Across The Fence: Fort Sanders, a forgotten fort on the U.P. line

As the Union Pacific Railroad stretched its ribbon of steel across the Great Plains, "End of Track" towns sprang up faster than a desert flower after a spring rain.

Although not near as pleasing to the eye as a cactus flower, the tarpaper shacks and canvas tent towns were an integral and thorny partner of the ever lengthening reach of rails and ties.

These temporary towns served as delivery points for the needed railroad ties, spikes and plates, dynamite, and all other supplies needed by the hundreds of men who made up the crews that built the railbed, laid the ties and set the rails.

The Union Pacific, unscrupulously financed by Credit Mobilier, contracted woodcutters and freighters to supply firewood, needed in the camps and as fuel for locomotives. These contractors would supply firewood, taken from the nearest timberland, at the rate of $12 to $16 per cord and delivered upwards of 500 cords or more per contract. Rail ties were also cut from these often-sparse timberlands and delivered to the camps at a price of up to $1.30 per tie. Considering the need for nearly 400,000 ties per 100 miles of track, a tie contract could be quite profitable.

Besdies its role as supply depot the town served as a temporary tent city that housed the workers and provided a variety of frontier entertainment consisting, for the most part, of gambling houses, saloons and brothels. As might be expected, the volatile combination of whiskey, women and gambling often resulted in violence and in many of these 'end of track' towns, a murder a day was not uncommon. Greed, jealousy and intolerance among Confederate and Union veterans of the recent Civil War, Irish Catholics and Anglo Protestants, and prejudice against freed slaves and Chinese immigrants led to many a conflict that resulted in homicide. Law enforcement was often lax or non-existent and justice, if any was to be had, was carried out by revenge or self-appointed vigilantes.

After the railroad had passed through the panhandle of Nebraska Territory, along the Lodgepole Trail, it crossed into the southern part of Dakota Territory (later the U.S. state of Wyoming) where a tie camp had been established at Pine Bluffs. From there the rails continued on to Cheyenne then headed west-by-northwest over Sherman Hill where it reached an altitude of more than 7,000 feet.

From Cheyenne westward the "end of trac" came and went at camps known as Ottoe, Granite Canon, Buford, Sherman and Red Butte and then, in the early spring of 1868, swung north to cross the main fork of the Laramie River at the U.S. military outpost, Fort Sanders.

Incorrectly noted as "Ft. Saunders" in the 1872 Stedman, Brown and Lyon Atlas of the United States, Fort Sanders was established on July 4, 1866, two years before the arrival of the Union Pacific. Originally named Fort John Buford, in honor of General Buford who was killed in battle in 1863, the name was changed less than 60 days later to Fort Sanders, in honor of Brigadier General William P. Sanders who had been killed during the siege of Knoxville, Tenn., in November 1863.

The fort had been built to protect immigrants on the Overland Trail and the stage line running from Denver to Salt Lake. With the coming of the railroad the duties of the soldiers stationed there became the protection of the railroad workers from the threat of attack by the Indians who fought to stop the encroachment of progress through their traditional hunting grounds. With the completion of Fort Sanders, the Pine Bluffs tie camp was closed and all operations moved to the Fort Sanders Camp located about a mile northeast of the fort. When the Pine Bluffs camp closed, early pioneer and future Nebraska cattleman, John Bratt, was hired to transport eight freight wagons, with ten head of oxen per wagon, along with all the necessary equipment to be used in hauling wood and ties to Fort Sanders and Sherman Station. One U.S. government contract called for 3,000 cords of firewood to be delivered at Fort Sanders.

The Fort was built to accommodate four companies and later expanded to a force of six. Two of the original units came from Fort Halleck, a military outpost in Idaho Territory (later to become the state of Wyoming) that was built in 1862 for immigrant protection along the Overland Trail. The fort, located on the northeast side of Elk Mountain, contained stables for 200 horses, company barracks, officers quarters, and a post hospital staffed with Army surgeons.

