| Forts, Trading Posts, Wooden Stockades, Blockhouses
Frontier Forts
The term fort is deceiving in the American West as it could mean a military post, a supply camp, barracks, or a civilian trading post. The location and supply of materials largely dictated what these forts were built of
Where wood and lumber were readily obtained, the familiar wooden stockades were erected but in the arid southwest adobe walls and buildings were built out of necessity. Some forts were no more then a few worn out cabins such as Fort Bridger or an abandon mission such as the Alamo
How the forts were constructed depended on date, location and Indian hostilities at the time. Fort Phil Kearny and Fort Abraham Lincoln were elaborate timbered forts with blockhouses on each corner and extensive barracks
Fort William was originally a log structure trading post which later was made into an adobe wall and renamed Fort Laramie which the government purchased in 1849 and converted into a military Army post with elaborate fortifications outside the original wall
Most of the forts are crumbling ruins long age abandoned, some only exist by a bronze marker of their whereabouts during the heyday of the settling of the West
A few are active military posts, Fort D. A. Russell now named Warren Air Force Base near present day, Cheyenne, Wyoming and Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas |
