Fort Sanders, Wyoming, ca. 1870

Fort Sanders was a wooden fort constructed in 1866 on the Laramie Plains just south of what would become Laramie City. Originally named Fort John Buford, it was renamed Fort Sanders after General William P. Sanders who died during the Civil War. The fort was originally intended to protect travelers on the nearby Overland Trail from attacks by Native Americans, but later the garrison was tasked with protecting Union Pacific workers when the railroad arrived in spring 1868. Fort Sanders became less important after Fort D. A. Russell in Cheyenne was constructed, but the War Department maintained it until 1882 when the buildings were sold.