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The National Park Service (NPS) preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The National Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world.
The NPS core values are a framework in which the National Park Service accomplishes its mission. They express the manner in which, both individually and collectively, the National Park Service pursues its mission. The NPS core values are:
The National Park Service is a bureau within the Department of the Interior. While numerous national park system units were created prior to 1916, it was not until August 25, 1916, that President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act formally establishing the National Park Service. The national park system continues to grow and comprises more than 400 park units covering more than 84 million acres in every state, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. These units include, but are not limited to, national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House. The variety and diversity of park units throughout the nation require a strong commitment to resource stewardship and management to ensure both the protection and enjoyment of these resources for future generations.
Every unit of the national park system will have a foundational document to provide basic guidance for planning and management decisions—a foundation for planning and management. The core components of a foundation document include a brief description of the park as well as the park’s purpose, significance, fundamental resources and values, and interpretive themes. The foundation document also includes special mandates and administrative commitments, an assessment of planning and data needs that identifies planning issues, planning products to be developed, and the associated studies and data required for park planning. Along with the core components, the assessment provides a focus for park planning activities and establishes a baseline from which planning documents are developed.
A primary benefit of developing a foundation document is the opportunity to integrate and coordinate all kinds and levels of planning from a single, shared understanding of what is most important about the park. The process of developing a foundation document begins with gathering and integrating information about the park. Next, this information is refined and focused to determine what the most important attributes of the park are. The process of preparing a foundation document aids park managers, staff, and the public in identifying and clearly stating in one document the essential information that is necessary for park management to consider when determining future planning efforts, outlining key planning issues, and protecting resources and values that are integral to park purpose and identity. While not included in this document, a park atlas is also part of a foundation project. The atlas is a series of maps compiled from available geographic information system (GIS) data on natural and cultural resources, visitor use patterns, facilities, and other topics. It serves as a GIS-based support tool for planning and park operations. The atlas is published as a (hard copy) paper product and as geospatial data for use in a web mapping environment. Part 1: Core Components The core components of a foundation document include a brief description of the park, park purpose, significance statements, fundamental resources and values, and interpretive themes. These components are core because they typically do not change over time. Core components are expected to be used in future planning and management efforts
Fort Laramie National Historic Site lies along the Laramie River at its confluence with the North Platte River in southeastern Wyoming. Originally the homeland of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, the “fort” was established as a private fur trading post in 1834. From 1849 to its abandonment in 1890, Fort Laramie evolved into the largest military post on the Northern Great Plains. For 56 years, successive waves of American Indians, trappers, traders, missionaries, emigrants, soldiers, miners, ranchers, and homesteaders interacted with, and left their mark on, a place that would become famous in the history of America’s westward expansion. Fort Laramie stood witness to strong Indian resistance to encroachment on their homelands and played an important role as host to treaty negotiations, including the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Today, park visitors are immersed in the historic scene and complex history through a variety of experiences: exhibits and video in the visitor center, interpretive waysides placed at known sites and ruins, living history demonstrations, and access to restored and furnished structures of the military period. Scholars and researchers enjoy access to an extensive collection of museum objects and archives housed at the park. The historic site, which encompasses 833 acres, hosted 51,980 visitors in 2015.
