Fort Phil Kearny was constructed in 1866 along the Bozeman Trail on the eastern side of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. The fort was one of 3 established to protect miners and travelers passing through Indian Territory on their way to the gold fields of Montana.
The historic fort played a major role in the Indian Wars around the area and was the post where Captain Fetterman and 80 other men rode from before being wiped out in what became known at the Fetterman Massacre.
The fort, known as "the hated post on the Little Piney," was abandoned by the Army in 1868 when the railroad reached far enough west to enable the travelers to reach the Montana gold fields by riding the rails through Idaho and making the dangerous Bozeman Trail obsolete. The Indians burned it as soon as the soldiers left.
Today at this historic site, some of the buildings have been restored and there is a visitor center with videos and exhibits, a book store, and self-guided tours of the grounds. Not exactly worth a long trip just to see it, but if you are in the area like Lil Dude Troll was, it's worth a stop!
The discovery of gold in 1863 in Montana led to thousands of miners and settlers passing through one of the last unspoiled hunting grounds of the Sioux Indians in Wyoming. The U.S. government had signed a treaty with the Indians giving them the territory, but the travelers and settlers began competing for the dwindling resources of the land and the Indians responded by attacking the wagon trains and stealing livestock. In response, the government established 3 forts for the protection of the people the Indians thought of as trespassers.
In December, 1866, a detachment of 79 soldiers and 4 civilians pursued a handful of Indians on their ponies over a ridge on this field. They rode straight into an ambush laid by more than 2,000 warriors. Within a few minutes, all were dead. It was the Army's worst defeat in the war against the Indians until Little Big Horn 10 years later.
The monument states, "On this field on the 21st day of December, 1866, three commissioned officers and seventy-six privates of the 18th U.S. Infantry and of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry and four civilians under the command of Captain Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William J. Fetterman were killed by an overwhelming force of Sioux under the command of Red Cloud. There were no survivors."
