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Fort Phil Kearny is located 2 miles from Exit 44,
off U.S. Hwy. I-90, between Sheridan & Buffalo, Wyoming |
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The Fort Phil
Kearny State Historic Site is dedicated to the preservation, interpretation and
development of the state owned properties along the Bozeman Trail. These include
Fort Phil Kearny, the Fetterman Battlefield, the Wagon Box Fight, Connor Battlefield,
Crazy Woman Battle, Fort Reno, and Fort Fetterman. |
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| Fort Phil Kearny,
named for a popular Union General, was established by Colonel Henry B. Carrington of the
18th U.S. Infantry in July, 1866, near present-day Story, in Northeastern Wyoming.
The largest of three forts, including Fort Reno near Kaycee, Wyoming, and C. F. Smith near
Hardin, Montana, it was one of the three posts established to protect emigrants traveling
the Bozeman Trail north to the gold fields of Montana, and also to prevent intertribal
warfare between Native American tribes. It later proved useful to draw attention of Indian
forces away from the trans-continental railroad construction corridor to the south. |
Fort Phil Kearny Stockade and Sign
Fort Phil Kearny
State Historic Site is also
designated a National Historic Landmark.
The Landmark designation includes the Fort,
the Fetterman and Wagon Box Battles
and the John "Portugee" Phillips Monument. |
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Interpretive Center
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The dramatic story of Fort Phil Kearny represented
a 'microcosm' of the early events in the West and was a forerunner to the events at the
Little Big Horn a decade later. It was the story of the Indians, emigrants, the military,
civilian contractors, Indian and white women and children as well as warriors and
soldiers...of the famous ride of John "Portuguese" Phillips to Fort Laramie
after the Fetterman Fight, and the Wagon Box Fight of 1867. |
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| During its brief two-year existence, Fort Phil Kearny was the focal point of a violent
war between the U.S. Army and the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians. When the Union
Pacific Railroad reached a point where the dangerous route was no longer needed, the
Bozeman Trail and the three forts were abandoned in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.
Shortly after, Fort Phil Kearny was burned, probably by Cheyenne Indians. |
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