Mile 969: Independence Rock
"Like the emigrants, we approached the rock from the east side—a lusty monolith, a mile in circumference, and seemingly one solid piece of gray granite. No wonder that this tremulous…
Mile 969: Sweetwater River
"It was four miles and more from the end of the alkali stretch to the Sweetwater River—a beautiful mountain stream, swift, clear and full, which received its name from the…
Mile 957: Greasewood Creek
"Greasewood Creek was a welcome sight, a rapid ten-foot stream, midway of the twenty-mile stretch, where the oxen sunk their muzzles deep and drank as they crossed. After a slow…
Mile 947: Prospect Hill
"Another mile [from Willow Springs] brought the emigrants to the summit of Prospect ill. Often they had spent the night near Willow Springs and climbed the hill in the early…
Mile 946: Willow Springs
"In time [the emigrants] passed. out of the poison-spring region, went over a snappy ridge, and came to Willow Springs at a distance of twenty-six miles from the ferry. In…
Mile 937: Rock Avenue
"We left Poison Spider about the middle of the morning, heading for the next landmark, Rock Avenue. It proved satisfyingly true to its advanced advertising—a hideous stretch of deformed rock…
Mile 927-946: Emigrant Gap to Willow Station
"By either the Emigrant Gap route or the older road it was in the neighborhood of fifty miles from the ferry to Independence Rock on the Sweetwater River—a forced march…
Mile 927: Emigrant Gap, WY
"Our road started uphill and rose higher and higher, but very gently. Wyoming makes less fuss about its elevation than any place I know. To our left was the wide…
Mile 917: Fort Caspar
"Considered historically, the year 1858 is the beginning of the end of the picturesque extravaganza at the [North Platte] river crossing. First a prosaic military encampment, known as Mormon Ferry…
Mile 917: Upper of Mormon Ferry
"Twenty-eight miles from /Deer Creek was the Upper or Mormon Ferry on the North Platte, near modern Casper. The eaarliest travelers found it, of course, in a state of nature…
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…
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…