Portuguese Houses Tour in Kaycee

Display at Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum, Buffalo

On April 27, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Kaycee Rest Area, Kaycee, Wyoming – the Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association along with the Hoofprints of the Past Museum, will host a free tour to the Portuguese Houses 1834 Trading Post Site.

In 1834 a band of trappers and traders led by Antonio Montero from Portugal built a trading post East of Kaycee, Wyoming. It became known as the “Portuguese Fort.” It was the third trading post to be established in Wyoming, predated only by Fort Bonneville near Daniel, Wyoming, in 1832, and Fort William, later Fort Laramie, by only a few months in 1834.

By the late 1830’s, it was the waning of the beaver fur trade, but the trade was brisk in buffalo robes with the Indian tribes. The area around Kaycee was in one of the best bison ranges and hunting grounds.

It will be led by archaeologist Dr. Cody Newton and followed by a Hoofprints of the Past Museum Tour. The program will be hosted by Museum Director Laurel Foster.

Attendees will meet at the Kaycee Rest Area at 10 a.m. Foster said that they will caravan to the Portuguese Houses site about 11 miles east of Kaycee which is on private land. She added, “We appreciate the landowner allowing this tour of the 1830s trading post site that served as center for trade with Crow Indians, and one of the first fur trading posts in Wyoming.”

The tour will then visit the Hoofprints of the Past Museum – an outstanding museum featuring artifacts and history that includes Native Americans, the Fur Trade and 1834 Portuguese Fort, the Bozeman Trail, Fort Reno, the Dull Knife Battle, the Johnson County Cattle War, Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang.

Those attending are urged to bring their own lunch and dress for weather. They anticipate both tours, and travel time, will be about 2.5 hours.

The Portuguese Houses is a unique site, and artifacts that have been found from the area have been donated to the Hoofprints of the Past Museum in Kaycee. Artifacts include everything from an old sword, beads, rivets, clay pipes and other items.