SUPERINTENDENT INFORMATION ABOUT FORT LARAMIE.

Thor Borreson, Custodian, 1944-1946
During the three months custodial gap between Jess Lombard's departure and Thor Borreson's arrival the vacuum was filled by Canfield's assignment of Jack Moomaw "to hold the fort." Moomaw, a colorful grizzled veteran of the Rocky Mountain Park ranger force, had previously sustained a heart attack, but the Superintendent thought he was capable of coping with random visitors. Being from a well-forested National Park, Moomaw couldn't stand the sight of the barren parade ground with its pathetic scraggly saplings. His principal concern, therefore, was nursing along the quadrangular perimeter of anemic cottonwoods and green ash, setting new plantings, and utilizing lengths of condemned Rocky Mountain Park fire hose and an old condemned asthmatic pump to tap the Laramie River for irrigation. He also declared war on rattlers, which still infested the ruins, started a botanical list for the area, and augmented the park museum collection by industrious scrabbling for surface artifacts and twisting the arms of visiting neighbors to part with their alleged Fort Laramie relics. Jack, who had some reputation as a minor poet of the Rockies, also found time to write historical poetry for the Goshen County News, including this specimen pertaining to imaginary lovers at an emigrant camp at Register Cliff:
. . . Yet they carved their names and made their vows, and kissed and loitered here,
For their love was stronger than weariness, or poverty or fear. . .
Equally poetic were his monthly reports, one of which included this gem:
.. the whispering of wind in the grass and the call of a meadow-lark has long replaced the tramp of marching feet. . . Instead of the bugle's call there is only the sad-sweet moan of a turtle-dove.
The sentimental ranger returned to his beloved Rocky Mountains when Borreson arrived on the scene August 9, 1944. Borreson had actually accepted the custodianship vice Lombard in March, 1943, but wartime manpower regulations prevented his release at that time from a job as ship carpenter with the Todd Shipyard, Dry Dock, and Refitting Company, Erie Basin, Brooklyn, New York. So Lombard lingered on, and Borreson could not pry himself loose from his patriotic shipping business for a whole year.

Borreson was a self-educated Norwegian emigrant who had the finely honed practical skills of a true craftsman. He developed a reputation as a historical restoration specialist at the Fort Niagara State Park in western New York, and in 1938-1940 he had been the principal technician in extensive earthwork and redoubt restoration at Yorktown Battlefield, Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia. In theory he was a splendid choice for a Fort Laramie Custodian, with his orientation in military architecture and ordnance, and his restoration skills. In practice his remarkable talents were somewhat wasted, in part because the remains there bore little resemblance to the European-style military complexes he was familiar with, but mainly because of war-time restrictions which prevented any meaningful restoration work. The bitter irony of Borreson' a brief regime was that, despite the emphasis by his superiors in planning for the anticipated postwar boom, Borreson had to contend with existing war-time realities. He got bogged down in caretaker duties, and he suffered a succession of misfortunes, both personal and official, climaxed by his own most untimely death in December, 1946.
Thor had no sooner settled his sizeable family into the Cavalry Barracks makeshift quarters, complete with dry-hole unheated privy in the rear, than he was visited by Chief Historian Herbert E. Kahler, in company with Mattes and new Coordinating Superintendent John Doerr, successor to Dave Canfield who had got himself a commission in the Navy. Before 1944 was out he was also honored by the visits of Regional Director Lawrence C. Merriam, Regional Engineer W. E. Robertson, and Regional Architect Halsey Davidson, all full of ideas on the Fort's future, and prodding Borreson to apply his genius to restoration plans. They also urged him to devote more time to visitors, devising ways and means of making them happy. Assistant Superintendent George Miller and fellow Custodian (and Fort Laramie Historian) Merrill J. Mattes, being closer to the mundane realities of the here-and-now, protested that Borreson, all by himself at the area, had to contend with monstrous difficulties in the way of area maintenance and protection, that the conscientious Custodian was overstretched to the point of exhaustion, and that it was unfair to expect him also to perform planning miracles or to give each and every chance visitor the full personalized tour.
Conditions at the Fort in 1944-1945 were aggravated by severe weather conditions, with an excess of rain, making the county approach road "a first-class example of a corduroy road." The incidence of leakage of historic roofs was on a sharp upcurve, and the weeds ran amok. Thor plaintively inquired of Doerr in a September 9, 1944 memorandum if he should think of himself as an administrator, a historical technician, or a laborer. "So far we have no choice but to be an out-and-out laborer. The quickest way to develop hay fever is to move to Fort Laramie. We need to have this weed patch looking like a National Monument." Thor waited for over a year for the delivery of a Jari power scythe and other equipment; meanwhile he had to combat the situation with hand tools and his own muscle power. Everything, it seems, grew wild except the parade ground trees which, despite the ample rain to reinforce the pump, somehow seemed to wither and die, no matter what!
Meanwhile the Goshen County Commissioners, with problems of their own, turned a deaf ear to the Custodian's plea to grade the county approach road. The shallow well next to the Cavalry Barracks, with a wheezy electric pump, served as the post water system despite misgivings about its bacteria count by the State Inspector. Then, in 1945, occurred a series of natural disasters. The Borreson family was hard-put to find ways and means, somehow, to survive, and plans for the glorious future somehow became irrelevant.
In early April there were "ruinous blizzards" and Borreson had to add to his repertoire of manual chores the shoveling of tons of the lovely white flakes by hand, in the complete absence of any mechanical equipment, in order to enable his vehicle to reach the plowed county road. Then things got worse. Apologetically, he wrote on April 14 to the Superintendent: "I am sorry but this is going to to be a bad news memo," and he proceeded to describe "a real Wyoming blizzard," with drifts shoulder-high, power- and telephone lines down, and railroads and highways up and down the Valley all blockaded. Through the generosity and cooperation of neighboring ranchers, the beleaguered Custodian managed to break a track into town where he was able to borrow lanterns and water buckets. Since his electric pump was knocked out, Thor resorted to another old well, the one behind Officers Row, and installed a hand-pump at his own expense, to carry water through the drifts in the manner of old country peasants. "We have certainly gone back to pioneer days," he wrote, not omitting the fact that the water had to be boiled to prevent typhoid or other dread diseases, while all manner of little creatures flapped and scurried around in the Cavalry Barracks attic, a haven from the blizzard.
Things were finally put back into shape, at the Fort and in town, thanks mainly to "Gleason at Guernsey," the Bureau of Reclamation manager who called the shots on local power distribution, and some token emergency funds from Washington, D.C. [41]
On July 30, 1945, Thor had to report "a second unfortunate incident to the Fort Laramie power line." On the 29th a violent windstorm snapped a tree, forcing the 33,000 volt Bureau of Reclamation line into contact with the Park's 2300 volt line, blowing out wiring and appliances in the Cavalry Barracks to the accompaniment of a spectacular series of flashes and outpourings of black smoke. Providentially no one was injured and the Barracks did not go up in flames, but it was a close call. "Sparks from the overhead wires set the grass afire," according to Borreson's report, and it is not clear why with all that wind to fan the sparks it didn't do likewise to the ancient and highly combustible roof. (One is inclined to credit the Providence that had preserved this and other Fort Laramie structures for over 50 years, despite all hazards, human and natural.) Again the "water system" was knocked out, and again Thor had to put the old historic well back of Officers Quarters E into service. Then the hand pump itself went out of commission, and what happened next is worth quoting from his memorandum of August 1:
Evidently it was not sufficient damage to put all electrical appliances out of commission, but on Sunday evening when we started to use the hand pump over behind the Officers Quarters, this too refused to work. . .
Since labor is scarce in this part of the country, a welcome sight appeared on the horizon at 9:30 AM in the person of Mr. Merrill Mattes. Having no time to confer on historical matters, he and I joined in a good day's work. Between two amateur well and pump workers, we succeeded in removing the pump and cylinder and installed a new valve and leather pump shoe by 5 PM. The Borreson family could drink water once more (previously Merrill and I had only beer). . .
Mr. Mattes returned home that evening happy in knowing that he had done his good deed for the day, and with the Custodian's praise and hearty appreciation ringing in his ears. . . The cost of the parts was $3.1
Thor failed to collect for this expense or others incurred in the April and July electrical breakdowns. Chief Clerk Hodson at Rocky Mountain took the position that permission to incur such obligations had not been obtained in advance. The fact that telephone connections were also as usual kaput and there was no way to obtain such authorization failed to sway the regulation-minded guardian of Fort Laramie's meager funds.
Despite all the hardships and preoccupation with bare survival, Thor was able to make one important contribution to the Fort Laramie planning process, but it is first necessary to give the background of this. Before his leave of absence to help win the War, Dave Canfield had championed a Master Plan which would place all new facilities on the right bank of Laramie River, near Deer Creek, to be approached by a road on that side requiring an extension of Monument boundaries, the new complex to be connected with the historic parade ground area by a pedestrian bridge. Despite the fact that this plan was in harmony with basic principles laid down in 1939 by Washington officials Lee and Carnes, there were misgivings now about the plan by others in the Director's Office. While the esthetic idealism of the Canfield Plan was recognized, its practical aspects were questioned, partly because of war-inspired cost consciousness, and partly because of a feeling that compatible uses of the historic buildings themselves should be seriously explored. The first expression of this approach is a memorandum of March 3, 1944 from Mattes to the Coordinating Superintendent. During most of Borreson's custodianship Mattes continued to do double duty as both Custodian of Scotts Bluff and "Historical Technician for Fort Laramie." (As a matter of fact he did triple duty, since during the War Regional Director Merriam designated him as "Acting Regional Historian" and had him come into Omaha frequently.) In February 1944 Mattes did a stretch in the Director's Office, and in his memorandum he set forth the collective thinking at that time of Carl Russell and Ned Burns of the Branch of Natural History, and Herb Kahler and Dr. Charles Porter of the Branch of History, relating to the location of a headquarters arrangement for Fort Laramie. This is summarized because it demonstrates that efforts to think through all "viable alternatives" go back over 30 years time:
1. The "historic approach" to Fort Laramie from across Laramie River would be nullified by the presence of modern headquarters buildings; conversely, the presence of these buildings would spoil the view to the east from the Fort area which view is now essentially unspoiled.
2. If there is merit in separating the Fort buildings from modern buildings, why not go further and eliminate modern buildings altogether by adaptive use of Fort buildings?
3. Maintenance cost of historic buildings will be heavy. Utilization of the Cavalry Barracks as museum and headquarters and the Commissary as equipment shed, for example, would cut the cost of Fort Laramie upkeep tremendously.
4. There was some thought that Officers Quarters A, E and F could be used as residences, but most felt that the historic integrity of the historic parade ground sector should be preserved inside and out.
5. Acquisition of the Foote land on the Fort side of the river (a) to include lands which were integral parts of the historic building picture and which might yield priceless archeological results; (b) to allow for a decent margin or buffer strip; and (c) to allow for possible building of one or two residences in the vicinity of the Cavalry Barracks. Such residences might simulate restoration in situ of certain extinct fort buildings.
6. External historical appearance of the Cavalry Barracks need not be disturbed by incorporation of a modern museum and office. In fact, if used, the chances are it would be much better preserved. Utilization of this building for our purposes would not preclude restoring a portion of the interior as Cavalry Barracks.
7. Development of modern improvements in the Cavalry Barracks and the Commissary building would not hinge on land acquisition. We would be in a position to start the museum-headquarters alterations at any time funds were available.
8. The permanent approach road to the Fort would be direct from the county road which adjoins the area to the north, probably through the Foote land when it is acquired. This approach would eliminate the present roundabout approach from the west and ensure a pleasant first view of the parade ground sector. [44]
Subsequently, in his completed report on "Historic Approaches to Fort Laramie", by documentation and mapping Mattes demonstrated the chronological sequence of emigrant and Army trail approaches to the Fort. Broadly speaking, emigrant approaches were either from the north, by crossing of the North Platte via the Mormon Trail or Council Bluffs Road, or from the east-northeast by various crossings of the Laramie, via the main Oregon-California Trail. Earlier fords and ferries were replaced by bridges across the Laramie in the 1850s, and across the North Platte, 1875-1876. The late-period Army approach, following the Cheyenne-Black Hills Trail, was on the north-south axis. From these research findings it was possible to see merit in the Canfield Plan as one that capitalized on the historic "Oregon Trail approach." On the other hand the alternative of coming in from the north would be more valid from a late-period military viewpoint, which would be the viewpoint consistent with the surviving buildings, themselves predominantly of the 1873-1890 period.
On this basis "the Oregon Trail approach" could still be viewed in relatively unspoiled condition while looking eastward from the parade ground area, and actual Oregon Trail remains on the east bank could be made accessible for viewing on guided interpretive tours. A grand approach to the late-period remains by an early-period route seemed illogical as well as far more costly. (Such at least was the prevailing thought among Service historians in 1944.)
In a June 1944 memorandum Chief Historian Kahler reinforced the above view by urging that "using historic structures would help preserve them and obviate the need for modern buildings which would be intrusions." He thought that visitors could better visualize the Oregon Trail approach without the aid of a modern highway. By way of consolidating the Washington position Acting Director Tolson suggested to the Region, on June 8, four cardinal principles:
1. That the Cavalry Barracks be used for museum and headquarters, which would aid in its preservation.
2. That some of the remaining structures be utilized for living quarters or other purposes,

provided there were no alteration in their outward appearances.
3. That lands be acquired east of the present boundary and west of the Laramie River for the possible location of all living quarters and utility buildings, the structures to be built in harmony with older structures that once occupied the site.
4. That consideration be given to approaches to the Fort from west and north, as well as east. Travellers approaching from the east would not see the Fort as it was in Oregon Trail days; likewise, if he were to look back over the eastern approach, he would see modern structures in the foreground
Borreson's Master Plan comments of January 20, 1945 are of interest because of his historical perceptions as well as the fact that his independent conclusions happened pretty much to coincide with the concepts then prevalent in the Director's Office. These were his salient points:
1. Development across the river would be prohibitively expensive because of new construction of roads, bridges, buildings and utilities. It would also be impractical because of seepage from the big canal plus Laramie River overflows.
2. The three Oregon Trail branches approaching the Fort from the east identified by Mattes-Borreson research, should not be intruded upon by modern development. "Fort Laramie sits within a natural bowl of sandhills" that have remained unspoiled except for the well-camouflaged canal. "It should be our effort to retain them at that same stage," wherever the approach of emigrant and military trains could be envisioned. Modern buildings, roads, parking area and a swarm of automobiles on the east bank would spoil the interpretive illusion.
3. The Commissary Storehouse should be used as utility and storage, the Cavalry Barracks as museum, library and administrative office. Both would be restored first externally. The several buildings around the parade ground would be fully restored, inside and out.
4. The modern approach should be from the north or northwest, along the edge of the second bench, or else across the first bench to a parking area north of the two converted buildings. Borreson questioned that reconstruction of vanished buildings in the extinct Quartermaster area, except as museum or trailside exhibits, would ever be justified. However, complete archeology of this section would be required.
5. In Borreson's view, preservation of trail remains, and the visitors view toward the eastern trail approaches, was at least equal in importance to the restoration of the historic buildings themselves. In fact he felt that there were only two buildings Old Bedlam and the Sutler's Store that offered "any special notice of antiquity or [distinctive] architectural features. It is only their associations that make them valuable."
Not everyone would agree with all of Borreson's views. Master Plan thinking has since veered back to the idea of placing all or most modern facilities across the river from the historic complex. But no Master Plan.
or Environmental Plan thinking,now or in the future, should ignore Borreson's most valid emphasis upon the need to have proper understanding and respect for the Fort's historic setting as well as its buildings. Over the decades the persistent efforts to plant parade ground trees which never existed during the "period of maximum importance," and to defend the post-1890 cottonwood grove along the river from any historical vista clearing, as well as general support of the Canfield Plan involving construction work opposite the Fort, suggest that Park Service planners and managers have never been overly concerned with the sanctity of the historical setting. [46]
In 1945 an alternate Master Plan, agreeable to the Kahler-Mattes-Borreson concept, was prepared by Associate Director Howard Baker and Regional Architect Halsey Davidson. Since the full flowering of either plan required additional land both north and east, Borreson was elated when Lee Foote offered to sell to the Park Service his 200 acres, downriver from the Fort, for $10,000. In an urgent memorandum of November 27, 1945 he pointed out that this would include all the historic Quartermaster area, the site of the original telegraph line and station, the late-period military road, the old Army dump, and other archeological riches. It was his opinion that it could all be had for a mere $7,500. The proposal was vigorously seconded by Mattes and Canfield but, of course, nothing came of it because the Washington Office had no land acquisition funds, boundaries had not yet been settled upon, and in any event Congress would have to pass a new bill authorizing any additions. While the Park Service debated for the next 15 years about the precise ideal development and boundary extension needed, the price of land would rise dramatically and, when authorization was finally given in 1960, and purchase subsequently consummated, only a portion of Foote's original 200 acres was bought for around $50,000. Now (as of 1978) the Park Service would like to have all of the land between the river and the county road, which present owners have no interest in selling at any price. "For the want of a horse-shoe nail the battle was lost." An opportunity to buy all or most of this historic ground for a trifle, in 1945, using National Park Foundation or other philanthropic funds, was passed by in favor of keeping up a running argument about fine points of the Master Plan
When Canfield returned from his Navy stint he was upset by the preoccupation of the Omaha and Washington offices with the alternate plan, to make modern use of historic buildings and an approach road from the north. He demanded another field conference, to which Mr. Merriam acceded, and in May 1946 there was another grand get-together at the Fort, with more debate about the merits of the respective plans. In addition to Canfield and Borreson, the Regional Office was represented by Regional Historian Hagen and Regional Landscape Architect Jerry Miller. It was Merriam's idea that the eminent scholar and Fort Laramie historian, Dr. LeRoy R. Hafen, might be able to supply words of wisdom as a consultant, so he too joined the conference, coming up from Denver where he served as Director of the State Historical Society of Colorado. As it turned out, Hafen was simply bewildered by all the arguments about putting the headquarters here, there, or some other place. The only thing he was interested in was something the Park Service hadn't ever proposed the reconstruction of Fort John, the adobe trading post of 1849, and no amount of explanation could dissuade him from this highly impractical suggestion. In fact it was downright unthinkable in view of the long-standing opposition of the Park Service to conjectural re-constructions. Aside from that, such reconstruction would require the demolition of Officers Quarters A on the site, the 5th oldest building on the premises, not to mention the creation of a monstrous anachronism, with a resurrected adobe fur trade structure which had disappeared in the 1850s standing in awkward proximity to buildings and ruins of the 1880s.
As might be anticipated the NPS conferees split down the middle between the two plan alternatives, with Miller supporting the Canfield plan and Hagen supporting Mattes and Borreson. And there the Master Plan stood, in a schizophrenic state, for a decade. It turned out to be all academic anyhow, since the only important money that turned up during the ensuing 30 years all went into the preservation of historic structures. The Park Service could afford the luxury of indecision about permanent modern arrangements because it was saddled with a moral obligation to first preserve and restore the historic buildings, no matter how long it took.
In March, 1946 Merrill Mattes was transferred, first to the temporary Chicago headquarters of the National Park Service, then in July to Omaha as Missouri River Basin Survey Historian. Before going he transferred to Omaha for safekeeping extensive Fort Laramie research files. During his incumbency as Fort Laramie Historian, 1942-1946, he completed three major works: a card file Fort Laramie bibliography of over 2,000 entries, later typed up in bound report form; the final draft of the Mattes-Borreson report on "Historic Approaches to Fort Laramie; and (with the help of Secretary Louise Ridge of Scotts Bluff) several volumes of transcriptions of "Fort Laramie Journals", consisting of overland journals from the Newberry Library in Chicago, which he had extensively researched in 1944. Among other research chores, some in concert with Borreson, were interviews with Johnny O'Brien, foreman for the Rutherford sisters, who was a Fort Laramie original, having witnessed construction of the 1876 iron bridge; extensive correspondence with G. O. Reid of High River, Alberta, Canada, onetime civilian wagonmaster (which correspondence was reprinted in Annals of Wyoming); and securing a promise from L. G. (Pat) Flannery to turn over to the NPS the John Hunton diaries, a promise never fulfilled.
