Registered National Historic Landmark

Wagon wheels cut solid rock, carving a memorial to Empire Builders. what manner of men and beasts impelled conveyances weighting on those griding wheels? Look! A line of shadows crossing boundless wilderness.

Foremost, nimble mules drawing their carts, come poised Montain Men carrying trade goods to a fur fair — the Rendezvous. So, in 1830, Bill Sublette turns the first wheels from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains! Following his faint trail, a decade later and on throught the 1860's, appear straining, twisting teams of oxen, mules and heavy draft horses drawing Conestoga wagons for Oregon pioneers. Trailing the Oregon-bound avant garde but otherwise mingling with those emigrants, inspired by religious fervor, loom footsore and trail worn companies — Mormons dragging or pushing handcarts as they follow Brigham Young to the Valley of the Salt Lake. And, after 1849, reacting to a differnt stimulus but sharing the same trail, urging draft animals to extremity, straining resources and often failing, hurry gold rushers California bound.

A different breed, no emigrants but enterprisers and adventurers, capture the 1860's scene. They appear, multi-teamed units in draft — heavy wagons in tandem, jerkline operators and bullwhackers delivering freight to Indian War outposts and agencies. Now the apparition fades in a changing environment. Dimley seen, this last commerce serves a new, pastoral society; the era of the cattle baron and the advent of settlement blot the Oregon Trail.

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Show me all markers in:  Guernsey, WY  |  Platte County  |  82214  |  Wyoming  |  United States of America

Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site
The United States Army and the Oregon Trail
Forts, Stations, and Camps
Oregon Trail Ruts
Encampments in the Guernsey Area
Grave of Lucindy Rollins
Laramie Peak
The Burlington - Northern Railroad
Guernsey - Frederick Ranch
Sand Point

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