Shoshone Indians
A sub-post of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, Camp Augur was established by Lieutenant Patrick Henry Breslin and troops from the 4th U.S. Infantry on June 28, 1869, in present-day Lander, Wyoming. It was named after Brigadier General Christopher C. Augur, commander of the Army’s Department of the Platte. Its purpose was to protect the Shoshone reservation, which was created in 1868. It was also tasked with protecting the settlers in the Sweetwater Mining District. It was comprised of several log cabins with sod roofs surrounded by a 175-foot by 125-foot enclosure and a ditch.
Less than a year later, it was reorganized as an independent post on March 28, 1870, and renamed Camp Brown after Captain Frederick H. Brown, who was killed in the Fetterman Massacre on December 21, 1866.
When the Wind River Indian Agency was moved, the post was abandoned in 1871. Both the fort and the Indian Agency moved 15 miles northwest of Lander onto the Wind River Indian Reservation. It was later renamed Fort Washakie in December 1878 after Chief Washakie.
A granite marker is located at the original site in Lander, Wyoming, at 427 Main Street.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated February 2024.
Also See: