In 1842, due to economic losses, Lupton had to sell the fort and it was bought by the successful fur trading firm Pratte and Cabanné who managed it from 1843 to 1845.
This post occupies the left bank of the North Fork of Platte river, three-fourths of a mile above the mouth of Laramie, in lat.
It is situated in the immediate vicinity of the Oglallia and Brule divisions of the Sioux nation, and but little remote from the Cheyennes and Arapaho tribes.
the number of men usually employed about the establishment is some thirty, whose chief duty it is to promote the interests of the trade, and otherwise act as circumstances require.
The Fort is located in a level plain, fertile and interesting, bounded upon all sides by hills, many of which present to view the nodding forms of pines and cedars, that bescatter their surface, -- while the river bottoms, at various points, are thickly studded with proud growths of cottonwood, ash, willow, and box-elder, thus affordings its needful supplies of timber and fuel.