Oregon Trail Ruts

Wagon wheels cut solid rock along the Oregon Trail, leaving traces of the people and animals who crossed the wilderness. In 1830, Bill Sublette turned the first wheels from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains as mountain men carried trade goods to a fur fair known as the Rendezvous. Following that faint trail a decade later and on through the 1860's came Oregon pioneers with teams of oxen, mules, and heavy draft horses drawing Conestoga wagons. Along the same route traveled Mormon companies, inspired by religious fervor, dragging or pushing handcarts as they followed Brigham Young to the Valley of the Salt Lake. After 1849, California-bound gold rushers also pressed along the trail, urging draft animals to extremity, straining resources, and often failing. In the 1860's, enterprisers and adventurers appeared with heavy freight wagons, tandem teams, jerkline operators, and bullwhackers delivering freight to Indian War outposts and agencies. As a new pastoral society emerged, with the era of the cattle baron and the advent of settlement, the Oregon Trail faded from the landscape.

Guernsey, Wyoming · United States