Another stab in the right direction was a plan initiated by Borreson to identify and hopefully to acquire furnishings and furniture in the possession of former Fort residents or their descendants and friends living in the vicinity or elsewhere, all looking toward that happy day when the restored buildings could be made historically liveable as well. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Borreson's plan here was the germ of the idea to furnish the historic buildings, a project which would not find fulfillment for another 15 or 20 years.
In 1946 things seemed for a while to be looking up for Thor Borreson. The County Commissioners finally got around to grading the approach road, and the battle to batten down the buildings and eliminate obnoxious weeds seemed to go favorably for a change, with the employment of Art Darnall as part-time Laborer for the area. But then everything went bad. Rampaging winds racked the buildings, blowing off the carefully constructed chimney covers, and raising dust clouds that afflicted the Borreson family with lung trouble. On a trip to Rocky Mountain for supplies, the "hard luck Custodian" was caught with other autoists in a record blizzard between Fort Collins and Cheyenne, and had to be dug out of his pick-up with frost-bite and a mild case of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The litany of Borreson's troubles reads like the book of Job, who was sorely tested by the Lord, but Job survived and Borreson did not. The family horse died from rattler venom and, while in Scottsbluff, his boy, Thor James, was struck by a Texaco oil tanker and hospitalized for weeks, with some permanent impairment of his leg. Then on December 4 Thor Borreson himself died suddenly from a coronary occlusion, plunging the Fort Laramie and concerned Park Service communities, as well as the family, into deepest sorrow. Dave Canfield, Chief Ranger Herschler, and Custodian Budlong of Scotts Bluff did what they could to ease things
for the family, and arrange for Mrs. Borreson's departure with Thor's remains and the children to her parent's home in Niagara Falls, New York. [51] Between trains in Omaha they stayed overnight with the Mattes family. This tragedy was undoubtedly a record low in the fortunes of any and all Park Service families associated with Fort Laramie.
Thor Borreson was not a large man, but he was rugged, muscular, and apparently healthy. The writer believes that his extreme conscientiousness, coupled with an impossible physical workload, and a series of worrisome incidents, contributed to his premature death
5. David L. Hieb, Custodian/Superintendent, 1947-1949
Dave Hieb was Custodian/Superintendent of Fort Laramie National Monument for eleven full years, from May 1, 1947 to May 31, 1958. He had been Park Ranger at Scotts Bluff National Monument, so it was a short trip to his new assignment. The Hieb family occupied quarters in the Cavalry Barracks throughout their tenure, this being the longest on-site residency of the Old Fort by any one family after the pre-park John Hunton period. Dave left the Fort to become Regional Chief of Boundary Studies in Omaha, and later served as Superintendent of George Washington Carver and Wilson's Creek Battlefield, in Missouri, and Herbert Hoover Birthplace in Iowa, before retiring to live at Estes Park, Colorado, scene of his earlier employment, beginning in 1930, as a Rocky Mountain National Park ranger. [52]
On January 1, 1949 the title "Custodian", as applied to the manager of a "national monument" created by Presidential Proclamation under authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906, was changed throughout the National Park system to that of "Superintendent." The duties were the same as always, but the new title conferred a degree of respect that did not always go with the ambiguous "Custodian", a term more commonly applied by the general public to those with merely caretaker or janitorial functions. Whereas "Superintendents" were formerly only those in charge of big scenic national parks, now everyone in charge of any kind of an area in the National Park system parks, monuments, historic sites, memorials, battlefields, whatever was suddenly a "Superintendent."
It was during the Hieb incumbency that Fort Laramie finally blossomed out with an effective rehabilitation! restoration program that made the public sit up and take notice. This success, of course, was primarily the result of a general loosening of Government purse strings, but the Service could not have picked a man more ideally suited to implement the Fort Laramie rehabilitation program. Dave Hieb was the model of a conscientious, energetic, and skillful project manager. He was a well-informed and alert historian, a highly competent master of many building crafts, an effective leader of work crews, and a talented and tireless writer of essential memoranda and valuable technical reports. During a period of intensive construction activity, the results of which brought uniformly high praise from his associates and superiors, Dave also found time or made time to make many significant contributions to historical research, long-range planning, and community public relations. He was a Superintendent, construction supervisor, and research man all wrapped up in one package, actually doing three jobs for the price of one.

There were two phases of maximum intensive rehabilitation/restoration at Fort Laramie, one under Dave Hieb and the other under Charlie Sharp. During the Hieb period, 1947-1958 rehabilitation or restoration work was done in some degree on all Government-owned historic structures and ruins including Old Bedlam, and Dave made important contributions to research and planning for that project, completed later by others. To fully understand and appreciate this period it must be treated as a chronological unit or continuum. Therefore we must first look at Hieb's period of orientation and preparation, 1947-1949. This period was characterized by administrative innovations, intensified maintenance of buildings and grounds, new break-throughs in research, and efforts to firm up long-range planning.
Art Darnall of Fort Laramie town, who was "Acting Custodian" for the few months in 1947 before Hieb's arrival, continued on as a "6-months laborer," and there was a succession of part-time clerk-typists, so the personnel situation began to improve under Hieb, however so slightly. Despite an upswelling of attendance from a war time low of 1,300 in 1943 to 12,000 in 1946 and 19,000 in 1949, there were yet no rangers, historians, or technicians, either permanent or temporary, to assist Hieb in handling visitors. Although he was always available to answer questions, visitors were pretty much on their own with a rudimentary self-guided tour aided by a leaflet and markers. Of course no historic buildings interiors were yet open except for the small lobby of the Cavalry Barracks, with token exhibits.
When Hieb arrived, conditions were still on a primitive level. Gradual improvements were made to the liveability of the quarters and administrative facilities in the Barracks, even to the extent of bringing in television from Cheyenne and Scottsbluff, but these quarters at their peak of improvement could never be described as luxurious. The thick walls ensured cool conditions in the warm summertime, but there was no way to insulate against penetrating cold, particularly during frequent high winds. While the weather at Fort Laramie can be balmy at times, when it gets rough it seems to focus all of its fury on that spot. In June, 1947 occurred "the wettest June" on record. In June, 1948 came "the worst hail in 40 years," shattering over a hundred window panes. And January, 1949 was the time of the "Great Blizzard," which isolated towns and paralysed highway and railway traffic throughout the Northern Great Plains. As to its impact on the Fort, Hieb reported on January 6 to the Coordinating Superintendent at Rocky Mountain:
Fort Laramie and its equipment and personnel seem to have survived with only minor discomfort and damage. An alarming quantity of fuel oil was burned in a not too successful effort to keep warm as evidenced by the fact that on Monday night pipes froze in our bathroom in spite of a warm fire going in the living room. . .
All the government vehicles are safely barricaded in the garage with a five foot drift of snow outside the doors and a two foot one inside. However, we managed to dig out our personal car yesterday and after four hours of shoveling made it to town. . .
Art Darnall made it out to work this morning after more shoveling and we are engaged in clearing snow out of the buildings where it was driven in at every crack by the high winds. . . Drifts around the buildings are from 4 to 8 feet in height and very solid. Just south of our entrance gate a drift 10 feet high blocks the road, but a detour through the fields can be made around it.

Shortly after his occupancy of the Barracks, in May, 1947, Hieb was treated to the same fireworks that afflicted Borreson, when a heavy wet snow broke down the Monument power line, bringing it into contact again with the Bureau of Reclamation's 33,000 volt line. However, this time the Regional Office agreed that drastic correction of the dangerous set-up, with wires on the same poles "so susceptible to entanglement", was needed to safeguard the historic property as well as life and limb. Funds were conjured up from somewhere and by December 1947 there was a changeover to a new and safer R.E.A. powerline. Another change for the better was the 1948 installation of a new casing for the well at the south end of the Barracks which restored running water for domestic purposes after intermittent use of an old pitcher pump which froze up regularly in the winter. While the new system was being installed the Hiebs went into the pioneer routine, being obliged to obtain their water from the historic well back of Officers Row, which they carried in buckets. Yet another giant step forward, so to speak, was the incorporation into the quarters of a modern bathroom, complete with tub and flush toilet (for which Hieb, for lack of help, had personally to install the sewer tile). Previously the occupants had to rely on the "outdoor plumbing" of a screened satellite privy, an inconvenient and unsanitary as well as uncomfortable arrangement, particularly under conditions when the chill factor fell below zeroIn 1947 there were extensive repairs by the County on the Old Army "bow bridge" across the Platte, involving new braces, tie rods, stringers, and planking. The ancient structure had been in such condition that Fort personnel, as well as visitors and neighboring ranchers, rumbled across it at their peril. During these repairs it was necessary to close the bridge to traffic and, since there was no other bridge in that vicinity, traffic was routed across the river by means of an improvised ford. This was possible during the summer months because the channel flow was at low ebb and could be diverted through a series of parallel culverts heaped over with bulldozed gravel and dirt. This, too, enhanced the pioneer experience of visitors that year, as did the rough dusty approach road to the Fort which now resembled "one long sand dune." A promise by the County to grade and oil the road went unfulfilled when bids submitted for the project were too high. Finally, in 1948, for the first time, the road was graded and oiled.
Before Dave Hieb assumed office, in February 1947 Canfield visited the Omaha office in an effort to resolve the Master Plan in favor of his preference for a separate south side modern facility, with a pedestrian bridge to the Old Fort. In his April 7 summary of the office conference, Howard Baker stated that "the approaches to the Monument from either the North or the South side of the Laramie River seemed to have about equal value from the historical point of view." He then indicated that both alternate plans would be drawn up in detail, including all development costs and, in both cases, "minimum and maximum boundaries." By memo of April 10 Canfield expressed indignation that the proposal for a northside approach, with its adaptation of historic buildings, was still being given equal treatment. "It was my impression," he wrote, "that everyone at the conference with the exception of Mr. Merriam was pretty well of a mind that the approach south of the Laramie River was the preferable one." He denied that there had been a consensus to continue serious study of the northside approach. He protested that, "the consensus as presented in the summary from your office reads mighty lukewarm to me." In his reply of April 23 Merriam explained that, though the Master Plan "was pretty well crystallized back in 1941-1942," certain questions had been subsequently raised by officials of the Washington Office. "In view of the support which the alternate scheme has had," he wrote, "I do not feel that we are in a position to disregard it or cast it aside until the analysis is complete."
In February 1948, after Dave Hieb had a chance to get his feet wet, there was another heavy planning session in the Omaha office, with both Canfield and Hieb present. The weighty conclusions of the Regional planners are summarized by Regional Historian Olaf T. Hagen in a March "Memorandum to the Files." First of all, it was the consensus that preservation must have priority over any development, and that it would take at least five years and $100,000 to perform the essential preservation work, before any plans for modern development could be implemented. (Little did Hagen or any one else realize that 30 years after 1948 they still wouldn't have been implemented in any visible way!) Nevertheless, in rehashing Scheme A (the south approach) versus Scheme B (the north approach) he reported that "the conferees were unanimous in preferring Scheme A." This was a moral victory for Dave Canfield, thanks in large part to Hieb's thoughtful agreement in principle with Scheme A. The engineers calculated that both development schemes would cost about the same, $350,000, since the careful adaptation of the historic buildings would cost about as much as brand new ones. It was the conclusion of the conferees that historical significance or orientation was not a deciding factor either, partly because of the scrambled cultural topography over the last century, and partly also because of the preponderant survival of late-period buildings. However, Scheme A offered the superior advantage of interpretation of the historic buildings unsullied by modern alterations and segregated from modern roads and buildings. Finally, Hagen proclaimed that it was also the group's concern that "the object of stabilization and restoration should be to hold to the general appearance of the Fort as nearly as possible to that presented at the time of its abandonment, when all the surviving structures existed contemporaneously." However, he fuzzed up this basic principle by stating a further principle that, "Restoration of structures to an earlier period might be justified in special cases," without offering guidelines as to what would constitute a special caseBoundary status reports on file for 1947 and 1948 reflect consideration of both development schemes, each of which required boundary extensions of 300 to 400 acres which roughly coincided. Subsequently A. E. Demaray, Associate Director, expressed himself force fully against Scheme A on the grounds that visitors would have too far to walk, and as late as November 1949 Mattes was objecting to Jerry Millers deletion of Scheme B as an alternate on the Master Plan, on the grounds that a decision had been made that neither plan would be finally settled upon for a period of five yearsIn 1953 the debate would be revived, although it would remain academic throughout Hieb's incumbency in the absence of funds for new development.
Far more pertinent for the moment was the interim treatment of the old buildings until sizeable funds were appropriated for some meaningful and enduring restoration work. In June 1947 Hieb played host to a delegation consisting of Canfield, Hagen and Mattes, plus Landscape Architect Chuck Krueger and Architect Halsey Davidson of Omaha, and Chief Architect Dick Sutton of the Washington Office. This group was convened not to dream about long-range plans but to make recommendations as to just how to spend a pitiful $4,500. available in Fiscal Year 1948 for buildings and grounds. It was difficult to choose priorities in view of the generally "sad state of maintenance" inherited by Hieb. In addition to the bare essential improvements to provide creature comforts for the Custodian and family, the delegation gave highest priority to repairs to the boundary fence, replacement of Old Bedlam siding, "repairs to the repairs" of the Old Bedlam porch, and re-glazing or shuttering of cracked and missing windows generally. As to the Sutler's Store, pessimism prevailed among the architects that anything could be done to the original structure in view of its advanced state of decay, so nothing was recommended other than keeping it shored up for the time being. (Sutton flatly predicted that it would be necessary to dismantle the ancient building, saving what few pieces were worth saving, and then constructing a replica of the original). Another small chunk of around $5,000 was included in the 1949 budget. With these modest sums Hieb was
able to undertake a few rock-bottom repairs to the most precarious of the historic structures, in addition to the fixing up needed to make his office and quarters more habitable.
The most urgent and most important repair work was performed on Old Bedlam, pertaining to exterior siding and front double porch or verandas. The perennial problem of upkeep on the vulnerable Fort Laramie structures is pointed up by the fact that within eight years, 1940-1948, the Canfield-Lombard treatment of the Bedlam verandas, including most new wooden components, was itself now askew and rotting, so that levelling, re-setting and selective replacement of specially milled and dimensioned lumber was required. In 1939-1940 it was felt that the original lapped siding or weatherboards of pine on the structural block, even though dried and curled, was too preciously original to be tampered with, so few boards were replaced, and it was mostly a case of re-nailing and application of preservative. By 1948, however, the boards had disintegrated so hopelessly that there was no choice but to remove them and replace them with new siding boards of equivalent special cut. White lead paint was applied liberally to the new work. The supposedly precious old siding was stored in dead space in the Cavalry Barracks. Finally, despite the new foundations installed by Lombard, Old Bedlam developed an alarming tilt, due presumably to deterioration of interior structural framework and the pressure thereon of prevailing winds from north and west. Thus it was necessary to rig up timbers as bracing for the southeast (or right hand side, facing front) wall to ensure against the distinct possibility of total collapse in the next violent wind.
Other repairs undertaken during 1948-1949 included replacing late-period board siding on Officers Quarters A dormers with correct contemporary horizontal lapped pine siding, and some elementary repairs to and replacement of rotted joists under Officers Quarters E. In the absence of a basement to this building it was necessary to excavate a temporary specially designed crawlway for access. Also, the rear wings, porches and entries of both Officers Quarters E and F were re-levelled and re-shingled, and missing elements substituted.
In March, 1949, Hieb reported that the Old Bakery, a roofed structure of hybrid brick and lime-concrete, was near collapse, and that all he could do was to fence the building off to prevent injury to stray visitors. In May, after abnormally heavy rains which brought the Laramie River to flood stage, the lime-concrete section of the Old Bakery did suffer partial collapse. In 1948 Hieb, Hagen, and Mattes had evolved a working formula or schedule for the rehabilitation/restoration of Fort Laramie historic structures (as distinct from mere repairs or emergency stabilization) which had as its highest priority the restoration of the Old Bakery walls and roof. While this was by no means the most important surviving building on the post, this priority was assigned in part because it seemed to be in the most precarious condition of all, but mainly because the hard practical experience acquired in its restoration, including any technical trial and error, would increase the chances of doing the best possible job of restoring the high-priority Sutler's Store. (Notwithstanding the pessimism about this building prevailing among Omaha and Washington, D.C. architects, Hieb and the historians had no intention of doing anything but to restore the building intact, if that was humanly possible.)
Accordingly, the Old Bakery was set up as the prime target for the 1950 Fiscal Year (which began July 1, 1949), the most important project in a respectable budget of around $8,000. At the same time, in the absence of specific guidelines from Washington on techniques of historic restoration, it was agreed that Hieb would prepare an "Orientation Report, Treatment and Use of Surviving Structures" for each building hereafter tackled, beginning with the Old Bakery. Accordingly, in June 1949 Hieb submitted the first formal technical report for any Fort Laramie building which prescribed the proposed treatment, and which could first be
reviewed beforehand by all offices. Upon approval of the report by the Region actual work on the project, called "Stabilization of the Old Bakery", began in October, 1949 with the removal of fallen and unstable concrete wall sections, and the manufacture of experimental lime-concrete to determine the best formula for material replacement.
In the process of removing the old footings evidence of human artifacts were found which pre-dated the structure of known 1876 vintage. Accordingly all work was suspended and Regional Archeologist Paul Beaubien was called in to examine the site. While the artifacts in question were not too diagnostic, he did uncover two pre-1876 trash pits beneath the corner of the wall. The existence of these voids of unknown origin accounted at least in part for the collapse of the walls. No further work was done on this building in 1949 but the partial restoration of the Old Bakery the following year would be the beginning of Fort Laramie's first big Restoration era.
During the 1947-1949 period of getting squared away there was much to occupy the indefatigable Hieb beside work on historic buildings, though that was assuredly his No. 1 concern. Actually he plowed new ground in several other directions, pioneering and setting trends in many departments of area management. For example, he recognized that fire was the biggest threat to the old buildings, so he cajoled the Region and the Coordinating Superintendent into supplying a pumper fire truck antiquated but workable and 1700 feet of fire-hose. In the Laramie River he had an inexhaustible supply of water, and the truck and hose could be maneuvered anywhere in a hurry. Except for Art Darnall, who lived in town three miles away, Hieb himself constituted the entire protection force, except that Hieb had the promise of neighbors and the Fort Laramie town volunteer fire department to help if they could get notice of a conflagration over the undependable country phone line, and if they could get to the Monument before everything was consumed. Anyhow, during this undermanned period "Fort Laramie Luck" held and, except for a small grass fire or two, the apparatus remained on standby.
The fire-truck, dump truck, and passenger cars were housed in a 5-stall shed constructed during the 1939-40 ERA period. The only other extraneous building north of the Cavalry Barracks at this time was a masonry chicken-shed of the Joe Wilde post-1890 period which was converted to use as an oil storage facility. West of this cluster was the garden which had been used by Lombard, and which Hieb continued to use for several years.
One trend that Dave tried to buck was the Lombard program to plant and nurture parade ground trees. Since most of these dubious saplings were now dead or dying, despite ample rains, Dave removed them and, being of the Mattes-Borreson school of thought that such trees were unhistoric (except for the unimportant late 1880s) he was happy to leave it that way. Also, contrary to his predecessors he did not become alarmed by the incursion of dam-building beaver population along the Laramie, figuring that (a) they were legitimate reminders of the early fur trade era and (b) they helped to thin out the cottonwoods that were not there in the peak military period.
A positive step that Dave did take in the landscaping department was to set up a volunteer project to root out the prickly pear cactus which infested the parade ground, and were definitely unhistoric. Another threat was the invasion of the area by grazing sheep, through the inadequately designed and constructed State boundary fence. Dave remedied this by extensive mending and reinforcing with hog wire.
