I'm sure you've heard that, but if you had any doubts, compare this elegant dining room with the rather Spartan mess hall in the cavalry barracks that was the subject of last week's Wednesday in Wyoming post.
As you undoubtedly guessed, this is how the highest ranking officers lived at Fort Laramie.
This is the mess hall in the cavalry barracks, one of the buildings that has been restored. One of my questions when I saw it was whether the stove was adequate to heat the whole room or whether the men who were seated at the ends of the room were cold during those long, very cold Wyoming winters.
This building is not the most famous -- Old Bedlam, the bachelor officers' quarters, holds that distinction -- but it's equally important, because this was the cavalry barracks.
You'll note that there's a covered wagon to the left of the barracks, a reminder that Fort Laramie was a key stop on the Oregon Trail.
What you don't see is a stockade fence or, for that matter, any kind of fencing. Hollywood did not use this fort as the model for all those westerns.
One of the most common questions I'm asked is how a book's cover was developed. The answer varies with the book.
For The Sagebrush Bride, an ebook short set at Fort Laramie, I had two requirements: I wanted it to have the same look as Brides of the Old West, and as was the case with that book, I wanted the photo to be one my husband had taken.
You remember Brides of the Old West, don't you? In case you haven't looked at it recently, here's the cover.
There were so many things I liked about this cover that I wanted to stay as close to its design as possible. The challenge was finding a photo that would work well.
If you were only looking at a map, you might think that the mountains were given that name because they're covered with snow during most of the year. Not so. It's the rocks that led settlers to call them snowy.
And then there's the river's name. Do you know how to pronounce Popo Agie? I was surprised to learn that it's po-po-je.
If you'd like more information about Sinks Canyon here's a link.
Even though the trees weren't there when the pioneers traveled the Oregon Trail, I can imagine what it looked like then and how grateful they were to reach the fort. Not only was there fresh water, but the sutler's store had supplies they'd need for the remainder of the journey west.