Great Plains Forts

An up-to-date guide to the critical forts of the Indian campaigns of the late 19th century. Recounts the integral role of 51 forts during the decades of warfare with the Plains Indian tribes and tells of the posts fates after the Indian wars, providing narrative vignettes of incidents or points of historical importance. It also provides directions and visitor information for the following states: Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming.

"Anyone interested in the history of the West will enjoy this latest book by Jeff Barnes. He carefully examines the accounts of William F. 'Buffalo Bill' Cody's life--some true, some fictional, and others in between--and places them within the context of the Great Plains, and America as a whole, guiding readers to sites associated with Buffalo Bill and the momentous times in which he lived. It's an entertaining and helpful guide to both past and place." --Steve Friesen, director of the Buffalo Bill Museum • Guide to residences, forts, battlefields, and other sites that interpret Buffalo Bill's life on the Great Plains • Locations in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming • Helpful maps pinpoint locations • Dozens of photographs from both past and present • Includes directions, visitor information, related sites, and recommended reading

During the early decades of the 19th century, the Southern Plains of the North American continent were only occasionally visited by explorers, trappers, traders, and missionaries. The first trading posts and forts were built then, such as Adobe Walls in the panhandle of North Texas, and Tubac Presidio in New Mexico. During the 1840s, when the 'Great American Desert' became the scene of an inexorable westward expansion, European pioneers and settlers flooded overland from the eastern seaboard. As they headed west, these settlers invaded and absorbed the traditional lands of the Native American. Via a series of Acts passed by Congress, many members of the Five Civilized Tribes (the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole) were moved to reservations. It was hoped that a Permanent Indian Frontier guarded by a line of military forts would separate the Indian from the 'white man' forever. Numerous posts were built to police the southern end of this frontier between 1820 and 1840. Following the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836, and the Mexican War of 1846-48, the lands and wealth then acquired lured many more migrants to the Southwest. The resulting trails first breached and then destroyed the Permanent Indian Frontier. The US Government constructed a line of forts on the Texan frontier in 1848-49 to protect traders and settlers. This chain, which included forts Graham, Worth, Gates, Crogham, Inge and Duncan, extended for more than 800 miles. In 1850-52 it became necessary to erect another line of posts 200 miles further west, in order to keep pace with the rapidly advancing frontier and protect against the marauding Kiowas and Comanches. To combat constant Apache and Navajo raids, a network of posts was built in New Mexico throughout the remainder of 1850s. During the Civil War, the Texan forts seized and occupied by Confederate forces came under regular attack from marauding Indians. Also, in 1864, Kiowa and Comanche attacks on Santa Fe wagontrains on the borders of New Mexico Territory prompted a punitive expedition led by Colonel Christopher "Kit" Carson which led to the First Battle of Adobe Walls. This book is a detailed exploration of the design and development and operational histories of all of these forts and defensive systems.

"Very comprehensive and authoritative." --Robert M. Utley, author of Cavalier in Buckskin "Jeff Barnes has really done his research. . . . Highly recommended." --James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory Guide to forts, military posts, battlefields, and other sites that interpret George Armstrong Custer's decade of operations on the Great Plains Locations in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana Extended section on Little Bighorn Each entry includes directions, amenities, contact information, and recommended reading

Of all the U.S. Army posts in the West, none witnessed more history than Fort Laramie, positioned where the northern Great Plains join the Rocky Mountains. From its beginnings as a trading post in 1834 to its abandonment by the army in 1890, it was involved in the buffalo hide trade, overland migrations, Indian wars and treaties, the Utah War, Confederate maneuvering, and the coming of the telegraph and first transcontinental railroad. Douglas C. McChristian has written the first complete history of Fort Laramie, chronicling every critical stage in its existence, including its addition to the National Park System. He draws on an extraordinary array of archival materials–including those at Fort Laramie National Historic Site–to present new data about the fort and new interpretations of historical events. Emphasizing the fort's military history, McChristian documents the army's vital role in ending challenges posed by American Indians to U.S. occupation and settlement of the region, and he expands on the fort's interactions with the many Native peoples of the Central Plains and Rocky Mountains. He provides a particularly lucid description of the infamous Grattan fight of 1854, which initiated a generation of strife between Indians and U.S. soldiers, and he recounts the 1851 Horse Creek and 1868 Fort Laramie treaties. Meticulously researched and gracefully told, this is a long-overdue military history of one of the American West's most venerable historic places.

The number and variety of forts and posts, together with changes of location, name, and designation, have posed perplexing problems for students of western history. Now Robert W. Frazer has prepared a systematic listing of all presidios and military forts, which were ever, at any time and in any sense, so designated. The lists of posts are arranged alphabetically within the boundaries of present states. Pertinent information is included for each fort: date of establishment, location, and reason for establishment; name, rank, and military unit of the person establishing the post; origin of the post name and changes in name and location; present status or date of abandonment; and disposition of any existing military reservation. A map for each state shows the location of the posts discussed. A prime reference for historians, Forts of the West will prove useful to readers of western history as well.

In this expanded guidebook Jeff Barnes presents information about the historic forts and military posts of the Indian Wars in the late nineteenth century, including new entries, color photographs, and updated information on the forts.