Mile 890: Deer Creek Ferry
"From the time that the wagons left the Black Hills behind until they had either crossed the North Platte or had been bested in the attempt, the emigration was really…
Protecting Oxens’ Feet
"[In the Black Hills of Wyoming], Lydia Waters wrote: ' The hoofs of the cattle became so worn they had to be shod. Now the amateur blacksmiths had to show…
Mile 841-878: La Bonte to Box Elder Station
"[We] headed for the succession of creeks which the pioneers had crossed in the next three days' journey. The first was Wagonhound [near Mile 844]. Few knew the name, but…
Mile 804-841: Horseshoe Creek to La Bonte
"From Horseshoe Creek to La Bonte (sometimes called Big Timber Creek) was fifteen and a half miles by the Mormon's roadameter. The casual estimate was two to three miles longer,…
Mile 804: Horseshoe Creek
"That portion of the Platte Valley into which the wagons dropped after leaving the Bitter Cottonwood was a common stretch on the two roads south of the river and afforded…
Mile 777: Bitter Cottonwood Creek
"The next important stopping point, according to the diaries, was the Bitter Cottonwood Creek. Maps located it in Wendover, Wyoming, a railroad stop . . . Many miles to the…
Mile 767: Lucinda Rawlins Grave
"A knoll wedged itself between us and the river. On the summit was a conspicuous new monument, and we went up to look at it. The cement gravestone was just…
Mile 764: Register Cliffs
"Later investigation proved that the jutting points of the bluffs all had initials, and sometimes full name and address and date, carved upon the soft stone surfaces. They are called…
Emigrants and Cattle
"The wagon-train emigrants remained for months cheek by jowl with more cattle than they had ever seen before; rode behind them; walked ahead of them; took their dust; drank milk…
Mile 760: Mexican Hill
"For the better part of a mile we kept to the edge of the bluffs, separating and spreading over a wide strip of territory as we hunted for the place…
Nile 754: Black Hills
"The road leading west from Fort Laramie was anathema to the overloaded Argonauts, for it marked the beginning of the Black Hills, whose low, rough summits shouldered the sky just…
After Buffalo Chips
"And what, we may well ask, did the later travelers use for fuel in the years after the buffalo had been driven from the Platte Valley, especially throughout the treeless…
Mile 753: Fort Laramie Ferry
"Robert Campbell [who built the original fort that became Fort Laramie] had cannily built his picketed stockade in the angle of the two rivers [Laramie and North Platte], so that…
Mile 753: Fort Laramie
"Recorded history of the section immediately west of Scott's Bluff begins about the year 1818 when Jaques La Ramie, a French Canadian, built a trapper's cabin near the junction of…
Mile 689: Robidoux Pass
"The river lapped at the very base of Scott's Bluff. The wagons must go inland. This was the more difficult because the bluff is not an isolated rocky formation, but…