Fort Fetterman sits on a bluff above the North Platte River about eleven miles northwest of Douglas, and the site still feels remote and exposed to the wind — much as it must have felt to the soldiers posted here in the 1870s. Established in 1867 and named for a captain killed in a Sioux ambush the previous year, the fort became the westernmost Army post in Wyoming and the main launchpad for the campaigns that effectively ended the Indian Wars on the northern plains.
Two original structures survive: a restored officer's quarters and an ordnance warehouse, both housing well-organised interpretive exhibits on the fort's military history, the short-lived boomtown of Fetterman City that sprang up nearby, and the Native American cultures of the region. An interpretive trail leads through the visible foundations of the old fort complex to a gazebo overlooking the river valley and the open country to the north, where you can understand viscerally why the Army chose this commanding position. The site is open Tuesday through Saturday, Memorial Day to Labor Day weekend.