Jim Baker Cabin

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Baker, Jim, Cabin
Jim Baker Cabin.JPG
Jim Baker Cabin in 2014
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LocationOff WY 70, Savery, Wyoming
Coordinates 41°1′36″N107°26′57″W / 41.02667°N 107.44917°W / 41.02667; -107.44917 Coordinates: 41°1′36″N107°26′57″W / 41.02667°N 107.44917°W / 41.02667; -107.44917
Arealess than one acre
Built1873 (1873)
Architectural styleLog Cabin
NRHP reference # 82001830 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 8, 1982

The Jim Baker Cabin was built in 1873 by frontiersman Jim Baker as a fortified house on the Little Snake River at Savery Creek near present-day Savery, Wyoming. The two-story log building measures 31 feet (9.4 m) by 16 feet (4.9 m) with two rooms on the lower level and a single smaller room on the upper level. The outer walls are made of logs 12 inches (30 cm) to 15 inches (38 cm) thick. [2]

Jim Baker (1818–1898) was a frontiersman, trapper, hunter, fur trader, explorer, army scout, interpreter, soldier, territorial militia officer, rancher, mine owner, toll keeper and mountain man. He was a friend of Jim Bridger and Kit Carson and one of General John C. Fremont's favorite scouts.

Little Snake River watercourse in the United States of America

The Little Snake River is a tributary of the Yampa River, approximately 155 miles (249 km) long, in southwestern Wyoming and northwestern Colorado in the United States.

Savery, Wyoming Unincorporated community in Wyoming, United States

Savery is an unincorporated community in southeastern Carbon County, Wyoming, United States, on the upper Little Snake River. It lies along WYO 70 south of the city of Rawlins, the county seat of Carbon County. Its elevation is 6,473 feet (1,973 m). Although Savery is unincorporated, it has a post office with ZIP code 82332, and is home to the Little Snake River Museum.

Contents

History

Jim Baker was recruited by the American Fur Company in 1839 for an 18-month expedition with Jim Bridger to Wyoming. Baker returned briefly to his home in Illinois in 1841 but returned to the Rocky Mountains with the Bidwell-Bartleson party, where he joined a trapping party on the Little Snake River. The party of 23 fought with about 500 Arapahos, Cheyenne and Sioux on August 21, 1841, losing three of their party and claiming 100 Native American casualties. Following the fight the trapping party retreated to Bridger's camp on the Green River. Baker stayed in the west as a trapper until 1852, when he went on a trip with Kit Carson. He also served as an interpreter and scout. He was one of the first permanent residents in the area of Denver, Colorado, nominally living there from 1859 to 1871, although the residence was primarily inhabited by Baker's wife and family while he traveled. In 1873 Baker and his family moved to the Little Snake valley in Wyoming, where he remained until his death on May 15, 1898. [2]

American Fur Company

The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States. During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British companies, most notably the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, were eventual competitors against Astor and capitalized on the lucrative trade in furs. Astor capitalized on anti-British sentiments and his commercial strategies to become one of the first trusts in American business and a major competitor to the British commercial dominance in North American fur trade. Expanding into many former British fur-trapping regions and trade routes, the company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest and wealthiest businesses in the country.

Jim Bridger American explorer

James Felix Bridger was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout and wilderness guide who explored and trapped the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. Bridger is known for participating in numerous early expeditions into the western interior as well as mediating between Native American tribes and westward-migrating European-American settlers, and by the end of his life had earned a reputation as one of the foremost frontiersmen in the American Old West. He was of English ancestry, and his family had been in North America since the early colonial period.

In 1841, the Bartleson–Bidwell Party, led by Captain John Bartleson and John Bidwell, became the first American emigrants to attempt a wagon crossing from Missouri to California.

Preservation

In 1917 interest in preserving the cabin resulted in its purchase by the state of Wyoming, in part to prevent its removal to Denver for display. It was dismantled and moved to Frontier Park in Cheyenne. In 1973 the cabin was moved again to a location close to its original site in Savery. [2]

Cheyenne, Wyoming State capital and city in Wyoming, United States

Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population was 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the northern terminus of the extensive and fast-growing Front Range Urban Corridor that stretches from Cheyenne to Pueblo, Colorado which has a population of 4,333,742 according to the 2010 United States Census. Cheyenne is situated on Crow Creek and Dry Creek. The Cheyenne, Wyoming Metropolitan Area had a 2010 population of 91,738, making it the 354th-most populous metropolitan area in the United States.

The Baker Cabin was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 8, 1982. [1]

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 Junge, Mark (May 26, 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Jim Baker Cabin". National Park Service.