More on Fort Caspar

We visited Fort Caspar on July 11, 2010, after our stop at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center.

(Note: Curvature of some of these images is a result of stitching several photos together into a panorama image.)

Sutler Store, Fort Caspar, Wyoming, July 11, 2010

Sutler Store – Built in 1862 by the civilian trader or sutler accompanying the troops from Ohio.  It would not have had any direct relationship to the Guinard trading establishment.  The sutler was commissioned by the regiment, moving with the troops from one station to another and supplying soldiers with a variety of goods, including clothing, tobacco, food, and liquor. (Sign at Fort Caspar)

Guinard Trading Post – Living Quarters – Telegrapgh Office, Fort Caspar, Wyoming, July 11, 2010

Guinard Trading Post – Originally built in 1859 by Guinard for his family’s private quarters, store room, and trading post, Guinard leased the end room to the Pacific Telegraph Company in 1861 to house the telegraph office.  There is a likelihood that the U.S. Army acquired these buildings when Quinard departed sometime between 1862 – 1864. (Sign at Fort Caspar)

Barracks and Mess Hall, Fort Caspar, Wyoming, July 11, 2010

Built onto the existing Guinard structures in 1862 by the U.s. Army, these three rooms were used as barracks and mess hall.  The crude bunks slept two men to a bed. Soldiers from the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry were stationed here beginning in 1862.  The 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, Third U.S. Infantry and Sixth U.S. Infantry replaced the Ohio volunteers in the summer of 1865. (Sign at Fort Caspar)

Barracks and Mess Hall, Fort Caspar, Wyoming, July 11, 2010

Army Commissary, Fort Caspar, Wyoming, July 11, 2010

Commissary – Built by the U.S. Army in 1862, the commissary storehouse housed the garrison’s foodstuffs and supplies.  A typical army meal on the frontier included hardtack, salt pork, rice, coffee, beans and brown sugar.  To supplement their army diet, soldiers could purchase food items from the post sutler and grow vegetables from small gardens.  (Fort Caspar sign)

Army Commissary, Fort Caspar, Wyoming, July 11, 2010