Fontenelle was made general manager, and after that date they had practically all the fur trade of Wyoming and western Nebraska.

In later years there were many smaller establishments that ran for a time, but the bulk of the business went to the well established American Fur Company.

Among these smaller concerns was Adams and Sabylle who built Fort John in 1836, and who later built another fort on what finally became known as Sabylle creek. The latter fort

was burned by Indians in about 1863. Fort Platte was built in 1842 by Pratt, Cabanne & Company on the narrow tongue of land at the point where the Platte and Laramie rivers unite.

In 1836. the green stockade posts of Fort Laramie, showing signs of decay, it was rebuilt. There were at that time some Mexicans sojourning in this part of the wilderness, and they were employed to build it of adobe bricks. A solid wall enclosed all the buildings, and at the corners and over the gate were block, houses for defense.

Under and around these walls for years thereafter, camped the nomadic and migratory thousands. Here the Indians came and loitered, and then wandered away into the wilderness. Hundreds of trappers periodically appeared, and from here some journeyed to civilization while others returned to the wilds. Thousands and thousands came from the east, and went on into the west ; some for homes on the Williamette and the Columbia, others to follow the trail of Jedediah Smith into the golden mecca of California. Adventurers going and coming across the continental divide drifted with the moving tide ; and later came, unfettered and free, the dauntless and undaunted cowmen.