It was Hieb who finally settled the old controversy as to the extent of the Government's share in the Fort Laramie Ditch Company. This irrigation ditch serving about 200 acres altogether had been developed around 1894 when the Fort was split up among several owners. When the NPS assumed responsibility in 1938 it was aware that it had water rights but since it was not primarily in the irrigation business (except for the watering of the temporary vegetable garden behind the Barracks, and some irrigation of the parade ground area) it did not fully exercise these rights. Although there had been annual meetings with other stockholders, the extent of the NPS interest was not resolved concretely until the meeting in January, 1948 when Hieb settled for 43 shares in the corporation and paid for five years of water assessments. He later took on the job of Secretary-Treasurer of the company to insure that the government interests were better protected.
In April 1948 Fort Laramie was offered the benefit of joining the Rocky Mountain Nature Association. This was a non-profit cooperative of the type authorized by Congress which made it possible legally to sell interpretive items to the public. The device was to set up an association with a largely non-official membership (mainly citizens of a nearby community) but its executive officer was usually a park official, such as the Park Naturalist or Historian. Books were kept and annual meetings were held to elect officers. Profits were to be applied to park research and interpretive projects. Since the Rocky Mountain Nature Association was already set up, all that was necessary was to bring the Fort under its umbrella on a pro rata basis. One of the first sales projects was Fort Laramie postcards, with some first class pictures taken by Ray Littler of Torrington. Another project was the fabrication of small frames from the discarded lumber of Old Bedlam, with a photograph of the building enclosed, which were sold as souvenirs.
An important public relations move on Hieb's part was to take an active role in the North Platte Valley Associated Chambers of Commerce and an offshoot, the U. S. Highway 26 Association. Both of these organizations were keenly interested in boosting tourist traffic up the Valley, with emphasis on those Easterners heading toward Grand Teton or Yellowstone, with historic features along the Oregon Trail as the inducement. While Scotts Bluff and Fort Laramie National Monuments were the stellar attractions, there were many other intriguing landmarks, such as Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock and Register Cliff. The organization met monthly, often at Torrington or Guernsey. Dave Hieb, as an officer of the Fort Laramie Community Club, was an active member.
As early as 1947 Hieb, Hagen, and Mattes were acutely mindful of the fact that 1949 would be the Centennial year of Fort Laramie's establishment as a military post. Jointly they evolved the idea of a three-point program: a Fort Laramie Centennial postage stamp; a commemorative historical publication; and a celebration of some kind at the Fort itself. The stamp idea did not jell despite the urgings of Hieb, community officials, and state representatives to the U.S. Post Office to come out with a Fort Laramie stamp in 1849. After all, this was a full-blown national monument, not some frowzy little local shrine. With commemorative stamps issued for so many other imaginable reasons, including poultry raisers and butterfly collectors, it is difficult to comprehend why historic Fort Laramie wasn't deemed worthy. One feels that those who make the selections simply didn't get the message that this was the Centennial of the Number 1 historic site on the western frontier.
The commemorative history that emerged was a booklet entitled Fort Laramie and the Forty-Niners, researched and written by Historian Merrill J. Mattes, voluntarily, on his personal time, its production paid
for by the Rocky Mountain Nature Association. It focussed on the year 1849 when, in the middle of the great Gold Rush of that year, the Army bought out the American Fur Company, occupied the old adobe trading post, laid out a new parade ground, and started some new buildings of their own, notably the Sutler's Store and Old Bedlam, which still survive from that fabulous year. It made use of quotations from emigrant journals as well as military records from the National Archives. The booklet sold at the Fort through the mechanism of the Rocky Mountain Nature Association for $1.; the supply was sold out within three years. (Copies that still exist today are worth $10. or more on the collectors' market.)

Centennial recognition also took the form of a Fort Laramie pageant sponsored by the Fort Laramie Community Club of which Hieb was President at that time, and the Lion's Club of Lingle, on August 9. It was decided that grounds near the town of Fort Laramie were more suitable than those at the Fort itself, so the pageant took place in an open field immediately west of town. There were 150 performers, all enthusiastic local volunteers, and countless horses, cattle and dogs. The pageant consisted of ten historical episodes in the history of the Fort, from the slaying of Jacques Laramee by Indians to the abandonment of the military post, about seven decades of thrills, spills, and the wild discharge of firearms. Despite drizzly weather, a crowd of 3,000 turned out to applaud the spectacle. Among those present were the Director of the National Park Service, Newton B. Drury, Regional Director Lawrence C. Merriam, and Howard R. Driggs, President of the American Pioneer Trails Association. [63]
Another significant Centennial had been observed in 1947 with the Re-enactment of the first Mormon trek from the Missouri River to the Great Salt Lake, sponsored by the Sons of Utah Pioneers. In 1847 the original group of 148 was led by Brigham Young from Winter Quarters near Council Bluffs westward in search of the Promised Land. The company of self-styled "Saints" had appeared on the north bank of the North Platte, crossed in a collapsible boat brought for the purpose, and proceeded to explore and measure the ruins of Fort Platte and the still active Fort John. They then continued westward along the south side of the North Platte to found one of the most famous of western American settlements. The 148 trekkers of 1947, all descendants of early immigrants to Utah, arrived at the Fort on July 17 in a caravan of 72 cars tricked out like covered wagons. The occasion is recounted in the official record of the expedition:
Ft. Laramie looked as though it might have been a set from a Hollywood epic which was left standing after the movie company had pulled out. The old buildings, with crumbling walls and sagging roofs, looked as if they were the workmanship of some Hollywood artisan. It was almost beyond imagination that this peaceful, grassy spot, bordered by the Laramie river, was once the scene of much frontier turbulence, and one of the busiest places in western America.
The circle was formed in a lowland area west of the main fort buildings, which was large enough for a complete circle with no cramping. David Hieb, the park custodian, had obligingly arranged to have the high grass cut in the area where the cars parked so as to eliminate as many mosquitoes as possible. . .
The Sons of Utah Pioneers quartet sang, "An Angel From on High," following Elder Kimball's address. . .
Mosquito repellent was used in abundance that night by the trekkers, for they knew they were in the land of the "Mohawk", a nickname given to the formidable Wyoming mosquito.
In token of their appreciation, the caravaneers presented Custodian Hieb with an exact replica of the official hand-crafted odometer used by the 1847 company to make the first accurate record of distances up the Platte River Road. (Hieb in turn donated the replica to the National Monument collection.) Another donation to the Monument at this time was a blue spruce planted in the Laramie River bottoms near the campfire site. Subsequently Hieb replanted this behind the Cavalry Barracks where today (1978), thanks to irrigation, it has grown to impressive height.
In 1948 the Fort was visited by Dr. Howard Driggs and other dignitaries of the American Pioneer Trails Association and the National Park Service following their participation in services at Scotts Bluff National Monument dedicating the new William H. Jackson Memorial wing. Jackson, famed pioneer photographer and water colorist of the Old West, had been a frequent visitor to Fort Laramie beginning in the 1920s with Bob Ellison and others; his last visit to the Fort was in 1940 at the Old Bedlam dedication. He had long been one of the foremost advocates of preservation of the Fort under Federal auspices. His sketch of Fort John (after Fremont) and his own photographs of the military post in its heyday are among the most vivid of Fort Laramie pictorial records. Clarence S. Jackson, his son, was present at the Scotts Bluff services and the Fort Laramie visit in 1948.
Other visitors of unusual interest during 1947-1949 were the novelist A. B. Guthrie, Jr., who dramatized the Fort Laramie trading post in his best-selling novel, The Way West; Mary Jackson English, daughter of Major English of the 7th Infantry, who lived as a girl in Officers Quarters A and E; Emil Bordeaux of White River, South Dakota, son of James Bordeaux who had been the bourgeois or manager of the trading post in 1846 when Francis Parkman visited there; and Charles Sitting Bull, grandson of the Sitting Bull of Little Bighorn fame who was killed by Indian police at Standing Rock, North Dakota in 1890. Mr. Sitting Bull complained to Dave Hieb about "the white man's theft of his valley", a somewhat irrational accusation since there is no evidence that the Hunkpapas, the northern Sioux band to which his grandfather belonged, were ever in the Fort Laramie neighborhood.
There were a few visitors who not only had colorful connections with the Fort but who were able to contribute valuable historical data and photographs which Hieb incorporated into the files. Prominent among them were Henry C. Bretney (1947) of Jacksonville, Florida, son of Captain H. C. Bretney of the 11th Ohio Cavalry who figured in several historical episodes; Colonel Louis Brechemin, Jr. (1948) of Deer Harbor, Washington, son of Captain Brechemin, Post Surgeon of 1885-1889, who proved to be a veritable mine of information; and May Nolan Morrison of Torrington, daughter of a post Sergeant of the 1880s who also came up with valuable photographs and recollections. Meade Sandercock of Fort Laramie, whose mother had owned Officers Quarters A, continued to provide valued information.
While it would be pointless to attempt to identify here all relics of alleged Fort Laramie provenience which were brought in by visitors, a few of the more typical and conspicuous items may be mentioned. Harold Cook, rancher of Agate, Nebraska, donated an Army dump cart and other items collected by his father, the noted scout James H. Cook. Jake Gompert, a rancher of Mitchell, Nebraska who once bought some buildings from John Hunton, thoughtfully returned some old beat-up furnitureto its place of origin. A Steinway square grand piano that once graced a Fort living room was returned from Platt, South Dakota.
Mayflower van. A set of engraved invitations to Fort Laramie social functions, dug up by one-time Fort owner Thomas Waters of Omaha, was returned to the museum collection.
While there was no formal specially funded Fort Laramie research program during this period, certain topics were pursued voluntarily by Hieb and Mattes. The latter, who became Regional Historian in September, 1949 following the untimely death of Olaf T. Hagen, published two items of interest, in addition to the Centennial offering, Fort Laramie and the Forty-Niners. One was a piece entitled "Fort Laramie Centennial" which appeared in the Chicago Westerners Brand Book in 1948; and a documented article on "Robidoux's Trading Post at Scotts Bluffs and the California Gold Rush", published in June, 1949 in Nebraska History, the latter pertaining to the rival trading establishment about 50 miles east of the Fort. He worked with the Wisconsin Historical Society in an effort to identify an artist of 1849 who made some remarkable sketches of Fort Laramie and other Trail landmarks (since identified as James F. Wilkins). At the National Archives he found the Medical Records of the Fort written by Surgeon Schell and others, with original drawings.
Dave Hieb corresponded with visitors, to follow up on the acquisition of photographs and documents pertinent to the Fort's history. O. M. Rasmusson of North Platte assisted in a project to identify the dead buried in the old post cemetery underneath the Hospital ruins. In a rare book, Glittering Gold by E. A. Curley, Chicago, 1876 Hieb discovered a wrongly labelled picture of the Fort Laramie Sutler's Store of that period, revealing architectural details long-vanished, pertaining to roofs, rear additions, and general atmosphere. However, the biggest research effort of this period, a search for Fort William, the "first Fort Laramie", proved inconclusive.
Serious scholarly effort by the National Park Service to determine the true location of Fort William began with a question posed to chief Historian Kahler by Bernard DeVoto who in 1945 was working on his book, Across the Wide Missouri (New York, 1947). Mattes advised him that it was thought to be on the west bank of the Laramie downriver about a mile from the parade ground, at the known earliest crossing of the Laramie, by fur traders. However, he conceded that the exact site hadn't been identified by conclusive historical or archeological proof. Soon thereafter, when the problem came up as to where to put the future park headquarters it became important to know the pattern of historic trails approaching the Fort. Before he left Scotts Bluff in March 1946 Mattes had taken on the project of researching and writing up a report on "Historic Approaches." Since the location of Fort William certainly must have had a bearing on earlier trails, Mattes addressed himself to the Fort William question. In his heavily documented report he concluded that Fort William was probably at the location previously hypothesized, that is, west of the Laramie and just upstream from the county road bridge (the same locale as the present new concrete bridge across the Laramie). We will refer to this as site FW (A).
After Dave Hieb had a chance to review the Mattes report in detail, in January 1948 he wrote to the Region criticizing some of its conclusions, but particularly the one about Fort William. He felt, on the contrary, that Fort William was right near the later Fort John, somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the Army parade ground. We will refer to this alternative as Site FW (B).
Mattes and Borreson had spent several days hiking every foot of wagon trails that still survived in the unbroken prairie, particularly the trails from the east, and Mattes was convinced from the topographic evidence that the earliest trails had come in along the Platte River bottoms, which would bring them right to

the lower crossing. In addition to photographs of remarkably well preserved trail remains, including evidence of places where wagon trains had descended from the stream margin to the fords, Mattes had copious references to journals which he believed in combination tended strongly to prove that Fort William was at FW (A), downstream from the later Army post, because there was evidence that this was also the earliest Laramie River crossing of pre-Oregon Trail days. He believed also that the Fort William sketches of A. J. Miller of 1837 tended to confirm his theory mainly because of topographical details swamp-like terrain in the foreground which had to be on bottomland, not on the benchland of the military parade ground. He placed much reliance on the reports of Assistant Surgeon Schell and Historian Coutant that the Fort William pickets were rotting, believing that such rot would be caused by the annual Laramie River overflow, dictating a new location on higher dry ground.
Mattes also believed that the sandhills in Miller's background bore uncanny resemblance to those seen today when viewing the same scene east to west. Hieb denied that Mattes' given documentary and pictorial evidence constituted valid proof of his thesis. He felt that it was rather a case of reaching a preferred conclusion and then organizing all possible evidence in that direction. Hieb simply believed that it would have been more logical for Fort William to be on the high ground near the later Fort John to start with probably right next to it. In addition he felt that the testimony of Reverend Samuel Parker in 1835 and F. A. Wislizenus in 1839, describing the stockade as on a slight elevation, about a mile from the Laramie River's mouth, strongly supported his theory.
Nobody had any archeological evidence for either theoretical site. FW (A) was bottomland which had been scoured out and re-silted or regravelled by frequent Laramie River overflows before artificial controls by canal and ditch builders. Also, it had been plowed and replowed by farmers. There wasn't the ghost of a tangible clue of any building sites above ground, and the feeling was that it would have been so vulnerable to floods that the probability of any deep remains was next to nil. As to FW (2) the parade ground area has been so used and adapted and scrambled by repeated grading and construction by the Army that the possibility of finding any fur trade evidence there seemed about as bad. Archeology seemed to hold out little hope, not only because of negative terrain factors, but because no one could even pinpoint where to begin. (Amateur archeologists who claim to have used mine detectors in the general area of FW (A) reported that all their efforts were negative.)
As it turned out, both Hieb and Mattes had scholarly allies. Dr. LeRoy R. Hafen, author of Fort Laramie (Glendale, 1938), was evidently as convinced as Hieb that FW (B) was the probable location, primarily because he never thought of it as being anywhere else. In support of the Mattes theory for FW (A) were Oregon Trail historians Tom Green of Scottsbluff and Paul Henderson of Bridgeport, Nebraska, Mae Reed Porter of the American Pioneer Trails Association, and collector of Miller drawings, and Bob Rymill of Fort Laramie town. Henderson alleged that FW (A) conformed to statements made to him by John Hunton, Fort Laramie resident from 1867 to 1923, and Ed Kelly, another pioneer whom he interviewed when he was a young railroader exploring the Fort on his own before 1920.
Because of the intensity of interest in the subject, and hoping to resolve the issue, the Regional Director authorized a meeting at Fort Laramie on October 25, 1948. Among those present were Hieb, Mattes, Green, Henderson, Canfield, and a small group of curious on lookers and reporters. The Miller drawings were examined in detail from every angle. Those who favored FW (A) remained convinced that these drawings constituted proof, while Hieb took the position that the drawings reflected artistic license and proved nothing. Quotations from the Mattes report were cited but Hieb insisted that his citations were more conclusive. It was a stimulating but frustrating afternoon because nothing was settled. A few weeks later there was a land-levelling operation here by the owner, Herman Nolke, and the exposures were carefully observed by Hieb and Archeologist Beaubien. To the surprise of no one, nothing was found. The Fort William issue, like that of the Master Plan, remained unresolved.           

6. David L. Hieb, Superintendent/Restorationist, 1950-1958
Fort Laramie has been fortunate in the Custodians/Superintendents assigned to it over its first 40 years (1938-1977). All of them have exhibited, in high degree, the dedication and energy which proper management of a major historic site requires. However, Dave Hieb is the only one who has shouldered a long-range comprehensive restoration program while actually performing the heavy end of the work himself. That is to say, he originated the programming, planned in detail the work to be done, lined up materials, equipment and work crews, supervised the work on a daily basis, and reported in meticulous detail what was accomplished. His role in enduring restoration work at Fort Laramie was unique for he was the only Superintendent who undertook the equivalent of both full-time jobs at once Superintendent with a very limited staff, and restoration project supervisor and that for a period of over eight years (beyond substantial accomplishments also in the previous three years).
It would be misleading to give the impression that Hieb had the entire responsibility. In effect, he was a member of an informal programming and planning committee of three, the other two being Regional Historian Mattes and Regional Architect Frances Roberson, otherwise known as "Skipper." At the risk of belaboring the point unduly, Mattes was the man in the Omaha office who was the coordinator for all Fort Laramie matters, and there is a lengthy series of letters, memoranda and reports which attests to his continuing involvement in programming and planning, as well as research. Roberson was more immediately involved in reviewing actual details of architectural work to be accomplished and work in progress. Regional Director Baker (who succeeded Merriam in 1951) and others in Omaha had broad administrative control, and there was an occasional high official from Washington visiting the Fort, but it was basically Dave Hieb's personal restoration program, with the exception of the initial consultation in each case with Mattes and Roberson, and their intermittent review on frequent field trips. (It should be noted here that early in 1951 Fort Laramie was removed from the jurisdiction of the Coordinating Superintendent at Rocky Mountain National Park, and achieved independent status, so there was no further "review and approval" needed from that quarter.)
While this arrangement, by 1978 standards and procedures, seems in retrospect rather high-handed and freewheeling, it was the only workable one available during the decade in question. It was unorthodox but it worked exceedingly well to judge from numerous compliments of record Dave received from time to time, from both the Region and the Director's Office. The restoration work performed during this period is also judged today by architects and historians to be both historically accurate and architecturally sound. Inevitably, in the course of time some deterioration of Hieb's work has occurred and has had to be further rehabilitated or restored but Hieb's restorations, by and large, have endured because they were undertaken not only with skill in technical execution but with full regard for the same standards of research and restoration which apply today. Actually these standards have not changed over the years. Procedures have changed and funding has become more liberal, so that we can now afford to hire more people, at higher pay, to turn out more plans and reports, and we have more inspections and "supervisors of supervisors" of work projects. The same work program in 1978 would probably cost ten times as much in terms of programming, planning, re-planning, approvals, contracts, materials, labor, and supervision, but it is doubtful that it would be done much differently or any better as far as end results are concerned.
