Drybone: A History of Fort Fetterman, Wyoming

Drybone: A History of Fort Fetterman, Wyoming by Tom Lindmier. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780931271663.

The story of Fort Fetterman is one of hardship and hard luck, but it is also the story of a frontier military post too tough to die, at least for a while. Throughout its active life, location worked both for and against it, too often the latter. Author Owen Wister visited Fetterman and used it as a basis for his fictional town Drybone, thus the title for this book. Crazy Horse called it a source of irritation, the one thing he objected to in the Treaty of 1868. But author Lindmier calls Fort Fetterman full of excitement and challenge. He calls it an important frontier military post. Established in 1867 to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail, Fort Fetterman was under siege nearly constantly. It soon became the launching point for General Crooks 1876 campaigns that eventually led to the Battle of Little Big Horn. But by 1880, with the Indians confined to reservations and the territory peaceful, the forts usefulness was diminished. It was soon abandoned. Unlike most abandoned frontier posts, however, Fort Fetterman refused to die. Civilians in the area, already accustomed to the place, immediately moved into the buildings. The buildings took on new life the post was reborn as a rowdy shoot-em-up cowtown occupied by squatters running bars, brothels, markets, stables, hotels, and even a hospital. When the railroad bypassed Fetterman in 1890, its residents packed up and moved down the road, and Fetterman, almost overnight, was once again abandoned. This time for good.