Fort Laramie stands on the banks of the Laramie River about a mile above its confluence with the North Platte, on a site reached by road in twelve miles though only about eight miles away in a straight line. Founded in 1834 by fur traders William Sublette and Robert Campbell as Fort William, the post was acquired by the American Fur Company in 1841, which built a nearby adobe-walled complex named Fort John, though mountain men called it Fort Laramie. That name came from the river, which in turn was named for trapper Jacques LaRamie, believed to have trapped and died in the area in the early 1800s. The government purchased the fort in 1849, and over the next forty years it became the most famous military post protecting the Oregon Trail and served as a forward base for many campaigns of the Indian Wars. The fort was deactivated in 1890, the land passed into private ownership, and the buildings were sold at auction or abandoned to ruin until the State of Wyoming purchased the property and building ruins in 1937 and returned it to the federal government. In 1938, by presidential proclamation, Fort Laramie National Historic Site became a unit of the National Park System.