Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site — Attraction in Wyoming

A gem in my own backyard and currently getting an enhanced setting as well as a polishing.

As comfortable and well-stocked as the current visitors center is, including an elegant screening room, the much larger facility, now under construction but coming into focus, will be something to behold. Anyone with even a casual interest in the history of the American West, particularly that of the Bozeman Trail and of the Indian Wars until the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, can do no better than Fort Phil Kearny, outside of Story, Wyoming (although, strictly speaking, within the town of Banner, Wyoming, I think).

The staff know their stuff and obviously recognize the importance of the site that they represent. They sponsor many educational programs, from various perspectives (including those of young Native interpreters), throughout the season. There's a spooky tour of the fort before Halloween, which must be fun for the whole family. Boo! On the winter solstice, December 21st, not everyone's ideal time for touring Wyoming, the staff host a commemoration and discussion of the Fetterman Fight (action was concentrated south of Sheridan on the eastern slope of the Bighorn Mountains). The stories recounted at Fort Phil Kearny and vicinity are inexhaustible.

After the renovation and expansion of the interpretive center are completed (soon or imminent, I gather), my grandchildren will be of age to learn at Fort Phil Kearny and to hike to the peak of Pilot Knob, where their eyes will feast upon an unbeatable panorama. That is my prayer, anyhow. Fort Phil Kearny is a Wyoming state park exciting and rewarding for children of all ages.

"When I'm sixty-four . . . When I get older losing my hair Many years from now . . . " (the Beatles): I visited Fort Phil Kearny for the first time on August 1, 2024 (in fact at age sixty-four, although I retain a magnificent white mane). You needn't wait that long, and, by my lights, you probably shouldn't. Wyoming has preserved a...

For me, visiting Fort Phil Kearny is as interesting and moving as visiting Little Bighorn Battlefield.

Fort Kearny was the epicenter of fighting in Red Cloud’s War, with the Fetterman Massacre site, the Bozeman Trail and the Wagon Box Fight site all just a couple miles away.  It takes a visit to the fort to understand how so much violence happened in such a beautiful valley at the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains 160 years ago.

Walking around the fort perimeter, a visitor appreciates the size of the largest stockade fort ever built west of the Mississippi.   The engaging interpretive trail explains how and where soldiers, officers and their wives lived.

At the end of the war, victorious Indians burned the original fort, but enough of it was restored to provide a wonderful historical experience.   Looking across fort’s eight-foot walls, a visitor feels how isolated and vulnerable the soldiers were, constantly being observed and harassed by Indians from behind the overlooking hills.

It’s easy to imagine soldiers signaling from Pilot Hill that a working party was yet again being attacked.  You see Lodge Trail Ridge two miles away, where Crazy Horse decoyed Captain Fetterman and 81 soldiers to their ambush and death. It was the worst defeat of the U.S. Army by Indians until The Little Bighorn, ten years later.

The site interpreter was knowledgeable and friendly, and she obviously loved her job.   The bookstore had a nice selection of books about the fort, frontier history and biographies of Native Americans, soldiers and their wives.

Fort Phil Kearny is just off of I-90 on the way to The Little Bighorn Battlefield.  IMO, the fort is an historical frontier experience that's not...

There are actually three sites worth visiting and all three are within a mile or two of each other. I would suggest that you begin your visit at Fort Phil Kearny. While the fort was only staffed and in use for a few years it was an important site on the Bozeman Trail. I started my visit at the small gift shop and had the opportunity to talk with the gentleman who was staffing it. He was very friendly and very knowledgeable about the history of the area. His knowledge only enhanced my visit. The is nothing left of the original fort but as you walk the grounds you can get a true picture of the layout by reading the storyboards that are place throughout the site. While talking to the gentleman at the gift shop he also directed me to two other important historical sites. The first was the “Portugee” Phillips Monument near the entrance to the Fort. The Story of John “Portugee” Phillips is little known but an amazing one. He also told me a brief story about the Fetterman Massacre and gave me directions to the nearby Fetterman Monument. I would strongly suggest that you start Your visit t at Fort Phil Kearny before visiting the other two sites. My visit all three sites took me about an hour and a half. I now have a clearer picture of the history or the Bozeman Trail and what we know today as...