Today (Friday) was a great day for travel - we took Hwy 26 west out of Scottsbluff to Wyoming. Once across the state line, we stopped and visited Ft. Laramie National Historic Site. This place was initially a fur trading post at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers with a new structure built in 1841. In 1849 the Army purchased it and it became a military post for 41 years. It was a major stopping point for the emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail. Today, there are a couple of the old buildings still standing, plus the “shells” of several others.
After Ft. Laramie, we continued on Hwy 26 west to Guernsey. There are two Wyoming State Historical Sites here - the Register Cliff, and the Oregon Trail Ruts. The Register Cliff is a sandstone cliff along the Oregon Trail and many of the travelers carved their names in the rock. The state has put a chain link fence in front of all the old names to protect them, but the un-protected part is also covered in carvings - we saw names & dates from the 1800’s to present day.
Just down the road a little way is the Oregon Trail Ruts Historical Site. Here you can walk a path for 400+ yards and see where the wagon trains carved the road through the sandstone. This is the most prominent Oregon Trail wagon ruts that we’ve seen so far.
Upon arrival in Casper, Wyoming we visited the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. This is a fairly new facility that has some very good displays of all the “trail” history in this area from the early 1800’s. They start with the Indians and fur trappers in the early 1800’s, then move on to the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails history, then the Pony Express, the telegraph, and end up with the Trans-Continental Railroad in the late 1860’s. They have a very good 20 minute video and lots of informative displays. There are lots of animation and sound effects - we took a virtual ride in a wagon fording the North Platte River.
Tomorrow we'll be moving on up the trail!
No comments:
Post a Comment