Troopers found two duties especially harsh at Fort Laramie — cutting wood and cutting ice. Since the fort was situated on the edge of the Plains, trees around it quickly disappeared, forcing lumber and firewood details to travel 40 to 50 miles to Laramie Peak to supply the fort’s needs. Mule-drawn wagons hauled 24 logs at a time to the fort sawmill. Many of Fort Laramie’s buildings remained unfloored or incomplete from lack of available lumber, including the top floor of the hospital.

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With temperatures plunging to 40 degrees below zero in winter and with a never-ending wind blowing snow across the open space, the fort used an estimated 5,000 cords of firewood annually, 1,550 cords in the coldest months. In 1866, Major James Van Voast calculated it would require 50 men working for a solid month without interruption of daily drills to supply winter firewood. Sawing logs into cord wood usually fell to prisoners.

Cutting ice from the river in the subzero temperatures of winter was hard work. The soldiers bundled up in heavy buffalo overcoats and attempted to insulate their shoes by wrapping burlap around them. After sawing the frozen water into blocks, troops hauled them to the two sod-covered ice houses, located near the river close to the site of old Fort John, and stored the ice in sawdust. In summer, prisoners doled out carefully prescribed amounts to the sutler’s store, officers quarters and barracks to cool the drinking water.

By 1876, soldiers were cutting hay and lugging 2 tons of grain a day for the post’s horses and mules. The fort was often referred to as a ‘government work farm.’

Enlisted men also drew duty as bakers, whether or not they possessed any cooking skills. The same applied to teaching at the post school. The military required the children of the enlisted men and of the quartermaster’s civilian employees to attend classes three hours in the morning and three in the afternoon on weekdays. The 1877 roster showed 20 children enrolled — 14 girls and six boys. Officers’ offspring were invited to attend, but they never did. Instead, they were tutored at home until they were old enough to be sent back East to live with relatives or go to private boarding schools.

Although soldiers received an extra 20 cents a day for teaching, they hated it. They received endless ribbing from their compatriots and despised being shut in with often undisciplined students who disliked the confinement as much as the men did. More than one instructor showed up drunk, even though he would inevitably be fined $12 for dereliction of duty. Considering that soldiers drew $13 a month in pay, the fine was a steep price to pay.

Of course, the men did receive free room and board — an iron bunk with wood slats and a ration of pork, beans, rice, potatoes and onions (if available), plus enough flour for each man to bake one loaf of bread per day. This uninspired selection spurred soldiers to come up with a jingle for bugle mess call: ‘Soupy-soupy-soup, with-out a single bean; porky-porky-pork, with-out a streak of lean; coffee-coffee-coffee-without any cream.’ The soil and climate around Fort Laramie provided poor possibilities for the men trying to supplement their dull diet by raising a garden. Nevertheless they tried — and mostly failed.

Some men, or their wives, kept cows, selling the milk and cream to the others and using the money to buy merchandise from the sutler’s store. The store opened in 1850 and by 1870 supplied the soldiers and their families with all the necessities, as well as a few luxuries such as draperies and carpet — provided the buyer was willing to pay for shipping from the States.

Fort Laramie’s military history spanned more than 41 years. The fort became the staging ground for Western expansion. Although Indians were a major concern throughout this period, they caused less than 2 percent of the emigrant fatalities along the entire Oregon Trail. Diseases such as cholera claimed the majority of the estimated 20,000 travelers who died along the way. Emigrant Jane Kellogg wrote in her journal in June 1852: ‘There was an epidemic of cholera all along the Platte River. Think it was caused by drinking water from holes dug by campers. All along the road up the Platte River was a graveyard. Most of the time of the day you could see people burying their dead.’

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