Fort Phil Kearney

[Henry4440]

I have a question about Fort Phil Kearney.
Found this pic at Heritage Auctions.
http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=6074&lotNo=52026#Photo
You can zoom in when you click on the link.



Description:
Great C. 1868 Albumen Photographic View Of Fort Phil Kearney 8" X 11" albumen view fine, just some minor toning/foxing in the sky, else about perfect. On the original 8 5/8" X 11 1/2" mount with photographer's logo at the bottom, "Howard / Photo.". The margins of the mount have been trimmed but the image appears to retain its original size. Period ink script ID on verso "Wyoming" with subsequently added 19th century pencil ID "Fort Phil Kearney" The fort was constructed in 1866, primarily to protect the heavily used Bozeman trail, in what is present day northeastern Wyoming, and remained in use until 1868/69. The area around the fort was the sight of the Fetterman Massacre and the Wagon Box Fight. By 1868, the western extension of the Union Pacific Railroad had made the fort obsolete and it was subsequently burned by Cheyenne Indians. A very rare western image.

And here is a sketch of Phil Kearney


Is that really Ft. Phil Kearney?

[Delmonico]

Nope, that picture is not Phil Kearny.

[St. George]

The sketch is that of Fort Phil Kearny (note spelling) - but it's impossible to say if the print is.

The Post was burned to the ground by Indians, upon its abandonment in August of 1868.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Delmonico]

Fort Phil Kearny was one of the few western forts that had a stockade like in the movies.  The stockade was one of the first things finished and never developed any where near the buildings that picture shows.

[Delmonico]

I've never read of any photographer up there, as far as I know this sketch by Bugler Antonio Nicoli, 2nd Cavalry, is the closest you will get.

Courtesy National Archives.

[Henry4440]

I've never read of any photographer up there, as far as I know this sketch by Bugler Antonio Nicoli, 2nd Cavalry, is the closest you will get.

Courtesy National Archives.

Found this:

(Note:No photographs have ever been found of Fort Phil Kearny. Dee Brown believes that Smithsonian photographer, Ridgway Glover, whose equipment was inoperable, may have gotten it fixed, taken photos, and sent them back to the Philadephia Enquirer.  But years of search by Brown, and later by  Smithsonian photo archivist, Paula Fleming, have turned up nothing.  Glover was killed by Indians on September 15, 1866).

[Delmonico]

Thanks Lonsome Henry, I was going by memory and you jogged loose the memory about the photographer being killed.

Found these, I'm pretty sure it's a mislabeled photo of Fort Laramie


1858 by Samuel C. Mills:



And this one by William Henry Jackson:



I didn't find an exact date but he was in the area from at least 1869 to 1871.

[Henry4440]

Delmonico, i think you are right. Looks like Fort Laramie.

[Delmonico]

Thanks pard, I had a bit of time and I thought that's what it was before I searched.

[Tascosa Joe]

The Mills Photograph looks a lot like Fort Laramie.  The structure on the left edge of the bluff over the river:  Is that the reminants of Fort John?

[Delmonico]

The Mills Photograph looks a lot like Fort Laramie.  The structure on the left edge of the bluff over the river:  Is that the reminants of Fort John?

Yes, the Mills photo is defiantly Fort Larimie and I'd guess that is the reamins of Ft. John.

Found a better copy of the Jackson photo:

[Tascosa Joe]

I suppose they used the material in Fort John to build some of the other buildings at Laramie, because it was completely gone by the 69-71 photo by Jackson.

[Delmonico]

I suppose they used the material in Fort John to build some of the other buildings at Laramie, because it was completely gone by the 69-71 photo by Jackson.

Either that or firewood.

[Henry4440]

Either that or firewood.

......Fort Laramie was built of adobe only a few yards away, and the adjacent wooden fort was dismantled for firewood. This sort of salvage was common on the frontier in order to save on both labor and wood, and some of the beams of Fort Laramie's Bachelor Officers Quarters (nicknamed "Old Bedlam") came from Fort William.......

[Delmonico]

......Fort Laramie was built of adobe only a few yards away, and the adjacent wooden fort was dismantled for firewood. This sort of salvage was common on the frontier in order to save on both labor and wood, and some of the beams of Fort Laramie's Bachelor Officers Quarters (nicknamed "Old Bedlam") came from Fort William.......

Thanks, I almost figured most of it went to firewood.

[Henry4440]

[Ranch 13]

That first photo is of Ft. Laramie, looking north/northwest. The BYU photo is shot from the same spot lookin north/northeast.

[Cole Younger]

I gotta say I stand in awe of some of the historical referencing here.  Wow.  Thanks for the info.

[Ranch 13]

Just to the left of the ridge on the horizon in the center of the first photo, down in the bottom along Cotton Wood Creek was the "Government Farm". The Army had a farm there where they grew oats and hay for the horses, and some produce to feed the troopers. None of the buildings are there , but the foundation holes and the remnanents of a tunnel that went from the barracks to the stable.  The tunnel was used to get to the horses when hostiles would get up on the ridge above the barracks and keep everybody pinned down inside.
The main part of this old house we live in was recycled from some of those building into a schoolhouse, and then moved to it's current location in about 1935 as a homestead house.

[Delmonico]

Just to the left of the ridge on the horizon in the center of the first photo, down in the bottom along Cotton Wood Creek was the "Government Farm". The Army had a farm there where they grew oats and hay for the horses, and some produce to feed the troopers. None of the buildings are there , but the foundation holes and the remnanents of a tunnel that went from the barracks to the stable.  The tunnel was used to get to the horses when hostiles would get up on the ridge above the barracks and keep everybody pinned down inside.
The main part of this old house we live in was recycled from some of those building into a schoolhouse, and then moved to it's current location in about 1935 as a homestead house.

Very neat, I'd like to get out your way sometime, I'd bring my cook gear of course.