In 1834, Robert Campbell and William Sublette established the first “Fort Laramie.” Officially named Fort William, the post was rectangular and small, measuring only 100 by 80 feet. Hewn cottonwood logs 15 feet high formed the fort’s palisade. With the beaver trade already in decline, Campbell and Sublette recognized that the future of the fur trade lay in trading with the native population for buffalo robes. Fort William enjoyed a near monopoly on the buffalo trade in this region until a competing trading post, Fort Platte, was built a mile away in 1841. This rivalry spurred Fort William’s owners to replace their own aging fort with a larger, adobe-walled structure named Fort John. Indian tribes, especially the Lakota (Sioux), traded tanned buffalo robes here for a variety of manufactured goods. Each spring caravans arrived at the fort with trade goods. In the fall, tons of buffalo hides and other furs were shipped east. Throughout the 1840s, however, the take of buffalo robes continually declined and Fort John’s role changed. In 1841, the first of many westward-bound emigrants arrived at Fort John. Tens of thousands of emigrants bound for Oregon, California, and the Salt Lake Valley would eventually stop at the fort. The traders at Fort John did a brisk seasonal business catering to the needs of emigrants. In 1849, the U.S. Army offered to purchase Fort John as part of a plan to establish a military presence along the emigrant trails. The owners of the fort agreed to the sale, and on June 26, the post was officially renamed Fort Laramie, which began its tenure as a military post. The army quickly constructed new buildings for stables, officers’ and soldiers’ quarters, a bakery, a guardhouse, and a powder magazine to house and support the fort garrison. As the years went by, the post continued to grow in size and importance. Fort Laramie soon became the principal military outpost on the Northern Plains. Fort Laramie also became the primary hub for transportation and communication through the central Rocky Mountain region as emigrant trails, stage lines, the Pony Express, and the transcontinental telegraph all passed through the post. Fort Laramie played an important role hosting several treaty negotiations with the Northern Plains Indian nations, the most famous of which were the Horse Creek Treaty of 1851 and the still controversial and contested Treaty of 1868. Sadly, relations that began amicably between American Indians and the army began to change as the number of emigrants using the overland trails swelled. As conflicts grew, major military campaigns were launched from the fort against the Northern Plains tribes who fiercely defended their homeland against further encroachment by the nation moving west. As the Indian Wars came to a close, Fort Laramie’s importance diminished. The post was abandoned and sold at public auction in 1890. Over the next 48 years, it nearly succumbed to the ravages of time. Preservation of the site was secured, however, when Fort Laramie became part of the national park system in 1938.
The purpose statement identifies the specific reason(s) for establishment of a particular park. The purpose statement for Fort Laramie National Historic Site was drafted through a careful analysis of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s July 16, 1938, presidential proclamation that established the site as a national monument as well as subsequent committee reports and legislative actions (see appendix A). The purpose statement lays the foundation for understanding what is most important about the park
The purpose of Fort Laramie National Historic Site is to preserve the historic scene and resources at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers, and to interpret the roles and significance of the diverse and vibrant cultures that interacted at this crossroads of the West.
Significance statements express why a park’s resources and values are important enough to merit designation as a unit of the national park system. These statements are linked to the purpose of Fort Laramie National Historic Site, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Statements of significance describe the distinctive nature of the park and why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. They focus on the most important resources and values that will assist in park planning and management.
The following significance statements have been identified for Fort Laramie National Historic Site. (Please note that the sequence of the statements does not reflect the level of significance).
Fundamental resources and values (FRVs) are those features, systems, processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, smells, or other attributes determined to warrant primary consideration during planning and management processes because they are essential to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance. Fundamental resources and values are closely related to a park’s legislative purpose and are more specific than significance statements.
Fundamental resources and values help focus planning and management efforts on what is truly significant about the park. One of the most important responsibilities of NPS managers is to ensure the conservation and public enjoyment of those qualities that are essential (fundamental) to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance. If fundamental resources and values are allowed to deteriorate, the park purpose and/or significance could be jeopardized. The following fundamental resources and values have been identified for Fort Laramie National Historic Site:
Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories or concepts that visitors should understand after visiting a park—they define the most important ideas or concepts communicated to visitors about a park unit. Themes are derived from, and should reflect, park purpose, significance, resources, and values. The set of interpretive themes is complete when it provides the structure necessary for park staff to develop opportunities for visitors to explore and relate to all park significance statements and fundamental resources and values.
Interpretive themes are an organizational tool that reveal and clarify meaning, concepts, contexts, and values represented by park resources. Sound themes are accurate and reflect current scholarship and science. They encourage exploration of the context in which events or natural processes occurred and the effects of those events and processes. Interpretive themes go beyond a mere description of the event or process to foster multiple opportunities to experience and consider the park and its resources. These themes help explain why a park story is relevant to people who may otherwise be unaware of connections they have to an event, time, or place associated with the park. The following interpretive themes have been identified for Fort Laramie National Historic Site: · Fort Laramie was a vital military outpost charged with ensuring westward migration, the flow of goods and communications, and access to desirable natural resources— implementing policies made far to the east; it embodies the U.S. Army’s role in fulfilling the 19th century vision of “Manifest Destiny” that continues to shape life in the American West. · The confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers has always been a natural crossroads for plants, animals, and people—a diverse ecological zone, plentiful hunting grounds, a gathering place for trade and interaction, a strategic military location, natural population center, and now a place set aside for heritage appreciation. Fort Laramie embodies the idea that geography influences destiny. · The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie (Horse Creek Treaty) and the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie—both “agreements” between most of the Northern Plains tribes and the U.S. government—were momentous in their impact, invoking trust responsibilities that continue in perpetuity and affect America today. Part 2: Dynamic Components The dynamic components of a foundation document include special mandates and administrative commitments and an assessment of planning and data needs. These components are dynamic because they will change over time. New special mandates can be established and new administrative commitments made. As conditions and trends of fundamental resources and values change over time, the analysis of planning and data needs will need to be revisited and revised, along with key issues. Therefore, this part of the foundation document will be updated accordingly.
