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Landmarks on South Pass Oregon Mormon Trails and the Fur Trade
by
O. Ned Eddins

Mountains of Stone The Winds of Change

Mormon Trail Willey Martin Handcart Companies Sarah Crossley Sessions Hole-in-the-Rock Trail Oregon California Trail Oregon Country

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The pictures below are Landmarks, Monuments, and Markers associated with the Fur Trade, and the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails across South Pass. A detailed description of the discovery of South Pass, and what would become the Oregon Trail, including a map, is covered in the Astorian article. The importance of South Pass to the geographical outline of the United States is discussed in the Oregon Country article.

Click on the thumbnail to in large the picture.

Two of the most important items along the Oregon and Mormon trails are seldom mentioned. These were ox shoes and buffalo chips.

Worn Ox Shoe Pair Ox Shoes

Oxen had to be shod several time on the overland journey. It took four pairs of shoes to do the front and back feet.

Buffalo Chip

Buffalo chips were as important as any landmark on the Oregon and Mormon pioneer trails. Dried buffalo manure was the only "firewood" for cooking and heat found on the prairie. One of the first tasks when the Oregon and Mormon Trail wagon trains stopped at night was to gather armfuls, or aprons full, of dried buffalo chips. Called "meadow muffins", it took two or three bushels of chips to heat a meal. Makes you wonder if B.S. comes from the "tall tales" told around campfires of buffalo chips.

Prairie Schooner

The Prairie Schooner was widely used by immigrants on the overland migration. The Conestoga wagon was to big and heavy to pull.

Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock rises four hundred and seventy feet above the North Platte River in western Nebraska. The tip of the formation is three hundred and twenty-five feet above the base. To fur traders, mountain men, and the Oregon and Mormon Trail immigrants, Chimney rock marked the end of plains travel and the beginning of the mountains on the overland trails.

Beyond Chimney Rock, the next Oregon-Mormon Trail landmark was Scott's Bluff. The first known traders to see it was Robert Stuart and the Astorians in 1812. The bluff was named for Hiram Scott whose body was found near the bluff in 1830. The Oregon Trail picture is taken from the summit of Scott's Bluff.

Scott's Bluff Oregon Trail

Headed west, the next major stop on the Oregon and Mormon Trail was Fort Laramie (Fort William Fort John).

Fort Laramie Settlers Store

The above pictures are of the restored Fort Laramie. Near the mouth of Laramie Creek and the North Plate River, the original fort was built by William Sublette in 1834. On June 26, 1849, Lieutenant Daniel P. Woodbury purchased the trading post from the American Fur Company for four thousand dollars, and named it Fort Laramie. The fort served as a repair and supply point for the Oregon and Mormon Trail, as well as, a major army post during the Plains Indian wars. Merril Mattes of the National Park Service has written an excellent account of Fort Laramie( Mattes).

Independence Rock P. G. Sessions

Independence Rock is on the eastside of South Pass. Located on the Sweetwater River, emigrants of the Oregon, Mormon, California trails stopped there before going over South Pass. William Sublette and his supply train party for the 1830 Rendezvous celebrated Independence Day there on July 4th, 1830. This is when Independence Rock supposedly received its name. The Oregon Pioneers considered Independence Rock as being halfway to Oregon. If Independence Rock was reached by July 4th, chances were good the emigrants could reach the Oregon Country before snow fall. My great-great grandfather Perrigrine G. Sessions, the first settler of Bountiful, Utah, carved his name on the southeast corner of Independence rock in August of 1847. Father DeSmet referred to Independence Rock as the "The Great Register of the Desert."

Devil's Gate Martin's Cove

Devil's Gate is a narrow cut made by the Sweetwater River through rock. Devil's Gate is hundred seventy feet high and more than a quarter mile in length. Martin's Cove is approximately four miles west of Devils Gate.

The Oregon and Mormon trail across South Pass is marked with monument. These monuments have Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, and California Trail on the sides. With so many roads in the South Pass area, it is always nice to find a marker and know you are on the old trail.

Oregon Trail Mormon Trail

Where South Pass crosses the Continental Divide the elevation is 7546 feet above sea level. At this point South Pass is twenty miles wide.

South Pass East South Pass West

The above pictures of South Pass were taken on the Continental Divide

Oregon Trail Marker Whitman-Spaulding Marker

These markers are located on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide near where the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails cross over to Pacific drainage. On the south end of the Wind River Range in Wyoming, South Pass is an open sagebrush-covered area. In 1836, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spaulding were the first white women to cross South Pass

South Pass Wagon Tracks Old Hay Ranch

The Oregon and Mormon trails in many places were several miles wide, but when the emigrant wagons used the same part of the trail, the heavy loaded wagons of the Oregon Pioneers, the Mormon emigrants, and the California Gold Miners often left wagon ruts six feet or better deep. The above tracks near Pacific Springs are about five feet deep. These tracks and the old hay ranch are a little over two miles from the Continental Divide. Used in the early 1900s, the hay ranch picture shows what a broad area South Pass covers.

Pacific Spring was the first dependable water on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide. Located in this area was Gilbert's Station, a Pony Express Station, Halter and Flick hay ranch, and the turn off for the Lander Cutoff.

Lander Cutoff:

The Lander Cutoff of the Oregon Trail was constructed in 1858. It was the only federally funded part of the Oregon Trail. After leaving the original Oregon trail at Pacific Springs, the Lander Cut-off passed over the Wyoming Range, Salt River Range, and the Caribou Range in Idaho to rejoined the Oregon California trail near Fort Hall, Idaho. The Lander Cutoff saved considerable distance, but was much harder travel than the more open country to Fort Bridger and on to Soda Springs.

From 1840 to 1860, the total number of people who traveled the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails is estimated to be between 315,000 and 320,000. The entire population of the United States during this period went from just over 17 million in 1840 to about 31 million in 1860.

The grave under the big pine tree is Elizabeth Paul. She died July 27th, 1862 during child birth. One estimate has one of every seventeen travelers on the Oregon Trail dying in route to the Oregon Country. This is about one grave for every quarter mile traveled on the trail.

The Father DeSmet monument sets on a bluff over looking the Horse Creek rendezvous sites. Near here, Father DeSmet held the first Catholic Mass in Wyoming.

Located in the Teton Wilderness area, Two Ocean Pass separates the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean drainage. North Two Oceans Creek runs down the Continental Divide a short distance then splits into two branches. Depending on the time of year, each branch is three- to six-feet wide. Atlantic Creek flows 3,348 miles to the Gulf of Mexico via. the Yellowstone, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers. Pacific Creek flows 1,353 miles to the Pacific Ocean via. the Snake and Columbia Rivers.

Two Ocean Pass Parting of the Waters
(Elevation 8,160 feet)

People scoffed at Jim Bridger when he said a fish could swim from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Two Ocean Pass was the place.

The Historical Landmark article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.

Citation: Eddins, Ned. (article name) Mountainsofstone.com. Afton, Wyoming. 2002.

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