Of course the governing fact was that in 1950 the Fort Laramie historic structures were going rapidly downhill. If there had been a rigid insistence on orthodox procedures, with detailed plans on paper by professional architects, to be certified at all levels before construction work, such work to be performed by a qualified contractor with the lowest bid, and subject to all kinds of ifs, ands, and buts and if it had been necessary therefore to wait for the construction funds necessary to meet these requirements the buildings would have deteriorated disgracefully, despite indefinite bracing and patching, and everything that has been achieved since 1950 would have been delayed 10 or 20 years. The only intelligent course that it was possible to take in 1950 was to take advantage of the new Park Service program of "deferred maintenance" or "rehabilitation of physical facilities" or, more specifically in this case, "Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Historic Structures." During the stern economic conditions of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, when the 1978 level of Federal spending with a near-trillion dollar indebtedness was unthinkable, new construction funds were scarce. This was particularly true of an off-beat historic monument when Yellowstone Park and other glamorous scenic areas with high attendance box scores were in desperate need of new facilities. But Director Wirth had sold the Bureau of the Budget and Congressional sub-committees on the idea of concentrating on the repair and rehabilitation of existing facilities. So without any twinges of conscience whatever the Superintendent and the Region teamed up to apply for all the funds they could get to straighten up the Fort Laramie buildings. If it was necessary to indulge in a little sophistry and call the procedure "maintenance and repair" instead of "restoration" no one in Omaha or the Washington Office was going to quibble, and the Bureau and the Congress were not fussy either. So in effect the area's major restoration program was finally launched, though disguised on paper as something elseThere were funds for materials and the low-cost labor of the day, but what made the whole thing click was the fact that the Superintendent happened also to be the equivalent of an experienced architectural technician, and he was perfectly happy at starting grade GS-6 at $3,000. p.a., to take on this lonely and formidable project. As time went on he got four promotions up to GS-11 with progressively higher pay, but throughout his tenure the work was performed on a largely personal basis, with only the limited assistance and moral support indicated above. That is to say, after consultation with Mattes and Roberson in each case, Hieb would prepare a "Survey Report" or "Orientation Report" to indicate the problems and their solutions, with some narrative and photos. Since many of the architectural or structural problems could not be defined until the fabric was exposed, this left Hieb free to improvise as new findings dictated. There was no rigid confinement to detailed and formally approved plans, and no need to hold up work to obtain permission to revise plans. The "working drawings" in effect were in Hieb's head, subject only to occasional double-checking beforehand and ex-post-facto review by the Omaha officials. Since this was technically only "maintenance" and not "construction" neither the Washington Office or the Western Office of Design and
Construction (WODC) in San Francisco got into the act during the Hieb period. At or near the end of his incumbency the rules changed and WODC started to get involved, but that would be another story. (Actually, funding for Officers Quarters A, Hieb's final project, was via the construction rather than the maintenance funding route, but Hieb completed most of this building unmolested by outside experts.)
After the advance field session, the historical and archeological research, the investigation of fabric for clues (architectural research), and the informal preliminary reports to the Region, in each case Dave would prepare a Bill of Materials and when the funds were forthcoming he would buy what was needed glass, cement, iron work, millwork, lumber, and whatever, which often had to be special-ordered to conform to historic design. His small, competent and enthusiastic work crews, all local men, would work while weather permitted, without regard to season. Dave personally directed the work, spending as much time as possible on site. (Some supervisory authority was delegated occasionally to Maintenanceman Jeffries, First Carpenter Charles Wells, or F. L. (Jack) Johnson.) Finally, upon project completion, Dave would prepare a fairly detailed narrative report, with excellent photographs of work progress, for the enlightenment of the Region and Washington Office. These informative and technically high-calibre Completion reports are now valuable library reference works for the benefit of future managers, maintenancemen, architects, and historians. The funds available for the program annually, over and above the small recurring appropriation for administration, protection and routine maintenance, ranged from $7,000 to $15,000. These appropriations were on a fiscal year basis beginning each July 1. Some projects took more than one calendar year, and sometimes work was going on simultaneously with two or more projects. Details of restoration work are contained in Hieb's final reports on the respective buildings. Following is a brief summary of the work performed during this first major restoration program, in approximate chronological order:
Old Bakery, 1950: West wall and northwest corner completely reconstructed of lime-concrete on new reinforced concrete footings. Restoration of west window, with iron grill; reconstruction of chimney, omitting flue; plastering to match original. Sectional concrete footings under outside of brick-and-stone wall. Brickwork repaired or repointed. Stone part of east wall rebuilt. Frame east gable restored. Roof structure repaired with some new rafters, joists, ties and sheeting. Ventilator reconstructed. Roof reshingled. Eaves and cornices restored. Doorway restored, with replacement of original door. Cost $3,600
Sutler's Store, 1951-1954: This building is actually three buildings welded together: the adobe Sutler's Store erected in 1849-1850; the native stone addition of 1852; and the large lime-concrete addition of 1883. (The evolution of this structure, and aspects of its human history, is given in the Mattes article, "The Sutler's Store at Fort Laramie," Annals of Wyoming, 1946.) After intensive architectural analysis of the decrepit ruin, and conflicting advice from Skipper Roberson from Omaha and Gordon Vivian from the Southwest Region, Hieb's initial philosophy was, in effect, to "jack up the roof and put new walls under it," which if put into practice would have borne out Chief Architect Sutton's prediction that the old pile would have to be razed and rebuilt. On the contrary, when it came down to cases, Hieb managed to save, intact, about half of the wall area. In summary:
All exterior walls stabilized or restored on new concrete footings, with substitution of approximately 50% of lime-concrete, adobe, and masonry mud mortar. Interior concrete arches removed and central partition wall
 (original 1850 exterior) reconstructed of adobe. All sash and doors and trim repaired or replaced. Extensive roof repair and reconstruction with new elements, including shingles, corrugated iron, gutter, and downspouts. Chimneys restored with brick replacement. Floors repaired with substitution of materials matched to original, including joists and planking. New floor complete in adobe store section. Interior trim repaired and refinished with matching paints and varnishes, some substitution of wainscoting, moulding, door casings. Safe restored on replacement masonry hearth. Fireplace in store restored with replacement hearth of old bricks. All walls refinished to match originals with mud or lime plaster, paint, or whitewash. Cost $16,000. Cavalry Barracks, 1953-1954: Two-storied verandas, large portions missing, completely restored from substituted concrete foundations to shingled roof and upper deck railings, using moveable double-deck platform or scaffolding. Some original timbers and railing sections re-used. Primed with white and finished with gray paint. Plaster around all windows and doorways repaired, wall cracks pointed or filled with lime-plaster. Some doorways restored to original with some substitution of frames, casings, sills, sash. Windows restored with re-glazed old sash or new sash substituted. Repairs to exterior trim, all painted Venetian red. Cost $12,000. [73]
Commissary Storehouse, 1952-1954: West endwall stabilized with concrete buttress footings. All post-historic doorways and other apertures filled with lime-concrete. Cracks pointed with lime mortar. Interior walls of office rooms repaired, with some substitution of lath and replastered to original. Interior walls of clothing storeroom restored, all new. Roof reshingled. Two chimneys restored, with all new brick. Floor in west warehouse section restored, all new T & G. Floors in balance of building patched. Some replacement of joist scabs. All windows restored. New sash and outside casings and trim required except two basement sash. All original doors repaired and rehung. One new interior door and some hardware replaced. Interior trim gray. Exterior gray for door and window trim. Venetian red for eaves trim. Loading docks reconstructed of treated native pine. Hoist in east warehouse restored. Cost $4,000]
Magazine, 1954: Complete restoration in accord with description in letter of September 25, 1855, Geo. T. Balch, Ordnance Corps to Major O. F. Winship. Recent window openings filled with masonry. Interior cracks repointed. Floor restored at deduced level on new concrete footing blocks of native plank on treated joists. Late shed roof removed. Historic roof reconstructed with heavy timber joists, double overlapping sheeting on slight curve and pitch with curb board to hold layer of earth, plus layer of brick and mortar. Heavy roll roofing layer over sheeting. Single door restored to pattern. New window sash and shutters. Cost $1,200. [75]
Officers Quarters F, 1954-1955: General restoration to 1888. Front porch railings and lattice work reconstructed. Rear porch late floor removed, new floor on concrete foundations. Posts and trim repaired with some substitutions. Rear hall sills treated and levelled on concrete foundation. All windows and outside doorways repaired with some substitution of sills, sash, cord and stops. Repair and replacement of dormers and roof. Floors in main section lower floor replaced with substitution of concrete foundations, treated joists, native pine sub-floor and yellow pine flooring. Three coats Valoil. Interior walls replastered or old plaster repaired and painted white. Exterior plaster patched. Matching spindles substituted in stair rail and varnished. Other interior woodwork cleaned of old paint and given two coats of red mahogany varnish-stain, with red enamel. Exterior woodwork repainted Venetian red or lampblack gray.
Cost$5,000.
Officers Quarters E, 1955-1957: Major external work on this duplex included repairing and resetting many door and window casings, with some substitution; patching and replastering with lime-concrete many sections of outside walls; re-pouring four lime-concrete chimneys from the roof up and repairing three others. Restoring the wooden flooring, posts, railing and lattices of the front porches and repainting all exterior woodwork to match original remnants. Interior work included raising, repairing and supporting with auxiliary footings many sections of flooring. Replastering of interior walls on cleaned and renailed lathe or patched lime-concrete. Removal of post-military paint from woodwork and refinishing to match remnants of original finishes. Refinishing all repaired floors with Valoil and matching paints or varnishes. Cost $6,000]
Officers Quarters A, 1956-1958: Removal of loose plaster, ceiling or other broken lath. Closets and original stairway restored to original form, as double-set quarters. Tin shingles inserted and repairs to ridge boards. Metal lath applied to original adobe-filled walls, and plastered. Replacement and renailing of wooden lath on ceilings and partitions. Period 1916 porch removed, concrete foundation blocks poured. Framing on five dormers repaired and strengthened. Original foundations of missing rear wing excavated for cellar, and this wing reconstructed with native pine. Plastering of main lower floor, lime white coated, over old work. Surviving floor sections of porch re-floored and west side porch restored. Double lean-to entry to rear between kitchen wings restored. Outside walls and eaves painted white. Reconstruction of stair railings and wooden dividing partitions, upper and lower halls. Newel post at foot of staircase restored. Floor repairs sealed with Valoil and refinished with floor varnish in English walnut. Lattice for porch patterned after Officers Quarters F. Eave troughs on porches and rear wings. Inside woodwork removed, then primed and repainted with white enamel tinted with burnt umber and lamp black. Stair railings finished with dark walnut varnish stain. Sand finished plastered walls painted with white water mix. Cost $8,000Old Guardhouse, 1955: General restoration to 1888. Floor of lower prison room restored with new native plank on joints on concrete footing blocks. One solitary cell restored and surviving original repaired with new planking, metal stripping and other hardware. Original door repaired. Altered doorway restored with some new brick, masonry, frame and new door. Window sash replaced. Upper southeast window frame and bars repaired. Ventilator shaft reconstructed, ceiling restored with new wainscoting and painted to match original fragment. Upper plank floor repaired with new elements. All inside plastering repaired, major patching and white-washing. Woodwork repainted or whitewashed. Upper doorway repaired. Original door of Magazine period rehung on new hinges. Outside stoop conjectural. Masonry-filled windows and doorway repaired. Drainage around building corrected. Cost $1,200.]
Ruins stabilization, 1954-1956: General repair and reinforcing (buttressing) of lime-concrete walls of Administration Building, Officers Quarters B, C, and D, and Non-Com Officers Quarters, removing rotting wood joist inserts, filling cracks and voids. Clean-up of Hospital, New Bakery and Sawmill ruins. Old Bedlam, 1957: Completion of "Survey Report for Restoration and Rehabilitation of Historic Structures, Building No. 1, Old Bedlam" with historical data, structural analysis, and recommendations. Region recommended approval but this was withheld by Washington Office. Restoration deferred pending switchover to construction responsibility by Western Office, Design and Construction. A wealth of new historical and archeological data was acquired during the 1950s through the efforts of Hieb, Mattes and Paul Beaubien. The latter, under the Regional Historian, conducted a series of archeological investigations, partly as salvage in connection with restoration jobs, partly in the quest for basic information on fragmented or lost historic structures.
Having reached a dead-end in the search for Fort William (the first Fort Laramie), curiosity mounted about the nature and extent of the actual remains of Fort John (the second Fort Laramie), known to be at the south end of the parade ground as shown on early military ground-plans and, in fact, determining by its alignment the orientation of the parade ground. Aware of the extensive construction of now vanished Army buildings on the site of the adobe ruins (in addition to existing Officers Quarters A), including land-levelling, cellars, outhouses and the resultant obliteration of fur trade period evidence, not much was expected of this investigation, and indeed not much was found. There was considerable evidence of trash from military adobe and frame officers quarters and outbuildings of the 1854-1870 period but almost nothing that was of the distinctive fur trade establishment of 1849. Trenches and squares dug on a sample basis across the hypothetical fur trade rectangle of 121 by 167 feet (as measured by the Mormons in 1847) failed to yield any recognizeable structural features of Fort John. In the southeast corner of the area Beaubien found a few jumbled adobes unrelated to the military era, with trade beads, gunflints, bullets, brass ornaments, and a so-called snow snake or game piece, all judged to be of probable pre-1850 vintage. Altogether the prospects of finding much more than this, even if the entire site was peeled off, is now judged to be slight. [82]
Somewhat more productive was Beaubien's test excavation of the original pre-1867 post cemetery (probably also the site of the fur trade period cemetery), on which was superimposed the 1873 lime-concrete Hospital, with no evidence that the affected burials had been relocated, then or later. Four military graves were readily found, with remains intact. Since the assumption had been confirmed, the graves were back-filled. (Other human remains had been noted earlier when the irrigation ditch was pushed through a part of this cemetery, in 1892-1894.
In 1951 Beaubien worked four intermittent periods, April 16 to October 21, around the Sutler's Store, then the prime restoration target. The first objective was to sift an old storage cellar under the post-office and poolroom section, which was thereafter gravel-filled as it threatened the collapse of nearby mud mortar-masonry walls. Secondly, searches were made at the perimeter of those failed sections of adobe and lime-concrete walls which had to be reconstructed. Thirdly, the ground to the rear or west of the 1883 portion of the structure was carefully excavated for evidence of appended structures of the earlier periods which are indicated in successive military ground-plans. Positive evidence was found of log structures, of indeterminate elevation, of the 1867-1876 era, along with the abundant artifacts of that middle period.

During 1954-1956 Paul Beaubien undertook brief precautionary searches for artifacts and hidden structural evidence associated with rehabilitation work in the ruins of Officers Quarters B, C and D, the restoration of the Magazine and Officers Quarters E, and the slope east of the Cavalry Barracks veranda which required grading to improve drainage. A volunteer project by Hieb himself, during an off-season, was a little "underwater archeology", to salvage a number of intriguing objects from the Laramie River, such as leg irons, broken sabre blades, and stove parts.
Artifacts from all these digs were incorporated into the growing Fort Laramie museum collection, which was
still without a museum curator. In his process of cleaning, numbering and accessioning these artifacts, Beaubien was the first person on the premises with professional capability in this area, beyond the limited contributions of Smith and Hendron. Occasionally Hieb was able to obtain limited inexperienced help with this early work on the collection. In 1952 Harry Wandrus was sent out from Harper's Ferry for a tour of duty at the Fort to do some preservative work on metal objects. That same year the storage collection was moved from Officers Quarters E to odd space in the Cavalry Barracks.
Again Hieb's research, aside from his probings of architectural fabric, was in the nature of extracting data from knowledgeable visitors and corresponding with them to help illuminate dark corners of Fort history. It is difficult to overestimate the value of this patient time-consuming work, which might have been lost altogether if a Superintendent less conscientious and motivated had been on the premises. The following checklist of some of the more fruitful contacts made by Hieb in this period is given to illustrate what was accomplished in this area, keeping in mind that there was usually only one opportunity to interview these people, most of them aged, with personal links to the pre-1890 Fort Laramie:
1950 Elizabeth Snow, Torrington, attended 4th grade at Fort school                       1877
Jake Gompert of Mitchell, formerly of the Imperial German Light Cavalry, who
purchased and dismantled Officers Quarters B                                  1890
Jake Tomamichael, Medora, North Dakota, son of Hospital steward, with photos and his
father's uniform.                                                        1880s
G. O. Reid, Alberta, Canada, son of Army contractor                             1880s
1951 Col. F. W. Allison, Salem, Oregon, son of 2nd Lieutenant who saw and reported "the Laramie ghost."                                                         1871
Mrs. W. V. McBeth, Oakland, California, with grandmother's diary                   1864
1952 Mamie Sandercock Robertson, Florence Sandercock McCormick, Stella Sandercock Bright, daughters of civilian engineer whose widow stayed on in Quarters A            1880s
Sanford Beecher, New York City, re: original mantel from Old Bedlam, recovered by his father, Bishop Beecher of Nebraska. Donated to museum collection
1953 Cornelius Knapp emigrant letter                                             1850
Kenneth Bordeaux, Kansas City, Mo., great-grandson of James Bordeaux, squaw-man in charge of Fort John                                                      1846
Reis Tuttle, Des Moines Fort Laramie emigrant letters                            1850
Mrs. John Oliger, Denver, "domestic" for Colonel Merriam, last post commander, data on
floor plan for Officers Quarters B                                           1880s
Philip St. George Cooke, Grand Island, descendant of Colonel Cooke of the Dragoons
under Colonel Kearny                                                    1845
Gustave Paules, Boulder, Colorado, born at Fort Laramie                          1886
Mett Shippee, Smithsonian Institution, J. W. Crane letter                          1849
1954 James Nolan, Torrington, son of Sergeant, 7th Cavalry, born here                    1882
Louis Wilde, Saratoga, Wyoming, son of Joe Wilde, owner of Cavalry Barracks and Commissary Warehouse. Details re: interior layouts and uses                        1890-
Mr. O. R. Ivin, Crawford, Nebraska, daughter of J. Bogler, operator of the Rustic Hotel.
Born here.                                                             1882
Bruce McKinstry, Chicago, Illinois, descendant of overland emigrant who helped pioneer north side route west from Fort Laramie. Copy of journal.                          1850
H. J. Bolin, Douglas, Wyoming, photos of Sutler's Store and house                   1877
E. L. Quivey, Mitchell, Nebraska. Ledgers of Subsistence Store sales                 1873
Corwith Wagner, St. Louis. Fort Laramie emigrant letters                          1849-1852
Mrs. O. M. Rasmussen, Manville, Wyo., daughter of Private George McNulty, 9th
Infantry - photographs                                                    1870
1955 Waddell F. Smith, San Rafael, California, descendant of William E. Waddell, co-owner of the Pony Express. Donate S. E. Ward post trader tokens.                           1860
1956 Dorothy Piez, Denver, William Dresser letter                                   1850 Mari Sandoz, New York City, dispute re: Charles King novels authenticity             1880
1957 John Hussey, Regional Historian, San Francisco, re: Tavernier painting of Sutler's Store interior at Oakland Museum                                               1867
W. Zander, Pittsburgh, Pa., Swiss emigrant J. Scheller diary                        1850
General Reynolds J. Burt, Washington D.C. son of Andrew Sheridan Burt, officer stationed at Fort Laramie 1870s and 1880s. Valuable photos and heirlooms
In addition to his personalized research based on "targets of opportunity" as indicated above, Dave Hieb demonstrated scholarly aptitude by authoring two articles which appeared in historical quarterlies: "An 1850 Gold Rush Letter from Fort Laramie by A. C. Sponsler, a Thayer County Pioneer," edited for Nebraska History, 1951; and "A Folsom Point from Southeastern Wyoming," in Southwestern Lore, 1950. The point was found by Louis Hieb, the Superintendent's son, on the terrace near the Old Hospital]
While there have been many gratifying and even dramatic gains in the field of Fort Laramie historical research by the National Park Service, there was one very dramatic, or rather tragic, loss involving Superintendent Hieb, Regional Historian Mattes, and the National Archives which must be recorded here. From 1948 through 1952 Mattes visited the National Archives in Washington, D.C. frequently to research records of abandoned Army posts which were to be inundated in Missouri River Reservoir projects of the Corps of Engineers. While working in the Old Army Records Branch of the Archives, on one occasion, he digressed to examine record books pertaining to Old Fort Laramie. Although he was prohibited from entering the stacks where these records were kept, the archivist in charge wheeled in to the study area a heavy truck load of original Fort Laramie record books, in bound ledger form. All he had time to do was to sample some of the contents and make a rough checklist of the volumes for future reference. Preoccupied with the critical Missouri River Basin Survey and Salvage Program, Mattes had no opportunity or funds to follow up with arrangements for their transcription. Appeals for research assistance by the Branch of History, Washington Office, brought no result, presumably because that office was short handed rather than indifferent to Fort Laramie's needs. An effort to scrape up $100. or so to pay the cost of microfilming these materials also came to nought. In that austere period money for such purposes was too scarce to permit this luxury.
