Travel Wyoming's Historic Southern Corridor With
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Former Union Laramie as Travel Wyoming’s 1 Pacific Depots 3 the railroad arrived Historic Southern Former Union Pacific By the end of 1867, the Railroad depots are open to Union Pacific tracks had Corridor with the public across southern reached Cheyenne. In the Wyoming in Cheyenne, spring, the tracks continued Laramie, Medicine Bow, over the mountains to the Rawlins, Rock Springs and west and reached Laramie Evanston. in early May. Since fur-trade times, Wyoming has straddled the main travel Union Pacific in Wyoming route across North America. Hanna The Oregon and Overland trails were The building of the 4 Union Pacific across followed by the Union Pacific Railroad, “Coal is King,” proclaims Wyoming forever a yearly celebration in which was followed by the Lincoln changed the political and Hanna, Wyo., long a Highway and today’s Interstate 80. The physical landscape. routes are full of stories. mining town for railroad coal and later a stop on the Lincoln Highway. As you travel Wyoming, use the QR codes on the following pages with your mobile phone or tablet or visit 2 Ames Monument Fort Fred Steele www.wyohistory.org/ 5 southern-corridor At an elevation of 8,247 In 1868, the U.S. feet, this monument to the for in-depth articles, maps, directions government established Union Pacific’s financiers Fort Fred Steele where the and photo galleries—all with info on stands at what once was these historic sites and landmarks. new U.P. Railroad crossed the highest point on the the North Platte River. route of the railroad. Later, the Lincoln Highway passed by, too. Frontier Prison, Rock Springs Fort Bridger 6 Rawlins 8 10 The cornerstone for what Rock Springs traces its Established in 1843. became Wyoming’s first origins to a coal mine The area--known as the state prison was laid in 1888 established there in 1868 Bridger Valley--served as but the prison itself did not to serve the still-building a crossroads for trails, the open for 13 more years. Union Pacific Railroad. transcontinental railroad and the Lincoln Highway. Evanston Point of Rocks 9 Green River 11 7 Stage Station The town was created as a The Point of Rocks Stage This town, located on its service stop for locomotives Station was built in namesake river and on the between Green River, Wyo., 1862, and the westward Union Pacific Railroad, and Ogden, Utah, on the construction of the Union began as a stage station. Union Pacific Railroad’s Pacific Railroad reached After the U.P. relocated transcontinental route. Point of Rocks in the switching and roundhouse summer of 1868, making operations there in the early the spot the junction of 1870s, the Green River rail Piedmont Charcoal the Overland Trail and the yard became one of the 12 Kilns UPRR. busiest in the nation. Built to produce charcoal for Utah smelters. Charcoal production began in Piedmont about the time WyoHistory.org is a project of the the Union Pacific Railroad Wyoming State Historical Society, was built through the area www.wyshs.org. in 1868..