The Twin Mounds were a minor landmark along the Trail, where low hills on either side helped keep emigrants headed in the right direction on the final climb to South Pass. After wagons passed between the mounds, they fanned out abreast across the plain, and the ruts at the foot of the Twin Mounds are a fine example of parallel rut systems. William Clayton described this portion of the Trail in his Latter-Day Saints' Emigrants' Guide, published in 1848, writing under the last entry for the Sweetwater River, "Good place to camp. After traveling seven miles beyond this, and passing between the Twin Mounds, you will find a good camping place a quarter of a mile north of the road." Many emigrant journals also record passing several graves in the area of the Twin Mounds between the Sweetwater River and South Pass.