You are watching American History tv all weekend on cspan3. 48 hours ofatching programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Forow us on twitter information on our schedule, upcoming programs, and to keep up with the latest history news. Reachable exclusively by footbridge, Theodore Roosevelt island honors our only manhattan born president. To loveoy who grew up urban pavements less than the rugged vistas endangered by human exploitation. As a result, theres noise been controversy surrounding there has always been controversy surrounding the 17 foot statue of president roosevelt which coexists uneasily with the adjoining wilderness. Is it repressive of daughter his irrepressible daughter was alleged to have called it the ugliest thing she ever saw. She was the soul of grace is this graciousness when dedicating it in october of 19 627. The work of the sculpture perhaps best known for the gold plated figure of prometheus writing the waters at new yorks iskefeller center, t. R. Flying past pylons inscribed with his quotations. A raised plaza, formal plantings, and fountains complete the memorial. The wilderness backdrop does at least as much to evoke the spirit of the great outdoorsman. In the 17th century, a group of indians on the island named it [indiscernible] duringd by union troops the civil war, it later belong to a local utility whose folded in 1931 to the theater Roosevelt Memorial association. For the next 30 years, the heavily Wooded Island was left christine in recognition of the white house conservationist christine pristine in recognition of the white house conservationist. Today the island boasts over 400 varieties of plants and nearly 80 different species of birds. As well as one very assertive looking president in bronze. Year, cspan is touring cities across the country exploring American History. Next, a look at our recent visit to casper, wyoming. You are watching American History tv on cspan3. We are located at Fort Caspar Museum which is on the west side of the city of casper in wyoming. Fort caspar is a reconstructed 1860s cavalry fort located on the western Emigrant Trail corridor. So we are standing on the oregon trail and the mormon pioneer trail and the california trail and the pony express trail, the transcontinental telegraph came through here. All of these things were located on this site and the u. S. Army in the 1860s. One of the important things to remember about this site is there was a lot of activity happened here before the army ever showed up. The first occupation of this site, the first time people actually stayed more than just passing through for the day was 1847. Brigham young and the Pioneer Party are moving west and need to get across the river. It does not look overly intimidating but that but back then, there were not dams upstream and you did not have a regulated channel. When they get here on june 12, youve got a big river that you have to contend with. In june, youve got the snowmelt coming out of the mountains. The river is as big as it will be all year whenever the pioneers are showing up here. Were looking at a river that is almost 1000 feet across. What they had done as they built a ferry operation. Prior to that, you just river and found the shallow spot and hoped the river was shallow enough to ford it and the ferry operations became a safer way to cross. Once they crossed they realized , there were a lot of immigrants on the trail and we can help others for a small fee. They set up a ferry operation during the migration period each summer. The first location was here. The ferry lasted for six years and there is a bridge built downriver from it. The bridge puts the ferry out of business. Basically, you can pay your fee and cross on the bridge and you keep moving. For our site, we had a bridge built in 1859. These were toll bridges. The fee was based on how high the river was running. It was purely a commercial operation. In 1860, this is a pony express relay station. The pony express had home stations and relay stations. This was a relay station where they would just change horses. This was a pony express station. That lasted 19 months and the pony express goes out of business and this is now a telegraph station. The fort is located here primarily because of the transcontinental telegraph. In 1862, early in the civil war, the north is not doing so well. But keeping the communication open to the west coast like california and keeping that transcontinental telegraph going was important enough that the u. S. Government sent soldiers out here to help maintain the telegraph. They did not send very many of them. The units that were located here between 18621865 was the 11th ohio volunteer calvary. We had one regiment that was responsible for more than 300 miles of the telegraph and trail. Things started to change an election in 1865 as the war winds down back east. You start to see more military units coming out here. We are reinforced in the spring of 1865 by the 11th kansas volunteer cavalry. There were a couple of infantry units. The third and sixth u. S. Volunteer infantry came out here also as troops that were stationed in the west. Depending on the year, there were sometimes issues with various native tribes and sometimes they were more friendly and other times more hostile. This particular area was not really settled. It was a pass through but it still created tensions with some of the tribes. In 1865, that was a particularly bad year for that. The previous winter, in 1864, you had the massacre at sand creek. That was a colorado militia that rode out of denver and attacked the village which was friendly. They really massacred people. As a result of that, the following summer in 1865, you had a lot of skirmishes and fights and problems with the native tribes as a direct result of the sand creek massacre. One of the locations were problems occurred was here. We had the battle of platte bridge and red butte in 1865. The goal of the tribes was to get rid of the bridge. The bridge was a visual symbol, structure that could be attacked that represented all of the migration and all of these people moving west. Their goal was to get rid of this. Early in the morning, we had the battle of platte bridge. There was a young lieutenant named Caspar Collins. He is passing through this fort on the day of the battle. He was ordered to leave the 11th lead 11th kansas volunteer cavalry soldiers out to meet and army supply wagon that were coming back from supplying points further west. That morning he rides out. It takes 20 guys with him. They get across the bridge and not even a mile away and they are ambushed by the lakota, cheyenne, and arapahoe gathered together to get revenge for sand creek. They wheel around and raced back to the fort. Casper collins and four other soldiers are killed. Amazingly, the other guys made it back. About four hours later, the army supply wagons show up on the horizon. This is called the battle of red butte and the army sees the wagons show up and fire a warning shot with their cannons. The tribes see them and race out in that direction and attacked the wagon supply train. It was led by commissary Sergeant Amos custard. There were 25 guys with that group. There were five of them an in an advanced guard and they wheel to the right and raced down to the river and get rid of their horses and three of those guys actually made it back to the fort. All the rest of the people at the supply wagons were killed. Shortly after that because of the battles and because we have a young lieutenant named Caspar Collins who was the son of the regimental colonel, the army changes the name of this fort. From 1862 to 1865, this was called platte bridge station. In 1865, they change the name of the fort to fort caspar. This is in the fall of 1865 and it lasted only two more years. They added a lot of buildings. There is a massive Construction Program in 1866 and 1867. And they add a lot of buildings, a massive Construction Program 1867. 66 and so this fort becomes as large as ft. Laramie. Are 500 soldiers here stationed by 1867. 1867, the ned is, in army really determined they built it in the wrong place. 1867, they all of issued orders that they are oing to take all salvageable materials and they haul it 45 basically of here and use that to put up ft. Fedderman. Ft. Casper when they closed 1867 was basically nothing left here. The