Oregon Trail Ruts...Guersey, Wyoming

DATE:  October 6, 2015

HISTORICAL SITE:  Oregon Trail Ruts

LOCATION:  Guersey, Platte Co., Wyoming  82214

MARKER #:  66000761

 

“Oregon Trail Ruts has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark   Under the provisions of the historic sites act of August 21, 1935 this site possesses exceptional value in commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States"

DEDICATED:  October 15, 1966

MARKER PLACED BY:  U.S. Department of the Interior – National Park Service

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

This stop wasn’t our list but I saw it on a sign on the highway we were on and thought I’d really like to see that, so off we went. Can you imagine? The real trail that thousands of people took to go west?

We had been talking about the early pioneers crossing the lands we were traveling through, sometimes nice and flat, sometimes hills and mountains. The thought of riding hour after hour…boredom setting in. Or worse, having to get down out of your wagon and pushing and pulling with your oxen to get your wagon over some seemingly easy part of the landscape; and then looking up and seeing the mountains you still had to climb. And the thought of dragging your kids along with you; worrying all the time if or when some danger will befall you. These people were made of different stock than you and me.

The site was further off our route than I had thought and we approached just as night was falling, but I didn’t want to miss it. When Wyoming asked for federal designation, it was noted that these are the most prominent sets of trail ruts on the entire Oregon Trail and I was blown away at just how visible they are. This isn’t some sign pointing and saying “pioneers were here”. You can see these just as clearly as if some machine of today had cleared the road.

It is not my intent to talk about the entire Oregon Trail but rather a smaller portion through this area of Wyoming. Maybe someday, I’ll visit other sites and can link them together like others I’ve done.

One of the first things I had to do is look up “immigrants” and “emigrants”. I used them interchangeably and I knew there had to be a difference. You emigrate out of a place; say I’m an emigrant from Wyoming and you are an immigrant into a place; say I’m an immigrant of Oregon.

Oregon! Advertised as the land of opportunity and towering trees…lush valleys with rich soil…land to be had and emigrants walked 2,000 miles in search of their destiny.

Most of the major trails to the west, the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express started, more or less, in Missouri…gateway to the west. They converged, more or less, at Fort Laramie, Wyoming and from there to South Pass in Wyoming, used the same route.

Robert Stuart

The first known travel on the Oregon Trail was when Robert Stuart and 6 companions followed the route on a return trip from Oregon.

In 1830, mountain men hauled wagons along the trail until just east of the Great Divide. The going had been so rough that the next year, the men went back to using pack mules.

In 1832, Captain Benjamin L. Bonneville (see what I mean about history connecting?) led a 20 wagon train over the South Pass. Word was getting out about the trail. In 1836, the first white women, missionaries, crossed the South Pass and there’s a monument to their crossing.

In 1840, a family…mom, dad and 4 children with 2 wagons made it to Oregon. Mom was expecting at the time and her child was the first born in Oregon that had traveled the route.

Pretty much, until 1841, the route was used by trappers, traders and missionaries. Then in 1841, the “Bartleson-Bidwill party”, a caravan of 36 men and families, traveled over the route from Kansas to Oregon; although further along the route some of the party turned off to hit the California trail. Admittedly, their knowledge of the route was basically…California lay to the west. John Bidwell is quoted as saying “our ignorance of the route was complete”.

Just think about it…there were no roads, tracks, or trails…no maps, no road signs, no bridges or ferries, and no place to get supplies or replace horses or oxen. And no knowledge of any of the dangers they would face.

The 68 people in the Bartleson-Bidwell party have been praised as visionaries and scorned as risk taking fools.

But the siren song of the west had begun. In 1842, only about 125 people used the trail and then the government published rudimentary maps of the routes in 1843 and then refined in 1845. The dam was broken…

In 1843, over 900 emigrants walked over the trail and each year thereafter, traffic increased until 1869.  The average trip took 4 to 5 months. Five months was considered good timing with early spring being the best time to start. If you left too early, there may not be enough grass for your animals. If you left too late, you ran the risk of bad weather in the mountains (remember the Donner party).

The trail from Missouri to Fort Laramie, Wyoming was the easy part, nice and flat, and the travelers naturally got bored with the routine so that by the time they got to the Fort, one of the most populated areas, it was a welcome respite.

But it was also from Fort Laramie that the start of the Rockies could be seen and reality started sinking in. Seeing, and hearing about the next part of their journey, people tried desperately to sell all but the most necessary supplies they had carried from the East. Funny how things that were necessary to bring become a burden at some point. Most were disappointed. There just were no buyers and supplies were destroyed or just dumped on the side of the trail.

A quote form Israel F. Hale, an immigrant to California in 1849…“On the road from the fort.... I saw a wagon—tolerable good but heavy—bacon, beans, stoves, chairs, iron wedges, crow bar, soap, lead, ovens and many other articles all laying about in the prairie. They could not use them and they could not carry them, and the only alternative was to leave them.”

10 miles from Fort Laramie was the next campsite. I know that seems close but you have to remember, these people averaged just 15 miles a day. Most people didn’t ride and so were walking the 2,000 miles. Emigrants stopped and etched their names into the sandstone rock of Register Cliff and those names can still be seen today.

A few miles beyond that, the terrain forced emigrants to climb from the North Platte River. The wagons would move in single file and had pulled hard up a rock ridge. Thousands of wheels and feet and hooves gradually cut a channel deep in the rock…THAT is the site of the Oregon Trail Ruts.

Once the wagons passed the North Platte River area, the need for grass and water would nag at them constantly. They had to travel up Devil’s Backbone and then the more difficult Prospect Hill.

Walking and climbing weren’t the only dangers at this point. Danger laid in the toxic alkali waterholes along a 30 mile stretch. Lots of hard working oxen and men drank from these waterholes and gravesites were littered right next to the trail.

Finally, the wagon train would arrive in Sweetwater, where water and grass was plentiful until the peak emigration years. Once that peak hit, even grass was scarce as more and more animals passed through. But early on, this was a great place to rest and explore Independence Rock; so named because it was said if you hit this by July 4^th, you could make it to Oregon or California before bad weather hit.

The trail from Sweetwater to the South Pass became populated with trading posts, Indian and army encampments, stage and telegraph stations.

The grade over the South Pass, while topping out at 7,550 feet, was gradual enough that most travelers didn’t know when they hit the summit, causing disappointment for some who thought of it as a milestone. What couldn’t be missed was that as they climbed, the temperature dropped and many regretting dropping blankets and clothing trying to lighten their load earlier in their journey.

When the Union Pacific Railroad linked the east to west by rail in 1869, travel on the trail dropped rapidly. It wasn’t that people weren’t moving west, but a couple days on a train sure beats months on the trail.

First a trickle, then a stream, and finally a torrent of humanity poured through the South Pass. It was after the Pass that the trails…Oregon, California and Mormon split. So many wheels and hooves cut into the earth that the ground in places is still scored with ruts. It is thought that over ½ a million people traveled these trails to find a new life in the west.

Thankfully, at least at the Oregon Trail Ruts in Guersey, little development and visitors have kept the site relatively undisturbed. Looking at those ruts is a testament to the determination of a nation to grow and prosper.