At City of Rocks, travelers in the past might have seen a Shoshone hunting party, a wagon train heading west, a stagecoach passing freight wagons, or holiday celebrations at the stage station. Emigrant Canyon, the gap in the ridge ahead, was a key portal for western travel. The Salt Lake Alternate, a major branch of the emigrant wagon route to California, passed through Emigrant Canyon and rejoined the main California Trail nearby. From 1869 to 1883, the City of Rocks Home Station stood a few hundred yards away and served passengers and employees on the Kelton stage route, which linked the railroad at Kelton, Utah, with booming mining towns in Idaho.