Many management decisions for a park unit are directed or influenced by special mandates and administrative commitments with other federal agencies, state and local governments, utility companies, partnering organizations, and other entities. Special mandates are requirements specific to a park that must be fulfilled. Mandates can be expressed in enabling legislation, in separate legislation following the establishment of the park, or through a judicial process. They may expand on park purpose or introduce elements unrelated to the purpose of the park. Administrative commitments are, in general, agreements that have been reached through formal, documented processes, often through memorandums of agreement. Examples include easements, rights-of-way, arrangements for emergency service responses, etc. Special mandates and administrative commitments can support, in many cases, a network of partnerships that help fulfill the objectives of the park and facilitate working relationships with other organizations. They are an essential component of managing and planning for Fort Laramie National Historic Site.
Special Mandates
Administrative Commitments For more information about the existing administrative commitments for Fort Laramie National Historic Site, please see appendix C.
Once the core components of part 1 of the foundation document have been identified, it is important to gather and evaluate existing information about the park’s fundamental resources and values, and develop a full assessment of the park’s planning and data needs. The assessment of planning and data needs section presents planning issues, the planning projects that will address these issues, and the associated information requirements for planning, such as resource inventories and data collection, including GIS data.
There are three sections in the assessment of planning and data needs:
The analysis of fundamental resources and values and identification of key issues leads up to and supports the identification of planning and data collection needs. Identification of Key Issues and Associated Planning and Data Needs This section considers key issues to be addressed in planning and management and therefore takes a broader view over the primary focus of part 1. A key issue focuses on a question that is important for a park. Key issues often raise questions regarding park purpose and significance and fundamental resources and values. For example, a key issue may pertain to the potential for a fundamental resource or value in a park to be detrimentally affected by discretionary management decisions. A key issue may also address crucial questions that are not directly related to purpose and significance, but that still affect them indirectly. Usually, a key issue is one that a future planning effort or data collection needs to address and requires a decision by NPS managers. The following are key issues for Fort Laramie National Historic Site and the associated planning and data needs to address them:
Invasive nonnative plants are a continual threat to the park’s native plant community. While the Northern Great Plains exotic plant management plan and environmental assessment covers the compliance for spray treatment by the park and the NPS exotic plant management team, this issue will require continued vigilance and ongoing management. Historic structures are not adequately protected; none of the park’s nine primary historic structures has fire suppression or intrusion alarm systems in place. The park is currently pursuing infrastructure planning to provide adequately sized water and electrical service to support the installation of these systems. Additional research is needed to continue understanding park resources. Only 25% of the park has been inventoried for archeological resources. The 2006 cultural landscape report was completed for the historic district, but the rest of the park should be included in an updated effort. A combined cultural landscape / vegetation management plan is needed to provide guidance on managing these resources.
Visitor and administrative facilities are in adapted historic structures, creating challenges for operational efficiency and site security. There is inadequate space to accommodate school groups during inclement weather or to display pieces from the collection to inform visitors of the park’s story, and space is also limited for staff offices and bookstore functions. Even though a lot of planning has been completed over the years to examine options, no decisions have been implemented. The opportunity to address both efficient space programming and enhancing the viewshed through historically sympathetic representational construction could be considered as part of the cultural landscape report.
Analysis of Fundamental Resources and Values The fundamental resource or value analysis table includes current conditions, potential threats and opportunities, planning and data needs, and selected laws and NPS policies related to management of the identified resource or value.
The Foundation Document contains additional analysis and appendices. To request more of this information, send us an email through our contact us page.
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Last updated: March 26, 2026