Finally, in 1954, despite other heavy preoccupations, Dave Hieb felt a little more affluent and wrote a letter to the Region requesting the microfilm transcriptions of certain Post Records Mattes had listed. These included Orders, records of the Councils of Administration (which handled relationships with the Post Trader, such as setting prices and establishing regulations), Guard Reports, Morning Reports, Board of Survey, Clothing Books, Records of Deaths and Internments, Quartermaster and Subsistence Records, Passes and Furloughs, and letters and orders pertaining to the 6th Infantry, the 5th Cavalry, and the 1856 Sioux Expedition. The request was passed along by the Region to the History Branch, Washington, D.C. After a lengthy interval Roy Appleman of the History Branch wrote to advise that most of these records had been destroyed by the National Archives in one of its own little private records disposal programs, the kind that no one else ever knows anything about! It took Hieb and Mattes some time to get over their shock, to realize that one agency of the Government had thoughtlessly destroyed valuable historical records of another Federal agency. It was evident that the ivory-tower archivists were not aware of the existence of Fort Laramie and its research program. In fact, it developed that they had destroyed all such categories of records for all U.S. Military posts, many others of which were in or candidates for the National Park System!
The upshot of this dismal story is that when the Branch of History learned of the reaction back in the hinterlands, and the nature of the loss dawned on them, they contacted Dr. Wayne Grover, Director of the National Archives, and arranged a meeting in his office between him and his associates on the one hand, and Chief Historian Herbert Kahler, Dr. Charles Porter, and Regional Historian Mattes of the National Park Service. The meeting took place on a suitably gloomy winter day, January 24, 1956. There was tension between the two groups when the problem was discussed. Dr. Robert Bahmer, Assistant Director of the Archives, took the position that, "You can't save everything!" (We had naively thought that indeed everything was saved, or else the only thing that was disposed of was material considered by qualified experts to be of no further value whatever!) On the other hand Dr. Schellenberg, head of that department responsible for disposing of things, stated simply that, "We goofed!" That admission was distinctly heard by Kahler, Porter and Mattes, although later in a letter exchange with Mattes he reversed course, and questioned that anything of real value had been destroyed. Goof it certainly was, on a grand scale, but it was too late to remedy, for the records had been destroyed, with no effort by the archivists to microfilm or otherwise copy them beforehand. The evidence of their one-time existence, aside from Mattes' vivid and painful memory, is his 1956 checklist of missing items compiled from the 1951 National Archives "Index to Post Records," a total of 170 volumes lost forever! In addition, there are several items of correspondence on the subject which now repose in a research folder at Fort Laramie National Historic Site. While the loss may not seem exactly tragic to non-historians, and even some historians might disdainfully observe that it was a loss only of antiquarian details, it was a severe loss to Fort Laramie history, leaving a large hole in the historic record. Mattes' examination of the Guard Reports, for example, had shown that these not only included routine entries on prison inmates, their arrivals, punishments, and discharges, but the Captain of the Guard noted the exact time of arrival of every wagon train, every Pony Express rider, every stage coach and whatever else constituted civilian entrance to the Reservation, the nature of their business, sometimes the identity of the leaders, and the time of their departure. Can anyone with the slightest respect for history question much less measure the value of such information to historians, or the interest it could have engendered in the large segment of the public that reads American history? What a priceless asset these volumes would have been if they could have been returned to Fort Laramie for research by eager students and to put on display! Yet those to whom these records were entrusted didn't perceive their immense value, or else they were very callous in their treatment of them. Its almost as if they had wanted to get them out of
sight and mind before anyone could discover their existence. It seems improbable that anyone other than Mattes had ever taken a good look at them.
If the National Archives for whatever reason wanted to dispose of these records, they should have sent them to the National Park Service, or else to the state historical societies involved. Or they could have auctioned them off to wealthy collectors of Western Americana to help reduce the national debt! Or they could at the very least have transcribed them on microfilm. But the cold fact is that priceless Fort Laramie records were instead destroyed without a trace by those charged with responsibility for their protection.
It so happens that not all categories of Fort Laramie records were destroyed, only those above noted, which were primarily those in ledger or bound book form. Mattes also made an inventory of Post records which were not destroyed, and a program of transcription was started. At first these were microfilmed, and typists at Fort Laramie had to transcribe them. Later the Xeroxing method was developed, and direct page-size transcriptions could be made. Among records that were so salvaged during this period were Post Surgeon's medical histories, Letters Sent and Received, and Muster Rolls. In addition, certain sources other than Post Records were tapped, including records of the Adjutant-General's Office, the Quartermaster-General, The Department of the Platte, the Office of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of the Census.
Outside of the National Archives, Mattes was able to line up such items as the papers of John Dougherty (onetime post sutler), the Fort Pierre letterbooks (of the fur trade era), and excerpts from the Missouri Republican, all in the files of the Missouri Historical Society at St. Louis; and the Lieutenant John Bourke Indian war journals at West Point. The colored Stanton Plan of the Fort in 1881 was discovered in Chicago (onetime headquarters for the whole western theatre of the Indian wars), and color copies were made. Lloyd McCann provided data on the Grattan Massacre, and a rundown of all trading posts in the Fort Laramie vicinity.
A "Fort Laramie Bibliography" was put together in loose-leaf notebook form, being somewhat more useful than the old 3 x 5 card file started in 1938. Finally, in 1950 all the Fort Laramie research records which had been accumulated by Mattes at Scotts Bluff and shipped to Omaha for his use there, were returned to Fort Laramie at Hieb's request. These records constituted the foundation of the voluminous research library that exists at the Fort today.
This account of Fort Laramie research in the 1950s which began on a negative note ends in similar fashion. Despite pleas by Hieb, Mattes and Dr. Porter of Washington, D.C. that the John Hunton diaries be entrusted to the National Park Service, L. G. (Pat) Flannery of Torrington (one-time editor of the Fort Laramie Scout) elected to retain them personally. In his retirement he aimed to edit them for publication, and he did just that for the diaries through the 1880s. (Supposedly there are diaries for every year from Hunton's ranching days in the 1870s until his death in 1928). However, all the diaries, including those after 1890, came into the custodianship of Flannery's widow in 1964. As of 1978 these diaries are withheld from further publication or research use by scholars.
During Hieb's period attendance grew from 22,000 in 1950 to 35,000 in 1958. In the latter half of this period, despite his pre-occupation with research and restoration, Hieb was able to offer to visitors somewhat more than the usual self-guided tour of building exteriors. First of all, the visible process of restoration itself
intrigued many visitors who were glad to see finally a real restoration program at the Fort. Secondly, after the Commissary Storehouse was restored and space for a museum laboratory was provided in the Cavalry Barracks, the collection was moved out of storage in the Officers Row. Some of the larger pieces and the more valuable pieces that could be secured through locked cases were set up as a new exhibit room in the south end of the Commissary Storehouse, while all other items found a new temporary home in the Barracks. From time to time the exhibits in the Commissary would be expanded and upgraded; as of this date (1978) that same exhibit room is still in business, together with information desk and sales rack added later.
A third breakthrough by Hieb was an illustrated Fort Laramie Historical Handbook, similar to those successfully used at other historical areas in a published series by the Government Printing Office. After some revision and adjustments of Dave's draft in Omaha it was sent to Washington. It was published in late 1954 under Hieb's indicated authorship, and for over 20 years, it was a primary interpretive tool. Originally it sold for 25 cents.
Thought was given to the need for historical re-furnishing of at least a few rooms in the restored structures. The 1956 Master Plan contemplated such token treatment of the Sutler's Store, Old Bedlam, Officers Quarters F, and the Cavalry Barracks. The public was happy to see the structural restorations, but unhappy that they couldn't then enter the buildings. Obviously it wouldn't be sufficient to show them just the bare walls; the buildings had to be furnished and that was a gigantic order, requiring extensive research in a different dimension, not to mention the problem of finding authentic items of the various periods. Regional Director Baker expressed concern over this matter, and none other than ex-Governor Leslie Miller wrote to Director Conrad L. Wirth urging that he approach Rockefeller or the Ford Foundation or some such philanthropy about getting help in the matter of furnishings. However, nothing came of Miller's suggestion. As far as funding from regular Park Service appropriations was concerned, this would never come to pass, in part because the Park Service simply didn't have a rationale for funding historical furnishings (in the same manner as museum exhibits) until much later, and in part because in the 1950s what modest funds there were went into the structures that had first to be secured before restoration of their contents could be considered. In 1956 the Rocky Mountain Nature Association severed its connection with Fort Laramie. Accordingly Dave Hieb occupied himself with the formation of a new independent Fort Laramie Historical Association, spurning efforts to have him join either the Oregon Trail Museum Association at Scotts Bluff or the Eastern National Park and Monument Association. The charter and by-laws for this new organization followed the forms prescribed by law, with local variations. Many enthusiastic local citizens found a way to get involved in Fort Laramie activities by becoming charter members. At the first annual meeting of the Fort Laramie Association in December, 1956 it was disclosed that gross sales were $1,000. of which $150. went for museum equipment and library books. Under various Superintendents this Association has continued to grow to this day (1978).
One high-minded money-making project of the old Rocky Mountain Nature Association was derailed in 1954 when a ruling was handed down by the Washington Office that pieces of the original siding from Old Bedlam could no longer be sold as souvenirs, and that the stock-pile of same would have to be destroyed. The implied reason was that somehow the seeming commercialization of authentic original historic remains
was a desecration, and it would give visitors wrong ideas. Dave dutifully complied but in retrospect there seems to be something wrong with the decision itself. Why destroy all of this priceless evidence? This seems to be on a par with the National Archives destruction of original Fort Laramie records. How valid is a philosophy that original architectural pieces have such spiritual value that we are obliged to make them de-materialize, so that they may live only in memory?
For all of his tangible and enduring contributions Dave Hieb labored during much of his stay at the same grades (GS 6 and 7) as Superintendents of areas of the lowest administrative level, and below that of such areas as Devils Tower and Effigy Mounds. In 1952 Mattes protested this injustice and inequity, and the fact that Park Service management seemed unable to recognize the distinctive quality of Fort Laramie, or to reward a man with such outstanding performance. At the same time and in subsequent diatribes he deplored the Fort Laramie appropriations as "niggardly" in comparison with other areas of far less significance in American history. It is incredible but true that Hieb received only a single personal achievement award despite his extraordinary ability and accomplishments, and this was a magnanimous "Superior Accomplishment" award of $125. in 1953. Finally in 1954 he did receive a promotion to GS-9, and in 1956 he went to GS-11. However acceptable to Hieb, these promotions were not so much the result of Mattes' prodding or recognition of Fort Laramie's distinctive quality as they were of a general upgrading of all Superintendent positions everywhere. In May 1955, when Hieb was right in the middle of his restoration program, the Washington Office came up with the incredible idea of transferring him to Manassas Battlefield in Virginia! Shifting personnel around frequently for various administrative reasons is common practice, and eleven years in one place is unusual for a Superintendent. Sometimes that indicates that the fellow is so incompetent or mediocre that he might as well live out his life on the spot. However, in this case, whoever engineered the Manassas idea was oblivious to the importance of the Fort Laramie program, or that Hieb was indispensable to its completion within the funding framework then current, since no other man brought in willy-nilly as Fort Laramie Superintendent would be apt to have his capability of doubling as a restoration supervisor. When Mattes protested to high heaven against this exercise in bureaucratic obtuseness he was backed up by Acting Regional Director John McLaughlin who advised Washington that if Hieb were transferred by them arbitrarily, against his and everybody else's wishes, then the Region would simply then and there terminate the Fort Laramie restoration program. Even though money was available, in the absence of competent direction in the field it would violate the Service's own principles to pursue efforts at restoration. With that blast Washington backed off from the idea of shuffling Dave around just for shuffling's sake, although muttering something about moving him elsewhere "next fiscal year."
When Dave did transfer to Omaha in 1958, with a promotion to GS-12, it was in recognition that a new era had dawned, and restoration at Fort Laramie would hereafter be handled on a formal planning and construction basis by full-blown professionals of the Western Office, Design and Construction, San Francisco. By this time Dave had completed his personally planned and directed restorations based on fluid "rehabilitation" funds. And he and his family were quite ready to move to Omaha with its amenities after eleven years in the wilds of Wyoming.
During the 1950s the Director was real high on the idea of having biennial meetings of all Superintendents, nationally, at some compatible place in one of the national parks. The purpose of these meetings was
ostensibly to lecture upon and have work sessions on current Park Service management problems, though the practical effect was to bolster morale by giving Superintendents presumably all hard-working and underpaid the equivalent of a family vacation. Many sought to broaden their horizons by visiting other areas en route. Dave attended such sessions at Grand Canyon in 1948, Yosemite in 1950, Glacier in 1952, Great Smoky Mountains in 1955, and Grand Teton in 1957
During this period Fort Laramie staffing finally got some beefing up. In 1950 W. L. Jeffrey was appointed the first full-time permanent maintenanceman, with quarters in the Barracks, while Art Darnall went with the restoration crew. In 1955 Lois Woodard of Fort Laramie town whose father gave the invocation at the 1937 dedication services got the first permanent spot as clerk-typist. Lois had first worked at Fort Laramie in the early 1940s as a museum laboratory helper with the National Youth Administration, and Hieb had hired her as a "6-month clerk-typist" to follow Marilyn Brittenham. In 1957 Jim Petty became the first permanent Historian for the area. The seasonal historian force was inaugurated at this time also. Jim Bowers was there only briefly before going to Custer Battlefield as the first seasonal historian there (though resigning soon to go with the Denver Public School system). William F. Bragg, Jr., later a public relations man and college professor, was the second seasonal historian, serving two years. Among later seasonal appointees with Hieb was Jack McDermott (later to become permanent Historian) who became highly active in research projects and the affairs of the Fort Laramie Association, and eventually became a high official in the President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Another was Bob Munkres who became a Political Science professor at Muskingum College in Ohio, and another prolific writer on frontier history.
The 1950s were not a time for public celebration. The emphasis was on work accomplishment, and the time to celebrate such accomplishment would be in the future. There were, however, a few low-key observances. In June 1952 the area participated in ceremonies at the nearby grave of Mary Homesley, who had succumbed on the trail 100 years earlier. In August 1954 there was some fanfare in recognition of the Grattan Massacre Centennial. The Goshen County and Wyoming State Historical Societies sponsored these events. In July, 1952 the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming had a field day when they dedicated no less than three of their official markers just outside the Monument boundaries, along the approach road at the Old Army Bridge, near Fort Platte, and opposite the northwest corner of the Monument, a sizeable monument and plaque to commemorate "Portugee" Phillips ride of 1866 to Fort Laramie from Fort Phil Kearny to report the Fetterman Massacre. The latter seems to have been a Declaration of Independence by the Commission which was just a shade miffed because of Hieb's insistence on revision of the wording of the plaque they had placed in front of Old Bedlam in 1940.
Aside from the historical informants above mentioned there were some notable VIPs who turned up during this period. Among them were the novelist A.B. Guthrie, Jr. (his second visit); Wyoming's Senator Joseph O'Mahoney; Dr. Waldo Wedel of the Smithsonian Institution; Dr. James Olson, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Historical Society; Actor Raymond Burr, starring in a popular radio series called "Fort Laramie"; and (also a second visit) Waddell F. Smith of San Rafael, California, talking up the idea of a bang-up National Pony Express Centennial in 1960.
Probably the most distinguished visitor was Bernard DeVoto, in June, 1953. DeVoto, a man of letters of national reputation, was also a western historian of the first magnitude with such major works as Course of Empire and Across the Wide Missouri to his credit. By coincidence Regional Historian Mattes turned up
during his visit and, along with Hieb, there was some heavy conversation under the cottonwoods, mulling over fine points of the western fur trade. The following year Mae Reed Porter, owner of the now-famous A. J. Miller drawings of 1837 used to illustrate DeVoto's book, turned up in company with Dr. Howard Driggs of the American Pioneer Trails Association. This would be the last visit to Fort Laramie of either of these long-term devotees of Oregon Trail history.
In addition to his continuing involvement with the Highway 26 Association, Dave figured in two constructive public relations projects. First of these was to provide a haven for the old NPS exhibits at Lake Guernsey after notice that that museum had been vandalized in the absence of a caretaker. Those paintings which pertained to Fort Laramie and Oregon Trail history were put on display in the Commissary, while others were safely stored until protection could be ensured at Lake Guernsey. This move, made in 1955, was by mutual consent of the Bureau of Reclamation which technically owned the Guernsey museum, and the State of Wyoming, which intended to take over the place as a state park.
Another public relations job related to the Old Army Bridge, which had been turned over to the State and, in turn, to Goshen County. The County Commissioners finally gave up on this antiquated structure, which was hopelessly inadequate for the increasing numbers of visitors as well as local ranch traffic. In 1957, with State aid, they built a nice new 6-span concrete bridge over the North Platte, about 100 feet upstream from the old relic. Dave's role here was in talking to both State and county officials to secure their sworn guarantee not to demolish the Army bridge, but to just leave it alone until the NPS could get a bill through Congress to authorize extension of the Monument boundaries to include the bridge and its approaches so it could be properly preserved and restored as an exhibit. Hieb had been keeping track of the bridge problem for years, beginning in 1947 when it had first been necessary to detour traffic over a rough ford. He discovered through research the document by which this bridge (as well as another now vanished one over the Laramie) was originally turned over to Wyoming Territory, and that it contained a clause which stated, in effect that as, if, and when the bridge was no longer needed by the State, it would revert to the U. S. Government. There was no resistance to this proposal by State or County officials; they were happy to avoid the cost of demolition. But careful monitoring of the situation seemed necessary to ensure that some careless County employee did not accidentally take it on himself to dismantle the 80 year old structure.
In 1953 the old Master Plan bugaboo bobbed up again when Director Wirth and Chief Landscape Architect Carnes expressed skepticism about the plan of segregating future new facilities across the river. By this time the Omaha Office had overcome its skepticism and was 100 percent in favor of this concept, and they were taken aback by this new attack on the plan from on high. In 1951 Fort Laramie had been removed from under Rocky Mountain, and it was no longer Dave Canfield's problem, but he felt so strongly about the matter that on July 23 he wrote this bitter memorandum:
I am informed that the Fort Laramie Master Plan has met with the Director's disfavor. Since I have been deeply involved in that development plan. . . I certainly hope that when restudy is made that I will be invited to participate so that I may explain the thoroughly considered reasoning that went into the present plan from those who conceived it, i.e., Ken Mitchell and myself. . .
While I was in the military, where there was possibly some hope held out I might not come
back, the master plan was junked under the "new broom sweeps clean" principle. After much interesting but largely useless research had proved nothing pertinent in the way of developing a superior master plan, by valiant effort I rescued and resuscitated the almost cold corpse and nursed it carefully back to life.
I have been on the ground with many specialists and experts from the Washington Office and other high levels and have learned nothing to discredit the last edition. If it is to be thrown into the hopper and planning started from scratch again, I would truly be appreciative of an opportunity to take part in the discussions.
As it turned out, Canfield's apprehension was misplaced because Omaha now favored his plan, and Washington wasn't pushing real hard on the alternative. In 1953 the whole Master Plan question was still academic but in 1955-1956 the subject was revived with a bang with the advent of Director Wirth's famous Mission 66 Program. This was a proposed ten-year development program for the Park Service so designated to dramatize it as a high-priority item with the Bureau of the Budget and Congress. On March 30, 1955 Regional Director Baker wrote to the Director expressing pleasure at the Fort's bright prospects under this new program:
Fort Laramie is one of the outstanding historic shrines in the American West, but in the 18 years of our custodianship we have been able to do little more than patch up and protect the historic structures, with a bare minimum of interpretation, and makeshift quarters for administration. Fort Laramie is highly eligible for full treatment in the Mission 66 program.
Regarding the Master Plan, many sections have been approved, but not the General Development section. . . We are unanimously in favor of the Master Plan [providing for new development across the river].
