OT Old Bedlam -- Fort Laramie National Historic Site, WY
N 42° 12.165 W 104° 33.510
13T E 536447 N 4672382
"Old Bedlam," the Officer's Club on board Fort Laramie, the center of social life on this frontier post, earned a mention in the WPA Guide to the Oregon Trail
Waymark Code: WMY25B
Location: Wyoming, United States
Date Posted: 04/05/2018
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One of several buildings at Fort Laramie that have been preserved and restored, "Old Bedlam," the Fort Laramie Officer's Club, not only earned it name, it earned a mention by WPA writers in the Wyoming Guide as follows:
"[page 172] OLD BEDLAM, the officers club, was built by the Government in 1851 at a cost of $70,000. The fact that all lumber for its construction was hauled by oxen from Fort Leavenworth, Kans., largely accounts for its cost. It was to Old Bedlam in 1866 that "Portugee" Phillips brought news of the disaster at Fort Phil Kearney in which Capt. W. J. Fetterman and 80 men were killed. Phillips' ride was made in subzero weather, through blizzards and with hostile Indians on every side."
Phillip's ride is also memorialized nearby at an official state historic marker erected in 1951 at the 90-degree hairpin turn on Goshen County Road 53. See: (
visit link)