Business & Industry

Fort Bernard undercut Fort John’s prices by up to 40% in 1845–46, until a fire destroyed it within two years. Visited by Francis Parkman and the Donner Party, it captures a fierce, short-lived challenge to the American Fur Company’s monopoly on the North Platte.

For twelve years, John Baptiste Richard’s toll bridge and trading post near present-day Evansville was the upper North Platte’s busiest crossing, hosting emigrants, soldiers, and the Pony Express. Known to travelers as “Reshaw’s Bridge,” it gave way to Fort Caspar in 1865.

Built in 1841 to challenge the American Fur Company, Lancaster Lupton’s Fort Platte sparked a fierce three-year rivalry with Fort John. Bankrupt by 1842, it passed through four owners before being abandoned in 1845. Not even an adobe brick remains today.

Built in 1841 to outshine its decaying predecessor Fort William, adobe Fort John became the busiest trading post on the North Platte, the “Fort Laramie” thousands of emigrants passed through. The Army bought it in 1849, launching one of the West’s great military posts.

Built in 1832 near the Green River, Fort Bonneville was Wyoming’s first trading post, though mountain men mocked it as “Fort Nonsense.” Its real legacy was proving wagons could cross South Pass.

Built in 1834 at the Laramie-Platte confluence, Fort William was Wyoming’s first permanent trading post, precursor to Fort John and Fort Laramie. Champagne christened its name after a dispute among its builders. Its exact location remains unknown despite decades of archaeological searching.

Henry Fraeb, a veteran of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, died defending a hastily built fortification on the Little Snake River in August 1841. Whether a true trading post ever stood nearby remains disputed, its existence woven from local tradition rather than solid record.

In 1837, Pierre Sarpy built a seasonal outpost near Fort William on the North Platte to feed the fur trade’s booming robe market. Abandoned within a year, its exact location was never recorded, and Fort Sarpy remains one of Wyoming’s most obscure trading posts.

How did a subtropical cattle ranching practice make it into Wyoming? Wyoming’s cattle ranching industry has deep roots in the Tamaulipas area of Mexico, the Carolinas, and Texas. Read more about how this system got established in Wyoming, who profited from it, and what happened when it met the harsh reality of Wyoming winters.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the cattle ranching industry in Wyoming operated mostly on neglect with one exception: the roundups. For most of the year, cattle were left to roam and graze untended. But twice a year, they were rounded up—sometimes as far as 100 miles away from their home ranch. Read more about the roundups on Wyoming’s Open Range.