The year 1966 will mark the 100th birthday of the Fort Laramie Treaty Council, the prelude to the last decade of Indian warfare. We believe a big celebration at Fort Laramie in 1966 would afford dramatic demonstration of Mission 66 achievements. All this enthusiasm was dashed by a big gob of cold water in the form of a Mission 66 Plan for Fort Laramie originating with Washington D.C. planners, which in effect would torpedo the 1954 Master Plan. Eivind Scoyen, Chairman of the Mission 66 Committee, condemned the Canfield cross-river concept as "unrealistic." But if that was unrealistic, his new proposal was retrogressive, going back to the idea of approaching the historic area from the north, on the west side of the Laramie, across the extinct Quartermaster area; using the Cavalry Barracks for permanent administrative and visitor center purposes; limiting boundary extensions to a strip 600 feet wide to the north; and putting the parking area in the bottoms west of Old Bedlam, with a nearby picnic facility. However, residences and utilities would be directly across the river, accessible by a new vehicular bridge. The frosting on the Washington cake was a recommended policy of restoring buildings individually to their respective periods of maximum importance, without regard to the chronological consistency or unity of the whole Baker's memorandum of July 8, 1955 to Scoyen (signed by him but like most Fort Laramie correspondence
written by Mattes) expressed consternation at the new proposal, which was mainly a retread of a very old one which had been rejected years before:
. . . We realize that in this Mission we are not to feel bound or restricted by previous thinking as it may be reflected in existing Master Plans. Nevertheless, we do not believe that past thinking which has gone into Master Plans should therefore be ignored. It is the consensus here that the Mission 66 proposal reflects a "lowering of our sights" at Fort Laramie at a time when they should be raised. We feel rather strongly that the historical values at Fort Laramie, embracing "the pageant of the West," are of sufficient magnitude to warrant the type of bold treatment reflected in the existing Plan.
The [existing] Master Plan scheme is the product of many years of planning and consultation by a succession of Superintendents, Regional Directors, Landscape Architects, and Historians. We do not believe that there is anything sacred about past thinking, but we feel that it is significant that unanimity of thinking on the subject was finally achieved by this group of administrators and technicians after a considerable period of detailed study. We can't avoid a feeling that up to this point we have been on the right track and it is difficult for us to accept a plan which would not do full justice to the unique historical values at Fort Laramie.
We expect that considerations of economy and practicality must have weighed heavily in your Mission 66 thinking, but it has not been our conception that Mission 66 must necessarily envision a plan that has to be consummated by 1966. If a plan commensurate with the area values will take longer than 10 years to achieve, then we are still for that plan.
Specifically the Region objected to the suggested new approach road which would destroy historic building sites, the gross inadequacy of the suggested boundary extension, the intrusiveness of the suggested location for residences, the proximity of the parking area to the parade ground, and the introduction of picnicking which would tend to promote local recreational use and distract maintenance staff from primary objectives. "If the bona fide tourists want to eat their lunch under the cottonwood trees around the Fort, we believe that they should feel free to do so, in the spirit of the pioneers, without formal facilities being provided." Furthermore, Baker complained,
While we heartily concur in the plan to present various surviving structures as historic house museums with period furnishings, we do not understand the proposal to introduce anachronistic treatment of these buildings. All of the existing historic structures are being restored now as of the late period, about 1888. To provide either exterior or interior treatment for earlier periods would result in a distortion from the viewpoint of historic integrity and such treatment would be most confusing from the standpoint of the visitor. Granted that this was not the period of maximum importance, the fact is that what we actually have left at Fort Laramie are the remains of 1888. Even though there are several buildings which date back to 1849, they were altered and they evolved in various ways over the decades to reach their 1888 condition. We feel that a proper central museum exhibit plan will adequately fill in the historical background.
Reluctantly Baker offered an alternative Mission 66 Plan which would correct some of the above deficiencies, by moving the approach road northward, following the meander of the second bench, and shifting the residential and maintenance area to a location immediately west of the Fort Laramie town cemetery, along the county road approach, but still retaining the idea of a headquarters and museum in the Cavalry Barracks. Baker concluded: "The above is definitely a secondary proposal, much less desirable to us than the [existing] Master Plan scheme, and would be accepted by us only if the present Master Plan is to be conclusively discarded."
At this point Superintendent Hieb, accompanied by Regional Landscape Architect Harvey Benson, went to Washington to argue the merits of the various plans before the full Mission 66 Committee. After a lengthy and eloquent presentation by Hieb, the Committee voted to accept the principal elements of the old Master Plan (reflecting the Canfield concept) in the new Mission 66 Prospectus. Subsequently Chairman Scoyen formally concurred in a modified plan which restored the main elements all modern development including Visitor Center across the river, and no use of historic structures for modern purposes. That much represented a gratifying capitulation. However, this new Washington version of a Mission 66 Plan, still reflecting the thoughts of persuasive Roy Appleman of the History Branch, dropped more bomb-shells. It gave strong new emphasis to the fur trade and covered wagon eras at the expense of the military aspect. It still insisted on a policy of restoring each building individually to its particular period of maximum importance. And it came up with the idea that it would be a perfectly good idea, in time, to reconstruct Fort John or Fort William or both! In a memorandum of August 19, 1955 to the Regional Director, forwarded to the Director by George Baggley under cover of August 26, Mattes attempted to explode these radical ideas, starting out with an admission that the fur trade and the Oregon Trail were very important, but questioning the wisdom of any effort to give all three phases of Fort Laramie history the fur trade, the migrations, and the military "equal time":
The physical remains at the post are entirely of the military period. The last forty years of the Fort's history were distinctively military. It seems to me that it is somewhat unrealistic to play down the military aspect in an effort to resurrect earlier eras which lack surviving evidence. By virtue of existing facts which we cannot alter, the military necessarily occupies the greater share of on-site interpretation. The fur trade and emigration phases will have to depend largely upon treatment in the museum.
Scotts Bluff is the logical place to tell the more detailed story of the covered wagon migrations. No two areas in the National Park System are more closely linked geographically and thematically than Scotts Bluff and Fort Laramie. There might be needless duplication of exhibit material if we played up the covered wagon migrations at Fort Laramie co-equally with the military. . .
The buildings that we have now, and which are being restored in the current program, represent the fort which the Army abandoned in 1890. . . For all practical purposes we have already admitted the physical impossibility of "turning back the clock." Earlier architectural data are missing. Restorations of this random type would be largely conjectural, not in keeping with long-established policy. Further, restoration of Old Bedlam to an earlier date would result in impingement on the site of later officers quarters. Restoration of the Sutler's Store to pre-1883 would require the obliteration of the wing built in 1883, which has important values in its own right. . .
Is it wise to introduce the thought that there is a possibility that we will restore Fort William or Fort John? It is doubtful if a truly authentic restoration could be made (even if we knew the site of Fort William), considering the scarcity of data on this structure. On the other hand, if Fort John were fully restored, an existing authentic structure of 1870 would be obliterated. Further, we would have the most serious kind of distortion, with an 1841-1849 trading post at one end of a military parade ground of the 1880s.
. . . It is misleading to assert that the approach road to headquarters will give visitors a view of the fort "such as was seen by the pioneer." It is true that they will be following one of the important early approaches to the Fort. But what visitors will actually see will be the restored or stabilized remains as of the 1880s. This is a discrepancy which will have to be resolved primarily by museum exhibits portraying the physical evolution of the Fort.
These momentous issues would be resolved in the future. Meanwhile superintendent Hieb continued on his productive and imperturbable way, getting "realistic" things done on a rather large scale. Except for the Great Blizzard of 1949, a few nasty dust and hail storms, and lightning hitting the southwest gable of Officers Quarters E (but providentially not igniting the building) in 1955 Hieb was not ill-favored by Mother Nature as was his predecessor Borreson. Also unlike Borreson, he was able to demonstrate his creative talents in the atmosphere of post-War budget expansion. So Hieb and his family moved on to Omaha intact, in 1958, to conquer other worlds. No Superintendent of any area in the National Park system, whether large or small, historic or other wise, could look back with more justifiable pride than David L. Hieb on his record of achievement at Fort Laramie.

7. Ray Ringenbach, Superintendent, 1958-1960
Ray Ringenbach was a staunch Southwestern Monuments man by personal preference. He came to Fort Laramie in mid-1958 from Tumacacori Mission because the Fort Laramie job was a promotion to GS-11. He was transferred laterally to Chiricahua National Monument 2-1/2 years later, after much agitation by himself to return to the Southwest, using the leverage that his family's health was endangered by the Wyoming climate.
Despite the comparative brevity of his term (equalled only by that of the ill-starred Thor Borreson), and his geographical misplacement, Ringenbach worked hard and conscientiously at a job that should have been exciting because of the convergence of several momentous events. These were: (1) increases in funding for restoration work, coupled with the Big Switch in technical control to the Western Office, Design and Construction (WODC); (2) important authorized increases in staffing; (3) a surge in Fort Laramie fortunes with the advent of Mrs. Virginia Hill of Denver, who donated funds to initiate the refurnishing of historic structures; (4) a dramatic upturn in visitor interest, climaxed by the Pony Express Centennial celebration; and (5) new Congressional legislation which doubled the size of the area and converted it from a national monument to a national historic site.
A Scottsbluff Star-Herald feature story in July 1958 unfortunately helped to perpetuate a myth that has always plagued Fort administrators, to the effect that the Park Service intended to "completely restore Old Fort Laramie." In point of fact, at no time has any responsible NPS official ever suggested total restoration, i. e., the resurrection of buildings which were levelled or denuded by lumber salvage operations, 1890-1910. Instead the Great Debate within NPS planning circles has always been whether to utilize the surviving historic structures for utilitarian purposes or to reserve them as historic exhibits only, inside and out, and segregate all new development across the river. After the abortive effort by Washington D.C. Mission 66 planners to revive the former concept, the consolidated Master Plan for cross-river development of all modern facilities became the basis for proposed Congressional legislation, introduced in 1958, to enlarge and develop the area. When it reached this stage of Congressional commitment, that meant the cross-river plan was a sacred trust, and from 1958 on therefore (until 1976, as we shall see) all development planning was to hinge on that broad concept. An auxiliary principle was to continue giving primary emphasis to the preservation of existing historic structures, even though this meant the indefinite postponement of the cross-river development.
A new corollary established by the Mission 66 Plan, which prevailed over the Omaha Regional Office opposition, was the restoration of surviving structures, variably, to their respective Periods of Maximum Importance (PMI). This was the one significant exception to the philosophy prevailing until 1958, championed by Mattes and Hieb, that all surviving structures should be restored to the 1888 period, as they were at the effective termination of the military occupation, to present a chronologically unified Fort picture rather than a random and anachronistic "outdoor museum."
The new era of planning and development under the aegis of WODC (though with all plans subject to concurrence of the Superintendent, Regional Director and the Director) was signalled by the arrival, in July 1958, of Robert Gann, Architect, from San Francisco. Bob was a case-hardened bachelor, so he was able to cope with finding quarters in the little village of Fort Laramie, and devote long extra hours to the accelerated restoration program, of which Old Bedlam would be the center-piece, and would become his masterpiece. Since the new Superintendent and the new Architect arrived almost simultaneously, with clearly defined respective roles, Bob and Ray got along for the most part famously. The first thing they agreed upon was that they wanted "the elimination of one-or-two man domination of thought" in restoration matters, referring to the era controlled by Hieb and the Mattes-Roberson advisory team. Review of Gann's plans at all levels would certainly ensure that restoration work from July 1958 onward would reflect the consolidation of many viewpoints (including the continuing input of Mattes and Roberson). However, it must be stated categorically that restoration work undertaken during his assignment bore Gann's personal imprimatur. And it takes nothing away from Hieb's accomplishments, given his unique set of circumstances, to say that Gann's work was fully professional and has also stood the test of time, not to mention the incisive criticism that all experts feel free to direct at the work of their successors or predecessors.
Old Bedlam was Gann's Number 1 concern, but its restoration would not be completed during Ringenbach's tenure. Utilizing the new approved format, Gann first completed "Part I, Historic Structure Report" for Old Bedlam. The historic background and descriptive data was that previously assembled by Hieb, but the assessment of the structure's condition and outline of its proposed treatment was the architect's own. This report elicited considerable technical comment from Sanford Hill, Chief of WODC, about materials and structural problems, but a flap occurred between Omaha and Washington over the matter of the Period of Maximum Importance. In 1881-1882 the original two-story kitchen wing had been removed, and a single-story lime-concrete kitchen lean-to had been built to the rear. The Gann scheme, reflecting the new thinking in Washington, was to restore the building to its 1867 appearance, externally, according to available historic plans. Although this would require drastic treatment, to reconstruct all original structural elements, it would present Old Bedlam at the time of its greatest glory.
In July 1959, despite Washington's new stance on the PMI principle, Regional Historian Mattes made one last effort to invoke the opposite principle of chronological consistency, with all restoration to 1888, and the story of Fort Laramie's architectural evolution from 1849 to that date to be told by museum exhibits. Strong-minded Roy Appleman held the Washington Office in line with his PMI viewpoint. Mattes and Appleman, with Associate Director Dan Beard as referee, met in St. Louis in February 1960 to debate the issue. In the upshot the Director ruled in favor of the Appleman position. Now the Bedlam plan was set, with pre-1881 kitchen wings to abut on neighboring post-1881 lime-concrete officers quarters ruins, creating an anachronistic scene (buildings which never co-existed historically). However, since Bedlam is the only instance where architectural anachronisms occur conspicuously today (1978), the disparity seems not too
jarring, and everyone agrees now that Old Bedlam restored to its prime is far more aesthetic than the 1881 deformity. Chronological consistency would have been more seriously violated if the Sutler's Store had been restored to its pre-1883 period (thus destroying two-thirds of the surviving building), or if the 1849-1850 Fort John had been reconstructed at the expense of Officers Quarters A of 1870 (as Appleman himself has strongly advocated). For aesthetic and interpretive reasons the Old Bedlam anachronism seems to have been vindicated. With the final agonizing approval of Part I, work on Part II (the actual architectural plans) began with serious probing of the Old Bedlam structure in the autumn of 1960. Removal of flooring, wall boards, siding, etc., enabled Gann to get to the "guts" of the structural block, to determine the best method of ensuring a restoration that would stand for another 100 years, at the same time achieving fidelity to the original.
While plans for Bedlam were moving slowly, and with much argumentation, there was a frenzy of actual work on other structures. All funded construction work was now under WODC auspices, with formal plans and approvals, but certain projects that somehow escaped the "authorized construction" category did not enjoy full WODC scrutiny.
Officers Quarters A, which had been Hieb's responsibility, was completed by Gann, but only to the extent of touching up, i.e., painting and varnishing. Also, Hieb had not been able to find an outfit to provide customized shutters. This Gann solved by making a deal with the Washington Planing Mill, Washington, Missouri, so that by July 1959 he was able to provide historically correct shutters, not only for Quarters A, but also for Quarters E and F. Meanwhile, Hieb's completion report on A, written in Omaha, was circulated, eliciting the usual favorable comment. (Now as a Regional official who visited the Fort occasionally, Hieb observed the work of others with keen objective interest. Although he had some critical reservations about the new philosophies and techniques shown, he was too much of a gentleman to make a public issue of them, and wise enough to rest on his own laurels.) Another exception to WODC control was certain activity in the realm of ruins stabilization. Here Ringenbach conceived that he could administratively, and with maintenance money, handle certain projects himself, and here is where he got into trouble. On his own initiative he decided to attempt stabilization of the New Bakery (lime-concrete ruins near the Commissary Storehouse), sending in a proposal to square up the walls that had survived the 1925 fire. When he heard of no objection to his plan "within ten days" he proceeded with the work. Regional Director Baker admonished him that his ten day rule for review and approval was somewhat arbitrary and should not be invoked again, since historic preservation steps must be approved at all levels, regardless of delays.
Another Ringenbach ploy which annoyed Gann, and required whistle-blowing by the Regional Director, was his private program for "cleaning up the ruins." Specifically, Ringenbach's idea was to remove detritus (i.e., fallen walls and lintels) so that visitors could stroll freely about the ruins without turning an ankle or getting ambushed by a rattler. He used the fallen and crumbling masonry so removed as rip-rapping along the Laramie River. He was pretty far along with this unauthorized program before Gann alerted Roberson and Mattes, the latter finally convincing Baker that it was a mistake to regard "fallen ruins" as debris to be disposed of, rather than a valid part of the sacred remains. Baker got Ringenbach on the phone and
instructed him "to cease and desist," but Ray never conceded that a mistake had been made. His clean-up operation applied principally to the Hospital, the Non-Com Quarters, and the Sawmill. Too late to remedy an error of judgment, Ringenbach learned that no decision about the disposition of historic evidence should ever be made unilaterally by anyone, even a Superintendent! After this unpleasantness (the only serious flaw in Ringenbach's otherwise fine record) Gann assumed responsibility for ruins stabilization. During this period his principal accomplishment in that category was the full-scale stabilization of the Sawmill ruins, as a trial-and-error preliminary to tackling the Hospital. (This project was undertaken in 1960 at a cost of $27,600, which indicates a new factor in the restoration equation inflation for this was far more than Hieb had spent on any one of his several major projects.) The results were excellent in terms of stabilization, but the use of concrete bonding beams to solve the erosion of walls topside turned out to be an error, since the smooth horizontal lines of the visible bond beams are incompatible with the "natural" appearance of bona fide ruins. In lieu thereof other methods have been employed since, such as "selective grouting" or concealed tie rodsAnother complaint about Ringenbach's aggressiveness, albeit a minor one, in the matter of historic buildings related to the Commissary Storehouse, which Hieb had restored as completely as research would allow. Ray decided that the Cavalry Barracks could continue to serve as his quarters, but that he should move his administrative function to the more commodious Commissary, which already housed the museum. Accordingly he arranged to move into that central portion of the building which once housed the Quartermaster's offices, making a few alterations to walls, partitions, floors, and ceilings in the process, as he deemed necessary to provide office space, electricity and heating. In 1959 Mattes complained about his "tampering" with the restored Commissary, not objecting to the idea of conversion to offices, but again to the idea of making unilateral decisions with respect to the integrity of a historic structure. But in this case as in the case of the ruins "clean-up", by the time the complaint was registered and "taken under advisement" by the Regional Director, Ringenbach was on his way to Chiricahua.]
Plans for restoring the Old Guardhouse (the masonry structure of 1866 near the river) to its pristine condition, before being converted to the purposes of a Magazine in 1876, were prepared by Gann in accordance with the New Dispensation to be guided by the time of maximum importance, which would require the undoing of some details of the Hieb restoration. However, work on the Old Guardhouse would come later. The one important restoration completed by Gann during the Ringenbach interlude was that of the New Guardhouse, built in 1876. This was a ruin, stripped of its lumber like other late-period lime-concrete structures, but it is distinctive because of its location. It is isolated at a corner of the parade ground otherwise made barren by the disappearance of adjoining barracks. It is also distinguished by the fact that it sits square with the cardinal compass directions, and therefore at a 45-degree angle with the parade ground, the only Fort structure so oriented.
