FORT LARAMIE — Steve Rundlett drove about 200 miles from Colorado on Friday to attend one of his favorite events of the year: The Independence Day celebration at Fort Laramie National Historic Site.
“It’s beautiful,” Rundlett told Cowboy State Daily as he was sitting at the Cavalry Barracks. “It’s historic. It’s peaceful. It’s like when I was in Normandy [where Allied troops invaded mainland Europe on June 6, 1944]. They remember. And here, you remember.”
The pioneers who came through Fort Laramie had nothing, said Sidney, Nebraska, resident Angelia Bleck.
Fort Laramie began in the 1830s as a fur trading post. The U.S. Army bought it in 1849 and operated it until 1890. The Army used the fort to protect the Oregon, California and Mormon trails from Indian attacks.
The fort was around one-quarter to one-third of the way to the West Coast, Park Superintendent Mark Davison told Cowboy State Daily. It also represented the end of civilization and a last stop before the terrain shifted from the High Plains to the Rocky Mountains.
“We are so spoiled in our generation,” Bleck said. “My kids when they left home took half my furniture and didn't have to sleep on the floor. The jail, they didn't even have blankets or beds or anything. Today, they have cable [in jail].”
Derrick and Yvette Archuleta of Rawlins, Wyoming, wore period clothes to the Independence Day celebration at Fort Laramie National Historic Site. (Matthew Christian, Cowboy State Daily) 
Volunteers load an 1841 Howitzer cannon that was fired as part of the Independence Day celebration at Fort Laramie National Historic Site. (Matthew Christian, Cowboy State Daily)
Fort Laramie and the cross-country trails fell into disuse after the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1867, providing travelers a much easier way to get from east to west or west to east and making it profitable to farm and settle in the West.
Rundlett said his favorite part of the Fourth of July at Fort Laramie is the flag raising ceremony that was held at 9:30 a.m. He stuck around to watch a 38-gun salute and the firing of an 1841 Howitzer cannon just before noon.
The number of blanks fired by Park Rangers Jaret Carpenter, Rob Stevenson, Robert Cuvas and Jaeger Held represent the number of states — 38 — in the Union in 1876 when America turned 100 years old.
Mother and daughter Corrine and Kate Hutchins were walking around the Calvary Barracks on Independence Day.
They told Cowboy State Daily that they live in Cody — the site of another huge Fourth of July celebration — but decided to travel for the celebration at the historic fort.
“It's historic and just different from the parades and stuff,” Kate said. “You get to see how it actually was.”
Friday’s ceremonies also included a presentation by Mountain Man Shane Fox, historic games like a 50-yard dash and sack races, a performance from the Cheyenne Trotters equestrian drill team and a junior soldiers drill.
Matthew Christian can be reached at matthew@cowboystatedaily.com.
