Travel the 1 Fort Laramie 3 Oregon Trail Ruts Oregon Trail with Fort Laramie began as a Ruts carved 2 to 6 feet deep fur-trade post in 1834 in a sandstone ridge on the near the confluence of the south side of the North Laramie and North Platte Platte River, about a half rivers. Soon it changed mile south of Guernsey, The Oregon, Mormon Pioneer into a post for the trade provide striking physical and California trails all cross in buffalo robes, and for evidence of the route supplying emigrants bound followed by hundreds of Wyoming in the central and most west on the Oregon/ thousands of emigrants. popular corridor of the transcontinental California/Mormon Trail. migration of the 1840s, ’50s and ’60s. As many as half a million people may have Reshaw’s Bridge traveled this corridor in the 19th century. Register Cliff 4 To many, the environments of the Great 2 John Richard’s bridge across Plains, Rocky Mountains and Great Register Cliff, near present the North Platte River near Basin seemed like another planet, full of Guernsey, is one of three present Casper eased the strange and alien landscapes. large “registers of the way for thousands of those desert” in Wyoming where who traveled the trail. Use the QR Codes on the following pages with your mobile phone or tablet or visit emigrants carved their www.wyohistory.org/oregon-trail to learn names on rock. more about these Oregon Trail landmarks, including in-depth articles, maps, directions, photo galleries, videos and more. 5 Fort Caspar 7 Martin’s Cove 9 Fort Bridger The U.S. Army established In 1856, a group of handcart Established by mountain Platte Bridge Station in emigrants from the Church men Jim Bridger and Louis 1862 to protect the Oregon/ of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Vasquez in 1843, Fort California/Mormon Trail Saints took shelter in this Bridger was an important crossing of the North small cove after a late start rest and re-supply spot for Platte River and the new in their journey across the emigrants. transcontinental telegraph. plains.

Lander Trail 6 Independence Rock 8 South Pass 10 n 1857, the U.S. Congress People have been leaving Without South Pass and the passed the Pacific Wagon carvings and images on this easy grade it offered to early Road Act, allowing the rock since prehistoric times. transcontinental travelers, survey and construction of When Father De Smet the history of the United wagon roads. A segment visited in 1841, he named States would have been of the first such national it the “Great Register of the much different. road built in the West is the Desert.” Lander Trail.

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