Regional Historian Mattes in Omaha, in his continuing capacity as coordinator for Fort Laramie programming, first conceived the idea of reconstructing a roof over the New Guardhouse ruins in the spring of 1958. The idea did not particularly appeal to Hieb or Ringenbach, but Gann embraced it with enthusiasm and it quickly gained acceptance by landscape architects and interpreters. Although roofing is, of course, not an unheard of way to preserve a fragile ruin, there was no thought here at the time of roofing all such ruins at Fort Laramie, only the New Guardhouse. This would be an exception to the rule, justified for the purpose
of restoring some visual balance to that corner of the parade ground, and also to aid interpreters as a place to pause on their parade ground tours, or as a simple shelter for visitors. What made the idea feasible from the standpoint of authenticity was the existence of a Signal Corps photograph of 1889 obtained from the National Archives which gave a clear view of the parade ground elevation of the intact structure. It enabled the architect to come up with a reasonable facsimile of the original roof, at least as to external appearance. The interior detail, having to be conjectural anyhow, would permit maximum structural stability
Plans for the roof reconstruction "Stabilization and Partial Restoration of the New Guard House" were approved, and construction was authorized in 1960. In a joint Gann-Ringenbach project to probe the foundations of the late-period Army structure, workmen encountered clear evidence of the fact that the New Guardhouse had been superimposed on the masonry foundation ruins of an earlier frame structure. The existence of small cells in this hidden "ghost" structure, coupled with the evidence of early military ground plans (1851 and 1854), confirmed that this was the 1850 Guardhouse, the Original or First Guardhouse, as distinct from the 1866 and 1876 versions. (A gruesome find it was, to think of how human beings had once been shackled and confined there!) The Regional Office readily endorsed the idea of preserving the First Guardhouse foundation ruins as an in situ exhibit adjoining the exterior foundation wall of the New Guardhouse, and it was so arranged, with appropriate exhibit panels. Meanwhile, after pouring of new footings and buttressing of the foundations, the New Guardhouse walls were stabilized, with cement tie beams and restored window grilles. The framing, shingling, and louvered ventilators of the reconstructed hipped roof offered no technical difficulties, nor did the reconstruction of the open front porch. With painting of wood porch and trim, and grading around the structure, the project was completed before Ringenbach's departure.
A decision was made not to reproduce original interior walls or other partitions. The open space provides shelter for exhibits and display of Army vehicles or other large pieces. The original 1850 guardhouse outline may be seen inside as well as outside the structure through a diagonal void in the New Guardhouse floor. The porch has become a principal focal point for interpretive talks and demonstrations.
Not all 1958-1960 development was limited to historic structures. In July 1959 a delegation from WODC including Engineer Al Heubner and Landscape Architect Sam Serrano visited the Fort to get a bird's-eye view of long range planning requirements and, since there would be no actual development across the river for some years, to advise on current needs. Before they arrived Ringenbach had proceeded with installation of a new water distribution system around the parade ground, and had greatly enlarged the "temporary" parking area next to the Cavalry Barracks. He had also beefed up his fire-fighting capability with a new fire truck and tanker unit. Since there was no optimism about an early move across the river, the WODC delegation staked out a location for a new prefabricated metal Shop-Firehouse building in the "temporary" utility cluster north of the Cavalry Barracks. This additional "temporary" structure, completed in 1960 for $14,200, is now (1978) celebrating its 18th yearTwo aspects of planning were stepped up in late 1959 and 1960. First was some detailed analysis of road alignment, parking facility, and visitor center - utility - residential location requirements across the river. Second was a concern about landscaping the parade ground area, that is, the delineation of utility roads, public walks and pathways, possible decorative fencing, and vegetative cover plan, all in accord with historic evidence. In October 1959 Sam Serrano and Merrill Mattes met at the Fort for an intensive two-file:///C|/Web/FOLA/history/part3-7.htm (5 of 11) [9/7/2007 12:42:34 PM]
Fort Laramie NHS: Park History (Part III)
week survey of the total landscaping problem, which resulted in a series of "PCPs" or Project Construction Proposals in accordance with a new format devised by Washington and WODC. It would be profitless to go into details, because of planning revisions and re-revisions since that time, but a few key proposals made then for the first time, may be noted:
(1) The future approach road should permit views of the Fort, requiring some vista clearing of river trees.
(2) The future approach road to the Visitor Center will parallel some surviving Oregon Trail remains, which should be preserved and interpreted en route.
(3) The future parking area should be well screened behind plantings or an earth berm.
(4) The future Visitor Center - headquarters should be designed inconspicuously to one side of the parade ground axis, near the mouth of Deer Creek; the pedestrian bridge should come in near the Fort John site; also, it should ramp down and up to keep it as inconspicuous as possible.
(5) Electric carts could be used to transport the handicapped from the Visitor Center to the historic ground; there should be a separate road and auto bridge across the river to the south, for official vehicles only.
(6) The future utility area should be "out of sight."
(7) The residential area, if necessary, should be likewise concealed or camouflaged, but it would be better if there were no residential area, with employees living in town, and a 24-hour guard system employed.
(8) Since it had been decreed that the Period of Maximum Importance should be the criterion throughout, there was no point in restoring parade ground trees of the late Army period. The same would apply to board walks, fencing, vines, and other refinements of the late 1880s. If walkways proved necessary, earth-tone bituminous mat would serve. The only vegetation in the historic area should be native grass which, despite the barrenness of the Fort at PMI, would prevent the dust from becoming too realistic for modern visitors! [110]
About this time a proposal was made by Bradley Patterson of the White House staff to the Director that Fort Laramie be thrown open to public camping because it was such a famous campground in historic times. The proposal was politely rejected, as were frequently recurring proposals that formal picnic facilities be provided. It would be agreeable, however, to allow "informal" minimal-facility picnics or sack lunches in the cottonwood grove between the Commissary Storehouse and the Cavalry Barracks. [111]
The years 1959-1960 are noteworthy because of some real breakthroughs in area staffing, research, curatorial work, refurnishing, legislation, and public relations. Although Ringenbach did not initiate any of these moves, he was the Superintendent of record when it all happened. The initiative had been taken, in
file:///C|/Web/FOLA/history/part3-7.htm (6 of 11) [9/7/2007 12:42:34 PM]
Fort Laramie NHS: Park History (Part III)
each case, by the Regional Office and Superintendent Hieb.
In terms of staffing, Fort Laramie got a great boost when in 1960 Jack McDermott became the permanent Historian, Rex Wilson became the first permanent Curator of collections, and Sally Johnson became the Furnishings Curator. This gifted trio, all of whom later went on to fulfill higher ambitions, together with Bob Gann as Project Architect, were instrumental in raising Fort Laramie to new heights of attainment and public recognition.
McDermott, University of Wisconsin product, who had spent several years as a seasonal at both Custer Battlefield and Fort Laramie, had demonstrated superior talent in both research and interpretive areas, and was hand-picked by the Regional Office for that reason. He reorganized the massive research files at the Fort to make them more useful, worked closely with Gann in unearthing fresh data required for the Historic Structure Reports, initiated several fruitful research projects on his own initiative, expanded the activities of the Fort Laramie Historical Association, arranged for its legal incorporation and, among other things, contributed a regular column, "Fort Laramie Foot Notes," in the Torrington Telegram. Although he was destined for greater things he would be around long enough to put Fort Laramie on a fully professional footing, historically.
Regional Museum Curator Newell F. Joyner recognized that the Fort Laramie artifact collection had grown to alarming proportions. He calculated something like 80,000 pieces which would take years to process or reprocess by approved up-to-date methods of accessioning and cataloguing, not to mention curatorial or preservation work on these items. He also pointed out that storage facilities were woefully inadequate. The storage problem was solved in the usual temporary fashion by obtaining new metal cases to put in the old Cavalry Barracks facility, along with work tables and a sink. The Curatorial problem was solved in the person of Rex Wilson, fresh from Fort Union National Monument in New Mexico, where he had a fine indocrination in historical archeology. He not only plunged with zest into housekeeping chores but also proceeded to do a creative job of classification of the assorted artifacts, such as bottles, buttons, bullets, coins, and whatnot. As an example of his contribution, he came up with nearly 1,000 bottle specimens of which he identified about 600 different types. He corresponded widely to establish their identities and origins, and later published several papers on aspects of the Fort Laramie collection. He also initiated the painstaking process of establishing monetary values for selected items
Although an archeologist by training, Rex did no archeology per se at the Fort. Two of the three archeology projects that were undertaken during Ringenbach's day were supervised by Ringenbach himself, who as a Southwestern Monument employee had been exposed to archeological procedures. These were, first, the salvage of random artifacts in connection with the 1958 water pipeline. Surprisingly enough, there were no artifacts of unusual interest in this lengthy dig around the perimeter of the parade ground, nor were there any signs of early structures. His second archeological job was the discovery and careful unearthing and stabilization of the 1850 guardhouse foundations in 1959, actually the most gratifying archeological discovery at the Fort up to that date.In 1958, anticipating the restoration of Old Bedlam, the Regional Office had induced the Smithsonian Institution office in Lincoln, Nebraska to take on the little chore of excavating the sites of the two original kitchen wings, which were well defined by rocky depressions. Charles M. McNutt of that office conducted the dig, but reported nothing sensational
In 1958 the Region and the Superintendent were painfully aware of the lack of furnishings in the restored buildings, and the need to restrain the curious public from entering the nicely finished but empty buildings. In an effort to remedy this, the Region sanctioned a scheme of Ringenbach's to undertake an experimental refurnishing project for Officers Quarters F. In this he had the help of the local Federation of Womens Clubs, to scare up old antiques, furniture, and other items, and he had the technical support of Joyner and Historian Russ Apple, on brief assignment from Mount Rushmore. (The large Fort collection included very few authentic or useable items for this purpose.) These efforts paid off in the form of a refurnished Officers Quarters, which mollified the public to a degree, but which was gravely deficient in authenticity. This was not the way to solve the basic problem, but how could it be solved when the NPS programmers and the Bureau of the Budget in Washington would not hear of Government funding for historic furniture? Wasn't it enough to restore the buildings?The furnishings dilemma was solved in a most unexpected way. In August 1959 the Regional Director, Howard Baker, received a phone call from a Denver attorney representing Mrs. Virginia Hill of that city, who said she wanted to memorialize her late husband who had evidently made his fortune in Wyoming oil and gas, by donating $50,000 to the National Park Service for some worthy park project in Wyoming. Accordingly, the attorney suggested, Baker should submit a few alternative proposals for his and her consideration. Baker called a staff meeting for ideas. Several staff members suggested the purchase of real estate inholdings in Grand Teton National Park. Merrill Mattes pointed out that this was a heaven-sent opportunity to provide the badly needed historical furnishings for the restored Fort Laramie buildings. Everybody who had a scheme went back to their offices to write up a proposal. Mattes came up with a report entitled, "A Proposal for the Restoration of Interior Furniture and Furnishings in Historic Structures at Fort Laramie" which itemized the anticipated cost for furnishing ten buildings, totalling $100,000. In a conference with Baker he suggested that if Mrs. Hill would donate $50,000 for furnishings acquisitions perhaps the Government could match that with a like amount for the cost of Curatorial salary and travel over a five year period. However, he further suggested that perhaps Mrs. Hill would like to entertain the idea of donating $100,000 to Fort Laramie, instead of just half that amount, so that she could get all the credit, and that would avoid the awkward delay of waiting for the Government budget to catch up. Baker agreed to this approach, and took off for Denver. Although he did dutifully present other suggestions, including Jackson Hole land, it was the Fort Laramie proposition that immediately intrigued Mrs. Hill, and she went for the $100,000 without batting an eyelash, as Mattes predicted she would.
With the first installment of Mrs. Hill's money secured, Mattes then took up the task of locating a highly qualified Furnishings Curator. Although many others were screened, Curator Sally Johnson of the Nebraska State Historical Society, a Nebraska University graduate, turned out to be a "natural," being readily available for new adventures, and single so that extensive travel away from home posed no problem. Accordingly, she was hired and went to work in January, 1960 under the direction of the Regional Historian but with frequent assignments to Fort Laramie. The procedure which she and Mattes evolved, after establishing unit (historic building) priorities, was to research the subject thoroughly, prepare a furnishings report for approval, and then go out around the countryside, antique shops, or collections wherever they might be, round up what was needed and finally, after all acquired items were accessioned, install them in the buildingsThe first year, 1960, was of course devoted almost entirely to research on the history of the Fort and its inhabitants in general, and those of Officers Quarters F in particular, which was selected as the first project
to be completed. This decision was made on the basis of the fact that Merrill Mattes had struck up an acquaintance with a onetime boy occupant of that building living in Washington, D.C., retired General Reynolds Burt, and Mattes wrote a book about the adventures of his father and mother, Andrew S. and Elizabeth Burt on the Indian frontier (Indians, Infants and Infantry, Old West Publishing Company, Denver, 1960). In addition to having actual items of furnishings from the period of his family's occupancy of the buildings in 1887-1888, General Burt was able to supply many items from memory. The final clincher for the selection of Officers Quarters F was that, being the restored building of latest vintage, the items should be the easiest to come by, and therefore could be completed fairly early to demonstrate to the public that the Fort Laramie program was entering a whole new exciting dimension. It was in this manner that Officers Quarters F, which for a time had been referred to as the Hunton House, has come to be known as the Burt House for interpretive purposes
Giving priority to the Burt House to ensure an early date for the completion of "the pilot project" would also impress Mrs. Hill who was passing out her money to the National Park Service in installments, and it was important to keep her interest at high pitch! In an early article for publication in the Dude Rancher, Sally reported learning from Mrs. Hill that her decision to support Fort Laramie furnishings had been influenced by stories told her as a young girl by her grandmother, Mrs. Seymour Ellis, who had crossed the Plains in a covered wagon, in 1859 or 1860, and had stopped then at Fort Laramie. April 1860 was the time of the beginning of the famous Pony Express mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California, launched by the partners, Russell, Majors and Waddell. The 75th anniversary of this thrilling historical phenomenon had been observed in a modest way by the Oregon Trail Memorial Association at the Old Fort in 1935. It was inevitable that there would be some kind of recognition in 1960, but it probably would not have taken the colorful form of a Transcontinental Re-enactment had it not been for the organizing initiative and energy of Colonel Waddell F. Smith of San Rafael, California, a descendant of one of the partners. In 1958 he toured the western states involved to generate interest, and in Salt take City that year the National Pony Express Centennial Association was born, with the full support of Utah's Governor George Clyde, and the Director of the Wyoming Historical Department, Lola Homsher. In 1959 there was a series of meetings at towns along the old route to help get the idea of a Re-Enactment rolling, including ones in North Platte and Gothenberg attended by Mattes and Ringenbach. Meanwhile Mattes had become a Director-at-large of the Association, researched the Pony Express extensively, and had articles on the subject published in the Omaha World-Herald Sunday Magazine and Nebraska History, "The Pony Express from St. Joseph to Fort Laramie." He also assisted with the organization of local Sheriff's patrols and other equestrian groups to coordinate the Re-enactment.
The 1960 Re-enactment itself, with relays cross-country all the way from both Sacramento and St. Joseph, took over three weeks, given modern conditions, compared to the record ten days set originally. Two relay riders were scheduled to pass each other in South Pass on July 31. Since the riders were carefully scheduled, the date set for the celebration at Fort Laramie was July 25, when the westbound Pony rider would arrive there, and over 2,500 visitors were on hand. The principal speakers were Waddell Smith and Chief U. S. Postal Inspector David Stephens. Both Director Wirth and Regional Director Baker were on hand, as well as Historians Apple and Mattes, and ex-Superintendent Hieb. Because the Sutler's Store was the historic post-office for the Fort (though not a Pony Express relay station) it was the focal point for the celebration, and the sale of Fort Laramie covers. The Pony rider splashed across the Laramie River at 2:47 PM, and took off his
mochila (saddle bag) and handed it to his relay rider who then took off westward in a cloud of dust. This poignant bit of pageantry was witnessed by a dense throng. It was a historic moment]
Other celebrations of lesser note during this period included a "Show Me Day" on July 16, 1958, the occasion of the National Monument's 20th anniversary; the arrival of the Oregon Centennial Wagon Train, en route from that state to Missouri in May, 1959; and on July 19, 1959 the dedication of completed Officers Quarters A (minus furnishings) with flag-raising ceremonies by the First Governor's Guard and a group answering to the name of Wyoming 5th Volunteer Cavalry. These events and publicity relating to the restoration projects contributed to the continued swelling of Fort Laramie attendance, to a new high of 45,000 in 1960.
Without question, the most important Fort Laramie event while Ringenbach was Superintendent, a brief period marked by many important developments, was the enactment of major Congressional legislation, expanding boundaries and giving the area a new identity.
The background of the new legislation was long recognition by area and regional personnel that the Fort Laramie park boundaries should be expanded to encompass historic ground along the Laramie River downstream (the Quartermaster area, telegraph station, early emigrant crossings, and the historic bridge site); also, to take in land on the opposite side of the Laramie River to protect old trail approaches and provide for a future headquarters area. While in Omaha in 1959 ex-Superintendent Hieb did most of the work on the required Boundary Status Report which became the basis for the legislation. He also contacted Senator-elect Gale McGee and key Torrington citizens to ensure Wyoming support for the expansion.
On January 4, 1960, Roger Ernst, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, sent nearly identical letters to Wayne N. Aspinall, Chairman, Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, and James E. Murray of the corresponding Senate Committee, commenting on H. R. 8567 "to revise the boundaries and change the name of Fort Laramie National Monument." The substance of the bill was to authorize expansion of the original 214 acres by an additional 372 acres of private land, plus 11 acres of public domain, minus 33 acres deleted for exchange purposes, for a net increase of about 350 acres. The Fort Laramie National Historic Site would now have a total of about 563 acres.
Mr. Ernst explained that this legislation was necessary because of the Congressional Act of September 4, 1950 (64 Stat., 849) which, at the same time establishing an enlarged Grand Teton National Park, prohibited the extension of any national parks or the extension or addition of any national monuments in Wyoming except by the authorization of Congress. (This proviso, in effect, amended the Antiquities Act of 1906, making it impossible to expand the National Park system in Wyoming by incorporating Federal lands by means of the traditional Presidential Proclamation route.)
Mr. Ernst further explained that the additional lands were needed to better protect and interpret the historic features, to facilitate historical and archeological research, and to provide space for an improved entrance road and headquarters development. A small triangular tract was needed straddling the North Platte River to protect the old iron bridge, while another small tract in the northwest corner brought the boundaries up to the county road. The excluded lands (to the south) were not historic in nature and were screened from the area by bottomland timber. Several owners would be involved. The estimated cost of land acquisition was
]
Fort Laramie NHS: Park History (Part III)
$75,000
The Fort Laramie expansion and re-christening bill passed both houses of Congress without undue incident, and was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 29, 1960 (PL 86-444; 74 Sts. 83). The national monument was now transformed into a National Historic Site.
The name change in itself was no earth-shaking development but, along with the land expansion, it symbolized the birth of a new era of development. But as it turned out, that new era of the Sixties and Seventies would be primarily concerned, not with modern construction on the extended lands, but with the second phase of the Great Era of Fort Laramie Restoration.
8. Charles C. Sharp, Superintendent, 1961-1973
Charles Sharp, like Ringenbach. was a career Southwesterner who transferred from Chaco Canyon, but unlike Ringenbach he was not "hooked" on the Southwest so did not agitate to return there, but instead became a Wyoming fixture. In fact he thought so much of Wyoming that he decided to retire right there, in nearby Torrington.
Sharp was Superintendent of Fort Laramie longer than any other man, from his NOD March 1, 1961 to his retirement effective March 30 1973, a full 12 years. Dave Hieb had served eleven years. The 25 year period, 1947-1972, which they jointly spanned (including Ringenbach's brief interlude) could be called the Great Restoration Period, since most significant restoration work on Fort buildings, inside and out, occurred during their combined Superintendencies. Actually, the great bulk of such restoration occurred during a 20-year span, 1950-1970. and it is interesting coincidence that this lengthy program began with the structural stabilization of the Old Bakery building, and ended with the interior restoration of that same building, including a working bread oven which is a focal point of the Fort's famous "Living History" program. This seems symbolic of the transition from the Hieb period of necessary concentration on basic hard core stabilization and restoration of endangered old buildings, with few frills for the benefit of visitors, and the more recent period of full-blooming historic house museums with period furniture, furnishings, and costumed attendants, swarming with visitors, and emphasis on extraordinary measures to protect the buildings for posterity.
In contrast to Hieb's largely solo performance in master-minding his restorations with maintenance or "rehabilitation" money (Old Bakery, Sutler's Store, Cavalry Barracks Verandas, Commissary Storehouse, Old Guardhouse, and Officers Quarters A, E, and F), restoration and stabilization performed during Ringenbach's and Sharp's time (mainly Old Bedlam, the New Guardhouse, the Old Army Bridge, the Bakery Oven, and various ruins) were handled as construction projects under WODC auspices, and with an official architect, After Sharp's departure some restoration work remained to be done, mainly the Cavalry Barracks interior, and more eternal fiddling with lime-concrete ruins, but under Sharp the restoration reached its climax.
