In 1847, the Oregon Trail passed this point where Highway 30 now crosses the Idaho-Wyoming state lines at the northernmost bend of the Bear River in Wyoming before it enters Idaho. To skirt wetlands to the north and south, thousands of wagon wheels left ruts that carved a long, lazy S-shaped route through marshy meadowlands one mile west to the crossing of Thomas Fork River entering from the northern valley. Crossing what are now cultivated barley fields, those ancient wagon tracks can still be seen clearly when the fields are prepared for planting, and the steel-clad wheels turned the naturally red-brown sandy soil to shades of gray. Northward from Cokeville, Wyoming, the original right-of-way of Highway 30 closely followed the old Oregon Trail on higher ground to avoid wetlands fed by seasonal high water from melting snow. Before irrigation diversions and construction of Woodruff Narrows Dam on the Bear River, spring water rose over the riverbanks, usually cresting in the last days of June and remaining high into mid-July; in 2010, it reached its highest level about June 22. The fertile bends of the Bear River were once filled with native grasses and willows that sheltered nesting Canada geese, hundreds of ducks, grouse, and songbirds, while mule deer, elk, moose, coyotes, bobcats, and occasional black bears frequented the area, but after the willows were destroyed, few birds and animals remained.