Fort Washakie

For the namesake town in Wyoming, see Fort Washakie, Wyoming.

Fort Washakie Historic District
Fort Washakie Building #1
Nearest cityFort Washakie, Wyoming
Coordinates43°00′23″N 108°52′56″W / 43.00639°N 108.88222°W / 43.00639; -108.88222
Area23 acres (9.3 ha)
Built1869 (1869)
NRHP reference No.69000188[1]
Added to NRHPApril 16, 1969

Fort Washakie was a U.S. Army fort in what is now the U.S. state of Wyoming. The fort was established in 1869 and named Camp Augur after General Christopher C. Augur, commander of the Department of the Platte.[2] In 1870 the camp was renamed Camp Brown in honor of Captain Frederick H. Brown, who was killed in the Fetterman Massacre in 1866.[3]

It was renamed again in 1878 in honor of Chief Washakie of the Shoshone tribe, making the fort one of the only U.S. military outposts named after a Native American. (Another fort named for a Native American was Fort E.S. Parker, the original Crow Agency in Montana that operated from 1869 to 1875, which was named after the Seneca lawyer Eli Parker, who was a General under Ulysses Grant.)

Fort Washakie was operated as a military outpost until 1909; the final post commander, William A. McCain oversaw its decommissioning and transfer to the Shoshone Indian Agency.[4][5] The graves of Washakie and Lewis and Clark Expedition guide Sacajawea are located on the grounds of the fort. The site is included within the present-day Wind River Indian Reservation.

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ "Camp Augur". wyomingplaces.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
  3. ^ Herbard, Grace Raymond. Marking the Oregon Trail, the Bozeman Road and Historic Places in Wyoming 1908-1920. p. 10.
  4. ^ Cullum, George W. (1920). Robinson, Wirt (ed.). Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy. Vol. VI–A. Saginaw, Michigan: Seemann & Peters. p. 987, 1003, 1005 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Longley, Francis F. (Winter 1961). "Obituary, William Alexander McCain". Assembly. Newburgh, New York: Association of Graduates, United States Military Academy. pp. 82–83 – via West Point Digital Library.

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