Trails Center hosts 'Fort Laramie: Crossroads of a Nation Moving West' Saturday
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CASPER, Wyo. – Visit the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center this Saturday to discover the importance of Fort Laramie to the settlement of the West.
At 1 p.m. on October 23, Fort Laramie National Historic Site park ranger Clayton Hanson will present “Fort Laramie: Crossroads of a Nation Moving West.” Find out how Fort Laramie became and remained a significant intersection in the Nation’s migration westward.
Established in 1834 as a private fur trading post where the Laramie and North Platte rivers meet, Fort Laramie grew into an active post on the historic trails for 56 years. From early explorers, trappers, and traders to emigrants passing through on the historic trails, guarded by the frontier soldiers, and finally to homesteaders laying claims in Wyoming, Fort Laramie witnessed the entire saga the United States’ western expansion and the Native American resistance to encroachment on their homelands.
Hanson has worked as a park ranger for the National Park Service since 2011 and has shared the stories of the Fort Laramie National Historic Site since 2020. He has told the stories of many special places in the West and helped others trace the lives of soldiers and Native Americans at Fort Spokane, Wash., walk in the footsteps of the ancestral Puebloans at Mesa Verde, Colo., and explore the road to Santa Fe and the Medicine Lodge Treaty at Fort Larned, Kan. Hanson holds a master’s degree in public history from Eastern Washington University and is currently a Ph.D candidate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
For more information, please call the Trails Center at 307-261-7700.
The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center is open 7 days a week from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm MST.
1501 N Poplar St., Casper, WY 82601.
Admission is Free
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.