Wednesday in Wyoming - January 20, 2021

 

If you've read Summer of Promise, you might recognize the building in the foreground. It's the cavalry barracks, one of the restored buildings at Fort Laramie, and was featured on the book's cover. 

The ruins in the background are of the hospital. I don't know how the soldiers felt, but I would have been relieved that the hospital was located away from the main buildings, particularly given the state of nineteenth century medical knowledge. 

Heroic medicine, as it was called, included bleeding, purging, and other techniques that only weakened the patient. Thank goodness we've progressed beyond that.