Under the command of Captain John T. Mizner, Company F, 5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry and Company A, 6th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, deployed from Fort Halleck and occupied the new barracks at Fort Sanders. Fort Halleck was abandoned and except for a single building has disappeared into the Wyoming plains. A solitary marker stands vigil over the post cemetery.

The Fort Sanders parade ground measured 223 feet by 400 feet and was surrounded by stables, barracks, officer's quarters, storehouses, batteries, dining hall, blacksmith shops and other necessary structures. The parade ground boasted a 100-foot flagpole on which was hoisted a 32-foot by 50-foot Garrison flag that could be seen, from miles away, across the open plains.

A little more than three miles north of Fort Sanders the "end of track" town of Laramie City sprang up from out of the open plains and took shelter under the usual array of scavenged lumber, tarpaper walls and canvas rooftops. The lawlessness of Laramie City was so rampant that the control of the town had to be taken over by the Federal Courts. While construction workers on the railroad often met with fatal accidents, the death rate of workers in Laramie City's saloons and streets was four times greater.

Most law enforcement, in Laramie City, was conducted by vigilance committees. Nathaniel Kimball Boswell was supposedly a member of one such committee and was the first official sheriff of Albany County and later the warden of the Wyoming Territorial prison. As a member of the local vigilance committee, N.K. Boswell assisted in the lynchings of at least four unsavory souls that preyed upon the marginally good citizens of the city.

One, "Long Sleeve" Steve Young, a gambler and gunfighter of unsavory character was known to have killed several men. The killing of an old prospector, known as 'Hard Luck' Harrison, was traced to Young who, on Oct. 28, 1868, was hung with a short rope from a tall telegraph pole outside the Union Pacific Hotel.

In another instance, two brothers, Ace and Con Moore were founding fathers of Laramie City. Together the brothers had opened a drinking establishment from the proceeds of a former business venture that involved grand theft. Their tent saloon named the Belle of the West, but called "the Bucket of Blood" by their patrons, was the sight of multiple acts of murder. The brothers, along with one other partner, Big Ned Bernard, were responsible for more than a dozen killings. After a deadly gun battle between the vigilantes and the three businessmen, Ace, Con and Big Ned were captured. After a brief trial by a jury of none and an absentee judge, the three men were bound and escorted to an unfinished, nearby cabin and hung from its open rafters.

The booming town of Laramie created many problems for Fort Sanders. Because of the unrestrained revelry that could be found there, desertions from the post became a far too frequent event. Drunkenness became an epidemic among the troops and the numbers of soldiers placed under arrest exceeded the forts capacity in the brig. Consequently a new and significantly larger stone guardhouse was built to replace the previous smaller, log structure. The new brig was completed in early 1869 and was usually filled to capacity.

Eventually Laramie City moved beyond its brawling infancy as the Union Pacific moved westward toward its historic rendezvous at Promontory Point as it rolled through end of track camps of forgotten names such as; Carbon, Percy, Dana, Fort Steele, Benton and Separation. Wagon and stage travel along the Overland Trail seemingly disappeared overnight as rails and steam replaced trails and teams. Cheyenne became a thriving hub of commerce and Fort D. A. Russell replaced the need for the frontier post of Fort Sanders.

Although Fort Sanders never experience any Indian attacks, it soldiers were involved in 20 major skirmishes across the Laramie Plains. Enlistees at the fort were along on Custer's campaign of 1876 that took them into the Valley of the Little Big Horn. As the need for troops declined the Fort gradually lost its importance along the Overland Trail and was abandoned in 1882. The U.S. Army turned the post over to the department of the Interior who auctioned off its many structures. Most all were torn down and reused for other purposes. At least two of the buildings were moved intact. The Post Commanders quarters being relocated to LaBonte Park in Laramie and another building which became the Cavalrymen Supper Club. Only the shell of the stone guardhouse remains at the original site.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award-winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. To contact Tim, email: [email protected]