Fort Steele Post Office, approx. 1920.
Some 43 miles west of Medicine Bow on the Lincoln Highway, bypassing Hanna and Elk Mountain,
is the abandoned military post of Fort Fred Steele. The monument in the left of the above photo
recites:
FORT FRED STEELE
U.S. MILITARY POST
JUNE 30, 1868
TO
AUGUST 7, 1886
MARKED BY THE
STATE OF WYOMING
1914
Sager's Servce Station, Fort Steele, 1920's
Frederick Steele
The Fort, named after Civil War Brevet
Major General Frederick Steele by Richard Dodge, was one of the three
great forts established to protect the Union Pacific and its workers from marauding Indians. Steele
had served in the Mexican War. During the Civil War, Steele
fought without much distinction against CSA Gen. Edmund Kirby-Smith in Arkansas and Texas.
Notwithstanding a personal appeal delivered by his
brother, a Democratic congressman from New York, to President Lincoln,
Steele was ultimately removed from Command. Lincoln did not even respond to the
entreaty by Congressman Steele.
Following the war Gen. Steele was reduced to his permanent rank of Colonel and died in
San Mateo, California, in 1868.
The buildings were made of wood cut from Elk Mountain and were
constructed to standard Army plans. It was from Ft. Steele that Major Thomas T.
Thornburgh departed on his ill-fated journey to Colorado and to which Joe Rankin made his epic
165 mile ride in 28 1/2 hours, changing horses only twice, to deliver word of the
massacre of Thornburgh and his Company. The fort was abandoned by the military in 1886.
Officers' Quarters, Ft. Fred Steele, approx. 1870, stereograph by C. R. Savage
Enlisted Men's Quarters, Ft. Fred Steele, undated.
Eight years after abandonment, the fort and its buildings were purchased by the
Cosgriff Brothers and became a center of the wool industry. In 1895, the
Cosgriff Brothers shipped out a trainload of 800,000 lbs. of wool. Additionally, a
sawmill was operated, taking advantage of the ability to float logs down the
North Platte from the Medicine Bows.
Sawmill, Fort Steele, undated.
Shortly thereafter, most of the town burned down, with the remainng buildings being
acquired by the Leo Sheep Company.
Fort Steele railroad bridge, approx. 1910
.
With the establishment of the Lincoln Highway in the area in 1922, the town had a
brief economic resurgence which ended with the relocation of the highway in 1939. Today the
area has been designated as a state historic site with little more remaining but the
foundations of the buildings.
Ft. Fred Steele, 2003, photo by Geoff Dobson
The dark, box-like objects in the ruins are stoves. Few of the original buildings today survive, most victims of fire. Indeed,
even when the fort was in use, several buildings were lost due to fires started by sparks from the
passing locomotives.
Fort Steele School, 2003, photo by Geoff Dobson
When Alice Ramsey passed through Ft. Steele, the bridge was out and she was obliged
to bump along over the railroad bridge. There was another difficulty with the
roads in the area:
"Across Wyoming the roads threaded through privately owned cattle ranches.
My companions [Hettie Powell, Margaret Atwood, and Hermine Jans] were obliged
to take turns opening and closing the gates
of the fences which surrounded them as we drove through. If we got lost
we'd take to the high ground and search the horizon for the nearest
telephone poles with the most wires. It was a sure way of locating the
transcontinental railroad which we new would lead us back to civilization."
Lincoln Highway continued on next page.
|