The three most notable happenings of his administration were the seemingly miraculous "resurrection" of Old Bedlam, the crown jewel of the building complex, the active campaign to provide authentic period
furnishings for it and most other restored buildings, and the acquisition of new lands authorized by the Fort Laramie Act of 1960. All three occurred during the first half of his 12-year administration, among the most hectic six years in the park history. [123]
Sharp's role in actual restoration was not merely a nominal one. He personally engineered or assisted on several of the preliminary studies, and of course he was the local coordinator the pivot man, the expediter for all restoration activity, including research, planning, manpower, materials, contracts, progress review, and public relations, including the climactic dedications. While he could lay no claim to Hieb's unusual talent as an architectural technician, he had all the other attributes of a model manager of a major historic site energy, enthusiasm, conscientious concern for detail, a disdain for the 40-hour week, and a sense of humor. The latter faculty, in particular, sustained him and others during a time of intensive activity and the multiple pressures which accompanied the explosive growth of the National Historic Site from figurative adolescence to adulthood. When Charlie said in one of his monthly reports that he was "busy as a cat in a dog pound," he said it all.
Of course restoration work, both structural and decorative, was by no means the whole story. This climactic program, and its attendant publicity, brought forth unprecedented numbers of visitors, the annual box-score jumping from 50,000 in 1961 to 76,000 in 1964 when Bedlam was dedicated, to over 150,000 in 1972. This tripling of visitors during the 12-year period created great strain and tension on management because of the usual lag in funds for manpower and equipment needed to cope with the acceleration. Charlie proved to be resourceful in devising ways and means of stretching his slender resources and cajoling his superiors for more operating funds during his time of tribulation.
While restoration and coping with visitor multiplication were Charlie's dominant concerns, there were others. While expanding maintenance and protection needs also required attention, the biggest struggle in the first half of his regime was the acquisition of lands authorized by the 1960 bill, made difficult by balky sellers and stop-and-go financing. Charlie bore the brunt of this painful process and had several scars to prove it. Other honorable scars resulted from jousting with planners who as a breed are forever wanting to change things after the Master Plan is theoretically settled. After a bizarre episode in the perpetual planning extravaganza the so-called Western Fort Study Team Charlie said that he was compelled to take "tranquilizers by day and Bourbon after 5 PM" in an effort to keep a tenuous grip on his sanity.
Sharp and family occupied the usual quarters in the Cavalry Barracks. Early on, because of the prospect of indefinite delays in building a new headquarters-residential complex across the river, Charlie predicted that he would occupy the Barracks "longer than the Cavalry," but this prediction was not borne out by events. In fact, in June 1967 the Sharps vacated these ancient quarters and moved into their own home in Torrington, mainly because these quarters had become untenable and unsafe, from defective wiring which threatened the entire structure, as well as insects, rodents, bats, and other creatures which persisted there despite eradication, fumigation, and fulmination. Prior to that, in 1964, he had moved all office activities into the Commissary Storehouse, where museum exhibits, collections and Historian's office had been previously located under Ringenbach. (This "temporary" arrangement is still there, A.D. 1978).
In 1962 Superintendent Sharp was reallocated to GS-12, so that the Fort Laramie grade was finally brought into line somewhat commensurate with the widely acknowledged importance of the area. He officiated at
three epochal dedication ceremonies, in 1961, 1962, and 1964. He fostered some major research efforts by his Historians, both permanent and seasonal, and most of these men so encouraged have since achieved notable success elsewhere. During this time Fort Laramie truly matured, achieving national recognition to the extent that other preservation organizations and agencies came to him for advice and encouragement, and University professors brought their students for study and inspiration. In 1972 Sharp was appointed by the Governor of Wyoming to the State Bicentennial Commission. When he retired he was honored, not only locally, but by Colorado State University at a banquet at Fort Collins. Of Sharp it can be said that he retired gracefully and with honor.
The subject of primary importance at Fort Laramie is historic preservation. First things come first and, in the context of the Sharp administration, the project for the definitive restoration of Old Bedlam is of premier importance.
The format evolved by the Washington Office to record research, planning, design, and construction of historic buildings is the Historic Structure Report, in three parts. Part I contains all available historical data on structural history and events pertaining to questions of restoration; another section on archeological data, if any; and most important, architectural analysis of conditions and broad recommendations for treatment. Part II, following approval of Part I, consists of detailed architectural drawings. Part III is, in effect, the project completion report, including the recording of any variations from approved plan required by unforeseen conditions, and a photographic record of work progress.
Part I for Bedlam, written by Dave Hieb in 1957, was incorporated bodily into the original 1959 report and the 1960 revision. He summarized the architectural evolution of the building from the original 1849 "two-story block of officers quarters with 16 rooms," through its changing patterns of partitions, stairways, and verandas to its full glory of the 1870s, reduction to a double-set of quarters in 1881, and its declining state after 1890 as school-house, cow shed and pig-sty. It served as Commanding Officer's post headquarters from the beginning until 1867, being the focus of war and peace conferences during that epic time, when it was referred to by the Indians as "The Big House." Several excellent old plans and photographs richly illuminate the historic sequence. Hieb considered this to be "the oldest and most historic structure in the High Plains West."
Gann's section of the report deals successively with condition of foundations; fireplaces and chimney stacks; studding, posts and bracing; floor framing and cover; roof structure; exterior siding, trim, fascia, posts and rails; door and window sash and shutters; stairways; interior trim; painting; hardware and sheet metal work. This is followed by a set of recommendations reflected in the construction log below. Because of intensive restoration efforts under Lombard and Hieb, and some further deterioration, Gann found the HABS drawings of 1937-1939 "very valuable" to reveal pre-park conditions. In general he found the structural system a fascinating example of pre-Civil War frontier architecture, a tribute to 1849 designer and builder Lieutenant Daniel P. Woodbury. Although the interior of the building was a shambles the framework was surprisingly sound despite 110 years of use and abuse, sound enough at least to permit retention of most essential elements. One factor which contributed to the stability of the marvellous old ruin was the brick and adobe in-fill of the outer walls, "either for insulation or bullet-proofing." The disappearance of the original kitchen wings and rear veranda and stairway system was a plus factor, since reconstruction based on the evidence of historic plans and archeology involved fewer headaches than restoration, i.e., the delicate melding of old and new. (Valuable archeological data as to the rear ground plan was provided by the
Smithsonian project of 1959.)
Part II is a set of 16 beautiful intricate drawings by Gann, completed in 1961 after construction was underway because of hidden factors that were revealed as work progressed. Part III (Completion Report) with rather full photographic coverage, was written by Sharp, and all record photos in this 1966 report were supplied by him. However, for the purpose of a simplified narrative the best summary of actual work progress is that gleaned from the Superintendent's narrative reports:
December, 1960 - Flooring removed to facilitate analysis of understructure, salvaging sound pieces for reuse. Work crew off for the winter.
March, 1961 - Visit to project by Lada Kucera, WODC, to evaluate weight-load factors.
April, 1961 - Kucera, concluding restoration of existing remains to be hopeless, recommends dismantling of original structure and reconstruction from scratch. Mattes and Baker advise WODC; "We do not concur. A structure built during the California Gold Rush has survived 100 years of use and weathering. While decrepit, it is not hopeless. We have a deep moral obligation to preserve it as nearly as possible in its original form and substance." Sharp echoes complaint about confusion and conflict over Bedlam plans, which has "put Gann in a dither." Crew under Earl D. Warthen reactivated. Building braced with timbers to prevent interim collapse, site fenced and declared a hard hat area.
May, 1961 - Crew of 9 obliterate sagging 1881 lime-concrete kitchen lean-to. Exposed structural block timbers treated with Penta and interim sheathing applied. Massive crumbling original brick chimneys taken down, reuseable brick salvaged for use on reconstructing outer-layer. Careful recording of fireplaces and flues.
June, 1961 - Stabilization of original building block 70% completed, with structural steel reinforcements to meet the demands of public assemblage loadings. All defective studs, joists, plates and diagonal bracing replaced, using native pine, rough sawed, full dimension. Eight concrete piers under north and south hall floors. Salvaged beams used as replacement floor joists. Excavations for chimney footings and new kitchen wing foundations.
September, 1961 - The "restoration vs. total reconstruction" issue finally resolved by WASO decision in favor of the former. Part II, HSR by Gann first draft completed. Total programmed amount $55,000, plus $27,000 already spent. $20,000 allowed for Fiscal Year 1962. Completion hoped for by December 1962.
October, 1961 - Complete stone foundations for wings, continue re-building of chimney stacks. Salamanders and mortar additives used for low-temperature protection of masonry.
November, 1961 - "Continuation of project merely a matter of money and fostering the survival of an overworked architect." Regional Director Baker concurs in WODC recommendation to study requirements for an atmospheric control system, which never
materialized because engineering requirements would have destroyed what was left of the original structure (also, cost was prohibitive).
January, 1962 - Contract let to construct new chimneys.
February, 1962 - Gann on bills of materials. Work on new chimneys. Framing of chimneys at attic and roof levels.
March, 1962 - Reconstruction of chimneys with new brick core and reinforced concrete footings. Delays in obtaining structural lumber because bidders are reluctant account special dimensions and materials.
April, 1962 - Work stalled. Mattes recommends that selected portions of interior and exterior walls be displayed behind glass panels to provide visual evidence of original construction detail.
May, 1962 - Unseasoned lumber delivered, dipped in penta, air-dried and re-dipped to retard checking and twisting. Work crew back on payroll.
June, 1962 - Ground floor framing of wings. Last two chimneys up through first floor. Main block doors and window framing repaired and reinstalled. Crew beefed up to 14. Mattes report to Regional Director: "Complexities of the restoration are everywhere apparent, with the policy of saving original materials, yet ensuring stability. Despite maximum progress this year, cannot be completed till the spring of 1963."
July, 1962 - Kitchen wings framed, wing chimneys through roof line, new main block siding treated and in place. Original siding pieces numbered, removed, treated, re-set.
August, 1962 - Kitchen wings and reconstructed back veranda framing completed, fireplaces completed. Cedar shingles in lieu of original pine.
September, 1962 - Wings complete except for siding. Slow delivery on special dimension pine flooring and siding.
November, 1962 - Wings and porches completed. White priming coat overall.
December, 1962 - Install flooring of ponderosa pine from Laramie Peak, same thickness and random width as original. Remove scaffolding. Close project down for the winter, lack of materials.
January, 1963 - Search for vintage glass and hardware.
February, 1963 - Warthen on home-made custom doors.
April, 1963 - Crew back on job. Plastering. Original fireplace mantels re-installed and others reconstructed in like pattern. Steel bracing of outside stairways. Recovery from Curtiss Root of original rails and spindles, interior stairway, taken to town by John Hunton in the 1920s and revealed in chance conversation overheard by Sharp in Jim Nolan's Trail Hotel Bar.
May, 1963 - Plastering near completion.
June, 1963 - Work on interior and exterior stairways. Vintage glass from Blenko Company, Milton, West Virginia.
July, 1963 - Back stairs complete except for painting. Most work done on front stairways. Glazing, painting, and lightning protection.
August, 1963 - Cannot complete with existing funds, submit new work order.
September, 1963 - Outside stairway completed, porch floors completed. All exterior work completed except painting.
October, 1963 - Exterior painting. Glazing windows. Fabrication of doors and shutters.
November, 1963 - Complete except for interior details.
December, 1963 - Cold weather forces shut-down.
April, 1964 - Warthen finishes celebrated interior stairs.
May, 1964 - Shutters completed.
June, 1964 - Spray coat on shutters, removal of construction shed and brick piles.
A few notable quotations from Sharp's Completion Report may be added to round out the restoration picture:
Remarkably, enough original 1849-1850 ponderosa pine siding remained under the porches on the Parade Ground side, and a few sections from other locations, to permit complete covering of that side with the original material.
Although shutters, interior and exterior doors, and window sash were in a deplorable condition, only a few had to be substituted in their entirety except in the wings. . .
Except for a closet under the interior stair, all plaster had to be replaced. This was backed with bonderized metal lath and simulated the old surface. . .
. . We obtained original dimension ponderosa from gyppo outfits on Laramie Peak, same
source as the flooring. They usually delivered at night, with invoices written on a slab of wood, but brought good material. . .
The requirements to save all possible original material, while building in strength and durability greater than the the original, were sometimes conflicting. This resulted in a considerable amount of slow and difficult detailed work. . .
After many years of headaches, battles fierce as those of the Indian Wars, and expenditure of a substantial amount of work and funds, the ugly duckling was at last a white swanIn late 1962, after most exterior work had been completed and a white priming coat had been applied, Old Bedlam loomed once more imposingly over the parade ground to change the metaphor like a resplendent Queen among ragged subjects. Sharp referred to it as highly photogenic and a rare example of "a trembling relic" converted into "a great attraction." After the building was dedicated in 1964, the only criticism of record was that by a nameless nitpicker from the Omaha office who complained that the building looked "too new." Aside from the fact that it looked new, historically, to begin with and each of the several times it was freshly painted, normal weathering would quickly nullify this small concern, (A more valid concern would be that later maintenance programs would become overly conscientious about keeping Old Bedlam in new mint appearance, instead of letting it lapse into the mellow appearance of middle age.)
A few foot-notes on the unique Old Bedlam project seem appropriate. Counting the time that Dave Hieb spent on his 1957 research until the 1964 dedication, the project took seven years, though actual construction work took four years. The total construction cost, including plans, supervision and overhead, but not including research and furnishings, was in the neighborhood of $245,000With pro-rated cost of archival research and the furnishing project added, the total could come to around $300,000, which would work out on the 1978 market to well over $1,000,000. According to a remark made by Gann to the writer in 1963, about 80% of the restored structure consists of original materials. This, of course, would have to be exclusive of the reconstructed rear wings and verandas, probably also of the re-built brick chimneys. If these are included, it is the opinion of the writer that the percentage of original materials, by weight or volume, would come to around 50%, which still beats the reconstruction job recommended by Kucera, which would have reduced the percentage of original materials to zero!
A curious addendum to this project revolved around the unusual character of its architect. First of all, Gann deserves enormous credit for being the master mind and he should have a bronze plaque in his memory placed somewhere in Bedlam, since he died in March, 1965 (in San Francisco) and there is ample reason to believe that his hectic program and strenuous exertions on behalf of Fort Laramie, combined with other factors, contributed to his premature death.
A lot of things probably contributed to Sharp's gray hair but one of them was Bob Gann's erratic nature, including emotional storms and frequent disappearances at crucial times. Some of these disappearances were officially engineered by his bosses back in San Francisco, but others were his own idea. At any rate, he seems to have borne out the popular conception that geniuses are not in the ordinary mold, and his erraticisms as well as WODC's vagaries are indicated here to underline one of Sharp's many unusual problems as project coordinator.
Gann had resided in Fort Laramie town and worked at the Historic Site from his arrival in 1958 until early autumn of 1960, when he was dispatched to Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park in North Dakota to supervise the restoration there of the Maltese Cross Cabin. After a creditable job there, despite a collapse which required medical resuscitation, he took off for San Francisco on his own initiative. When Sharp plaintively inquired about his whereabouts, Regional Director Baker wrote a stiff note to the Chief, WODC indicating that he was needed desperately to complete plans for Old Bedlam, for which construction money had been available for three years. Part of the problem was a squabble between the Omaha and San Francisco Officers over who would pay which share of Gann's salary. Evidently that was settled because he was back at the Fort in January, 1961, resigned to his fate. (He seemed to vacillate between his preferences for Fort Laramie as a place of pastoral charm and San Francisco as the colorful metropolis.)
In July 1961 Gann fractured a rib from causes unspecified but stayed on the job until autumn when he again took "Dutch leave" for San Francisco, not returning until January 1962, and it was his absence during the interim, not working on material lists, which caused slow delivery and "green lumber" problems. He was no sooner settled than WODC sent him on a "world tour" first to Sitka, Alaska, and then to City of Refuge, Hawaii, in both cases to design new visitor centers. (This is testimony to both his remarkable design skills and also the apparent shortage of competent design architects at WODC. ) He was not back from Hawaii long before he announced to Sharp that he was going back to San Francisco for good, and "would be replaced." Sharp's loud squawk about this led to a meeting of minds at the site in July 1962, to cope with the new crisis. Appleman from Washington, D.C. and Mattes and Roberson from Omaha were adamant that Gann had to stay to finish the project, at least until the end of the calendar year. The Regional Director advised Washington that if Gann was gone they would close down the Bedlam project. Washington leaned on WODC, and Gann buckled under the pressure. He did, however, fly to San Francisco for a month, in August, and returned with a young assistant architect. The pair left for the winter, but Gann was back for a month in the spring of 1963, to advise Warthen on finishing touches, including some architectural detail, such as shelving and lighting, which were primary concerns of the Furnishings Curator.
All of these fits and starts by the project architect add to the colorful saga of Old Bedlam. The man who made up the difference, as far as getting the job done, was Earl D. (Slim) Warthen, a Lingle construction contractor and all-around craftsman, who was project foreman. In practical restoration matters he turned out to be somewhat of a genius himself, though a fully reliable one, Gann did the design work and was present during most of the critical investigation and construction work, but Warthen was the indispensable crew leader and architectural technician who translated Gann's designs into a convincingly authentic restoration. Sharp did most of the worrying and chivvied the Region and WODC about funding problems. That Bedlam was restored so beautifully, surmounting all problems technical, monetary and emotional is a tribute, actually, to all three men. A brief summary of other historic preservation projects, 1963-1971, will have to suffice, because this broad view of the park's history does not pretend to be a detailed record of all design and construction work. That is contained in the series of technical reports to be found in the Fort library, including reports by Sharp, McDermott, Murray, Gann and others, with most design work by Bob Gann (in spite of his aberrations) and virtually all supervision by Warthen. The list is roughly in order of project completions:
Hospital Ruins Stabilization, 1963-1964: The lime-concrete Hospital of 1873 was the third such structure of
record at the Fort, and the first lime-concrete building to be erected. Its ruins are conspicuous because of their location on the plateau overlooking the main Fort, plus the fact that a portion of it was two-story, and some of the second-story walls remain. Hieb had done some rehabilitation work, including spraying with silicone, but door and window sections were now failing and dangerous, while a portion of the two-story wall had tumbled down. The work was performed in two stages. In 1959 there had been reconstruction of the small kitchen wing roof, including ceiling joists, rafters, sheathing and shingles. A new frame was substituted for the original interior door, and remains of the chimney were stabilized. The second stage, 1963-1964 was the sizeable job of reinforcing and stabilizing the massive grout walls and lintels of the main structure ruins, which seemed to be defying the laws of gravity. This painstaking work included use of reinforced concrete and buttresses on deep thick extended footings to support leaning walls, insertion of hidden tie beams to prevent further wall movement, support of the two-story section and all lintels with heavy metal columns, fill chimney flues with concrete, coating, continued next page.
CLICK HERE FOR PAGE 2

 

Welcome Goshen County Wyoming Genealogy Trails History Group.
Hosted by Jo Ann Boyd Scott and as your host I try to post as much data online online as possible in order to make it freely available to all.
We gratefully accept contributions of raw data such as census information, marriage,/birth/death records, obituaries, county histories, biographies, old newspaper items, maps, anything that would help someone build their family tree!!
If you are interested in hosting other counties in Montana view Volunteer Information page, contact Kim. (a desire to transcribe data are required). I will help you with the web page designing. E-MAIL JoAnn . Send me text or picture data, information on any county and I will post it. I will immediately return your e-mail with a date I can get back to you with information.Your data is owned by you not the web site. SEND DATA to this e-mail.All data on this website is © Copyright 2007-2009 by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.

  SEARCH ENGINE