th Alonzo wrote, “Decamped and drove 15 miles to Fort Laramie. It is quite a business place. They are putting up heavy public buildings for a fort, wood and brick. I went up around and through it. I went into a sawmill. I thought I was most home.”
The only building still standing that would have been at the fort in 1849 is “Old Bedlam,” the bachelor officers’ quarters or BOQ. Not only is it the oldest building at the fort, it's the oldest building in the state of Wyoming.
If asked to guess which was the oldest building on the premises one would never pick the BOQ as the wooden building has been beautifully restored, a twenty-six year project that was completed in 1964.
In addition, many rooms in the BOQ have been outfitted as they might have looked when it was a functioning fort.
Visitors can walk through the BOQ and climb to the second-floor veranda that spans the front of the building.
Next to the BOQ are the ruins of three lime-concrete buildings, built in 1881, that also served as officers’ quarters and the Commanding Officers’ quarters. They were additions to smaller adobe buildings that dated to 1855.
Their condition resulted from abandonment in 1890 when the fort's sixty structures were sold at public auction. Buildings were stripped of lumber and left to deteriorate until 1936 when the federal government acquired the fort and a restoration program began.
Fort Laramie, a National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service, is extensive and well worth a visit. Below are just a few of the restored buildings at the park.
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