At Fort Laramie, where the North Platte and Laramie Rivers meet, the story of America’s western expansion unfolded on a grand scale. First established in 1834 as a private fur trading post, it became by the 1840’s an important way station for thousands of emigrants traveling the Oregon, California and Mormon Pioneer trails. After government purchase in 1849, it rapidly became the primary military post on the Northern Plains. Stage lines, the Pony Express, and the telegraph passed through it. Fort Laramie also hosted several treaty negotiations with Northern Plains tribes, including the still controversial and contested Treaty of 1868. From the fort, the U.S. military launched major campaigns against the tribes, who fiercely defended their homeland. As the Indian Wars came to a close, Fort Laramie’s importance diminished, and the post was abandoned and sold at public auction in 1890. The State of Wyoming purchased the property in 1937, and preservation was secured in 1938 when the state donated Fort Laramie to the National Park Service.