Mile 970: Independence Rock
"A few miles upstream from where they gained the Sweetwater River, the emigrants came to Independence Rock—a half-mile-long ridge of granite that rises like a whaleback from the sagebrush sea of the…
Mile 937: Avenue of Rocks
"On the high, dry Wyoming plains, the Earth sheds her former grassland modesty and bares her rocky skin, wrinkled by time and mountain upheaval. The beveled edges of bent, tilted strata poke…
Mile 1113: Big Sandy Station
"It was here [Big Sandy Station, Farson, WY], in 1847, that mountain man Jim Bridger gave Brigham Young advice on leading the first Mormon trains into Salt Lake. In the…
Mile 1075: South Pass
"But South Pass was the halfway mark on the wagon journey [to Oregon], and by now the pioneers had survived two months of Platte River storms, the outdoor cholera wards,…
Mile 1215: Needle Rocks and Echo Canyon
"After fording Bear River [At Evanston, Wy?] this part of the land was quite a grave-yard we passed over rough ground, and, descending into a bush, were shown on a ridge to…
Mile 1165: Ham’s Fork
"At midday we reached Ham's Fork, the northwestern influent of Green River, and there we found a station. The pleasant little stream is called by the Indians Turugempa, the "Blackfoot Water."
Mile 1140: Green River
"The Green River is the Rio Verde of the Spaniards, who named it from its timbered shores and grassy islets: it is called by the Yuta Indians Piya Ogwe, or the Great…
Mile 1113: Big Sandy
"After a long stage of twenty-nine miles we made Big Sandy Creek, an important influent of the Green River; the stream, then shrunken, was in breadth not less than five rods, each =…
Mile 1075: South Pass
"Ten miles beyond Ford No. 9, hilly miles, ending in a long champaign having some of the characteristics of a rolling prairie . . . led us to the South Pass, the great…
Mile 890: Deer Creek
"After ten miles of the usual number of creeks, 'Deep,' 'Small,' 'Snow,' 'Muddy,' etc., and heavy descents, we reached at 10 A.M. Deer Creek, a stream about thirty feet wide, said…
Mile 753: Fort Laramie Milestone
"Fort Laramie marked the end of the High Plains, the beginning of the long upgrade haul to the Rocky Mountains. It was the end of the line for the sick,…
Mile 655: Chimney Rock Landmark
"Chimney Rock was the most famous of all the landmarks on the Great Platte Road. This is not idle rhetoric. . . . Chimney Rock is mentioned of described in…
Mile 1193: Fort Bridger
"The majority of the migration arrived at Fort Bridger in the month of July. . . . The valley of Blacks Fork is beautiful out of all reason, like a…
Mile 1160 to 1193: Hams Fork to Fort Bridger
"The wagons had various routes as the years went by, but these all tended to center near the confluence of Hams and Blacks Forks. Both the original trail and the…
Mile 1134 to 1160: Green River to Black’s Fork
"From the original Oregon trail crossing [about twenty miles upriver, near present-day Fontanelle], the early wagon trains converged toward what was later known as the Lombard ferry trail. the two…