Three of Wyoming’s pioneer trail historic sites are hosting special Christmas events this month that give visitors the opportunity to step back in time to see and experience a time long past.
Fort Laramie National Historic Site hots its annual “Christmas on the Frontier” event Saturday, Dec. 7, starting at 10 a.m. with a variety of activities until closing time at 6 p.m. the Fort Laramie Historical Association will provide refreshments in the visitor center throughout the day. From 10 a.m. to noon, St. Nicholas will have vintage crafts for children, also in the visitor center.
As part of the celebration local musicians will perform in the mess hall. Among those expected to perform are the Wyo-Ring Handbell Choir, the 67th Wyoming National Guard Woodwind Quartet, Martin Gilmore, the Torrington Fiddlers, and the Sugar Valley Singers. The Goshen County quilters also will be displaying their work during the day.
To further the musical celebration, beginning at 5 p.m. visitors can join in singing Christmas carols around the campfire and then take part in tours of the fort conducted by lantern carrying guides. The tours will include stops at a number of Christmas themed vignettes around the post.
For the event, admission is free.
Fort Laramie was the most important frontier-era military site in Wyoming. It was started as a fur trade outpost in 1834 owned and operated by Robert Campbell and William Sublette. John C. Fremont, who visited the site in 1842, recommended that the U. S. military ought to obtain the strategically located post to protect overland trail travel. As a result, in 1849 the military purchased the fort from the American Fur Company for $4,000, turning it into a military post that remained an active garrison until 1890.
Fort Laramie served as a major supply post for people traveling the overland trail routes, it was the site of important Indian treaties negotiated in 1851 and 1868, and it was on the route of not only the Oregon, Mormon, and California trails but also the subsequent Bozeman Trail and the Cheyenne to Deadwood Stage Route, established after 1875.
The oldest extant building in Wyoming is Old Bedlam, a two-story structure that was built in 1849. Soon after construction of Old Bedlam, fort personnel built an adobe sutler’s store, a structure that also remains standing.
Farther west on the Oregon and California trails, the frontier army established Platte Bridge Station in 1862, but was renamed Fort Caspar following an 1865 battle that resulted in the death of several members of the Kansas and Ohio voluntary cavalry units who served at the post, including Lt. Caspar Collins of the 11th Ohio.
Also on Saturday, Dec. 7, Fort Caspar will demonstrate its 19th century era with Candlelight Christmas at the Fort from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Army and civilian re-enactors will be in the fort buildings and on the grounds, with the whole area illuminated by candles and the light from fireplaces.
In addition to meeting these 19th-century reenactors, the kids can take part in craft activities and the museum will be open as well. This program is a free event.
Fort Bridger State Historic Site will hold a Victorian Christmas Dance on Dec. 19 from 7 to 10 p.m. with a small admission charge, or a donation of non-perishable food to the local food bank. The dance will include a variety of dance styles and it’s not necessary to know the steps, as there will be instruction for everyone attending. For this event, wear your 19th century-style clothing, if you have it, or wear something from the 21st century!
Operated by mountain man Jim Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez, Fort Bridger was an important trading site on the Oregon and California Trails in the 1840s and early 1850s.
Emigrant Joel Palmer described Fort Bridger in his journal on July 25, 1845: “It is built of poles and daubed with mud…a shabby concern. Here are about 25 lodges of Indians, or rather white trappers’ lodges occupied by their trapper wives. They have a good supply of robes, dressed deer, elk and antelope skins, coats, pants, pork, powder, lead, blankets, butcher-knives, spirits, hats, ready-made clothes, coffee, sugar, etc. They ask for a horse from twenty-five to fifty dollars in trade…. At this place the bottoms are wide, and covered with good grass. Cotton-wood timber in plenty.”
Embrace the frontier history of Wyoming and the holiday season by visiting one of these three historic sites for their Christmas events. It may make you realize life in that era in Wyoming during the holidays could be pretty elegant in its own rustic way.
Candy Moulton can be reached at Candy.L.Moulton@gmail.com
