The Oregon Trail

by Jon Burch Photography

Title

The Oregon Trail

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Capture/faa Watermark Will Not Be On Your Finished Photograph.

Description

Above the North Platte River Valley about one half mile south Guernsey, Wyoming, these preserved Oregon Trail ruts are more than four feet deep!

At this point the trail started winding up towards South Pass while wagon wheels, draft animals, and people wore down the intentionally cut trail into a sandstone ridge during its heavy usage from 1841 through 1869. This half-mile stretch is "unsurpassed" and is the best-preserved set of Oregon Trail ruts anywhere along its former length and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The site is maintained as a State Historic Site within Guernsey State Park, which separately was declared a National Historic Landmark for its Civilian Conservation Corps structures, unrelated to the Oregon Trail Ruts.

The 2,000 mile long Oregon Trail is a tribute to the human spirit. People from all walks of life sold most of their possessions, piled what was left in a wagon and journeyed west in search of a better life heading to Oregon first for fur, then as missionaries, and finally for farmland.

A short drive from these deep ruts takes one back to the "Register Cliffs." On these rocks, rising one-hundred feet above the North Platte River Valley Wyoming emigrants, following a day's journey from Fort Laramie, spent the night and inscribed their names into the rocks. The earliest signatures date to the late 1820's when trappers and fur traders passed through the area, but most of the names visible today were carved during the 1840's and 1850's when the Oregon Trail was at its height.

Image copyright 2017 Jon Burch Photography

Uploaded

January 7th, 2017

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Viewed 169 Times  -  Last Visitor from Lake Mary, FL on 04/17/2024 at 3:18 PM

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