Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Line -- Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Fort Laramie WY - Wagon Roads and Trails on Waymarking.com

A National Park Service interpretive sign on WY State Highway 52 outside of the Fort Laramie National historic site tells the tale of the Rustic Hotel which operated just outside of Fort Laramie, and the Cheyenne and Black Hills stage line that passed through Fort Laramie on its route between Cheyenne and the Black Hills of Dakota territory.

The marker is located in a highway pullout on the Wyoming State Highway 52/Post Road at an overlook where you can see the ruins of the old Post Hospital for Fort Laramie.

The marker reads as follows:

"THE RUSTIC HOTEL . . . ‘No Second-Rate Affair”

As the nation prepared to celebrate its centennial in 1876, electrifying news of a gold rush in the Black Hills flashed across the country. A new bridge across the North Platte River guaranteed that the preferred route to the goldfields passed through Fort Laramie.

Post trader John S. Collins erected a hotel on this location to provide lodging for the gold seekers. Collins christened the new establishment the Rustic. The hotel also served as headquarters for the Cheyenne and Black Hills stage company. Cheyenne newspapers reported favorably on the new hotel, noting, “from the ‘tone’ of it, we infer that the Rustic is to be no second-rate affair. The manager will accommodate all with clean beds and first-class meals.” Many travelers to stayed at the Rustic thought otherwise.

“. . . I did not quite look like the look of the bed . . . With its dingy sheets . . . I had not slept an hour before disagreeable sensation aroused me . . . Ugh! The whole place swarmed with horrid little bugs . . . Of course, sleep was out of the question for me . . . “ Rose Pender, Rustic Hotel guest, 1883

THE CHEYENNE-BLACK HILLS STAGE COMPANY
The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Line began operation in April 1876, providing service from Cheyenne to Custer City. Ticket prices ranged between ten and twenty dollars. The trip could be made in three days, weather permitting. Stage service extended to Deadwood in September, a distance of 290 miles from Cheyenne.

At first, Indian attacks and stagecoach robberies plagued the line. The military acted quickly to protect it. Army established camps at strategic locations on the trail and patrolled the most dangerous sections. The stage hauled scores of travelers and millions of dollars of bullion to and from the Black Hills over its eleven-year lifespan."

Road of Trail Name: Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Line State: WY County: Goshen County Historical Significance: The stage line carried men and women from Cheyenne into the Black Hills following a gold strike in 1876 that set off a gold rush in the Black Hills area, and exacerbated tensions with the local Lakota Sioux tribe Years in use: 1876-1887 How you discovered it: I read about it on this waymarked historic marker Book on Wagon Road or Trial: Goshen County, Wyoming : Including Its History, the Fort Laramie National Historic Site, the Jay Em Historic District, the North Platte River, and More; by Johnathan Black Website Explination: Fort Laramie National Historic Site Guidebook:http://npshistory.com/handbooks/historical/20/hh20s.htm Why?: To reach the gold fields of the Black Hills area of South Dakota Directions: Take Wyoming State Highway 52 S. Fort Laramie to the Fort Laramie National Historic Site. The waymarked historical marker is located in Highway pullout at the former site of the Rustic Hotel.

Visit Instructions:
To post a log for this Waymark the poster must have a picture of either themselves, GPSr, or mascot. People in the picture with information about the waymark are preferred. If the waymarker can not be in the picture a picture of their GPSr or mascot will qualify. There are no exceptions to this rule.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/07/2013 Benchmark Blasterz visited it