Mexican Hill

Mexican Hill was a point where covered wagon emigrants, after turning into the fort on the Laramie River for information, supplies, or repairs, cut over the intervening ridge to regain the Platte River route. Wagon ruts worn into bedded rock there attest to the volume of westward traffic that traversed the Oregon Trail during the years 1840 to 1870. Coming down the hill’s steep slope, drivers roughlocked wheels to keep wagons from running into their own backward-holding though forward-moving teams. The animals’ iron-shod hooves, their stiff-legged sliding step adapted to hold against the forward thrust of heavily loaded wagons, and the locked, sliding, steel-rimmed wheels together contributed to the extraordinary depth of the ruts. In 1841 Mexican artisans were engaged by the American Fur Company to build the adobe trading post later known as Fort Laramie, and the hill took its name from the craftsmen who settled permanently nearby, built an irrigation system at its foot to water extensive gardens, and sold produce to fur traders, soldiers, and passing emigrants.

Guernsey, Wyoming · United States