Three army outposts built before and during the Civil War protected critical routes along the western trails at the North Platte River near what later became Casper. All had been abandoned by 1867, and their dramatic stories are mostly forgotten. The Post at Platte Bridge was a vital outpost on Albert Sidney Johnston's Utah War supply route. Camp Dodge and Platte Bridge Station, also called Fort Caspar, guarded telegraph lines from Native American sabotage. Violent winds, horrendous blizzards and scorching summers made life miserable. Tension reached a fever pitch at the Battle of Platte Bridge when Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho attacked a cavalry detachment led by Caspar Collins. Today, a reconstructed Fort Caspar stands as a vigilant reminder of the struggles at those lonely frontier stations. Local historian Johanna Wickman chronicles military efforts to keep the peace, wage war and merely survive.

Spread along the North Platte River in central Wyoming, the city of Casper was established in 1888 near the site of old Fort Caspar. As a stop along the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad, Casper quickly became an important hub for the region's wool and beef industries. With the discovery of oil nearby soon after the town was founded, Casper was declared the "Oil Capital of the Rockies" and quickly expanded. Since those early days, Casper has survived many booms and busts to become one of the largest cities in the state of Wyoming. The area is rich in history, from pioneer trails such as the Oregon, California Bozeman, and Mormon Trails to early-day homesteaders, and has remained central to Wyoming's politics and industry. Casper today is a growing city with strong ties to agriculture, oil, gas, and wind energy and has several museums with historical, fossil, and art collections.

One of the two most important books about life at the frontier post of Fort Phil Kearny. At 21 in 1866, Fannie Grummond was the witness to and victim of the famous Fetterman Fight. Forces commanded by Red Cloud and Crazy Horse took the offensive against the encroachment on their lands of the Bozeman Trail. On December 21, 1866, 81 soldiers from Fort Phil Kearny were killed in a short battle, including Fannie's husband. This is a very personal and poignant account of life on the frontier for a woman from the east. She was tenderly cared for by Margaret Carrington, wife of the post commander, who wrote "AB-SA-RA-KA: Home of the Crows" about her life at Kearny. When Margaret Carrington died in 1870, correspondence began between Fannie and the widowed husband, Henry B. Carrington. They later married. Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the movement that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

First published in 1910, Frances C. Carrington's My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre recounted the author's adventures as an army wife on the Great Plains, but also sought to set the record straight on her second husband's involvement in the Fetterman fight. Frances traveled with her first husband, Lt. George Washington Grummond, to Fort Phil Kearney in Wyoming in 1866 where he was killed in the Fetterman incident just a few months later. She eventually married the post commander, Col. Henry B. Carrington, after the death of his first wife, Margaret, who had befriended and cared for Frances during her brief, tragic episode at the frontier post. Frances's narrative recalls the wonder and worries of a naive young bride during the fateful days of 1866. From her voyage to Wyoming to her encounters with unfamiliar peoples and strange landscapes, Frances's vivid prose examines not only the everyday workings of a frontier army post but also the political and social intrigue behind one of the most controversial military defeats in Western history.

Established in 1867 in the Gallatin Valley of Montana, Fort Ellis played a key role in the development of the Montana frontier. From post commanders attacking the town to restoring order when riotous mobs got out of control, explore the ambivalent, albeit contentious, relationship from 1867 to 1886 between the civilians and soldiers in whimsical but dramatic fashion. Competing visions of economic and military conditions on the frontier led to a complex relationship that has all the drama of a Hollywood western. Join MSU-Billings history professor Dr. Thomas C. Rust as he examines the fort's impact on the social and economic development of early Bozeman, the problems of military command and the dynamics of the soldier-civilian interaction on Montana's frontier.