Spotted through the right-hand sight is Mexican Hill. At Mexican Hill the covered wagon emigrants, having turned into the fort on the Laramie River for information, supplies or repairs, cut over the intervening ridge to regain the Platte River route. There, wagon ruts worn into bedded rock attest to the volume of westward traffic traversing the Oregon Trail during the years 1840 to 1870.Coming down Mexican Hill's steep slope, drivers roughlocked wheels to keep wagons from running into their own backward-holding though forward-moving teams. Here, besides the animals iron-shod hooves, it was their singular stiff-legged, sliding step - adapted to hold against the forward thrust of heavily loaded wagons - which, together with the locked and sliding, steel-rimmed wheels, contributed to the extraordinary dept of the ruts.In 1841 Mexican artisans were engaged by the American Fur Company to build the adobe trading post later known as Fort Laramie. This hill took its name from the craftsmen who settled permanently in the vicinity and constructed an irrigation system at the foot of the hill to water their extensive gardens. They sold the produce to fur traders, soldiers and passing emigrants for whom it was a welcome supplement to diets otherwise lacking any fresh foods other than meat.
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