Fort Bridger Pony Express Station
Related Posts:
30 Friday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inFort Bridger Pony Express Station
Related Posts:
30 Friday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inTags
Fort Bridger is a census-designated place (CDP) in Uinta County, Wyoming. The population was 345 at the 2010 census. The town takes its name from the eponymous Fort Bridger established in 1842.
22 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inBluemel Homesteads
The Bluemel brothers, Henry John and William Oswald (Will) from Randolph, Utah, came to the Bench in February 1891 to establish the first homesteads after the Army opened the area yo homesteading. Because the elevation is higher than the post headquarters at Fort Bridger, the area was named “The Bench.” After staking claims, Will returned to Randolph to bring back their father, Henry Carl, to help them build the first house. It was a small, one-room structure built of logs with a dirt roof. Henry Carl and Will returned to Randolph to care for their family while Henry John spent the first winter alone in this home.
Will married his sweetheart, Emily Louise Pearce, in 1894 and brought her to his homestead. In 1895, Henry John married Melissa Jane Stewart, a daughter of James Wesley Stewart. Stewart was a scout in the Brigham Young party. Mary Elizabeth, a young sister of the Bluemel brothers, came for a visit. She met and later married James Wiley Stewart, a son of James Wesley.
As the area grew, the need for a community center became apparent. The first center, measuring 18 by 30 feet, was build on this site. The building served as the first church, school, community hall, and overall general meeting place. As the area continued to expand, the center was replaced by a larger building in a different location.
The Henry John homestead is still owned by his descendants who bought part of the William Oswald homestead to accommodate their growing family. This monument stands where the two homesteads come together.
See other D.U.P. Historic Markers here.
22 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inErected by the members of the Woodruff Stake in honor of the Mormon Pioneers who passed this point on Wednesday July 7, 1847 and in subsequent years.
This monument is at the Lyman Rest Area just off Interstate 80.
22 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inLyman Rest Area
The Lyman Rest Area off Interstate 80.
There’s a Wyoming’s Wildlife sign and a monument to the pioneers who passed here.
22 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inWyoming’s Wildlife
This Wyoming Wildlife sign is located at the Lyman Rest Area off Interstate 80.
Do yourself a favor! As you travel Wyoming slow down and enjoy a taste of wildness. Wyoming is one of the lst places in North America with great expanses of wild lands.
Much of Wyoming is similar to the way it was before the West was settled. Take a break-smell the sage, hear a meadowlark, and feel the freedom of these wildlands.
The migrations of many of our elk, mule deer and pronghorn antelope herds are extensive, as long as 200 miles, as they move through these vast habitats on seasonal treks as old as time itself.
The feelings of desolation you experience when traveling 1-80 across southern Wyoming are not shared by the mule deer or pronghorn antelope. Their survival depends upon being able to move freely between summering and wintering areas. Sagebrush and large expanses of native habitat in which to roam make Wyoming home to two-thirds of the world’s population of pronghorns, numbering over one-half million animals.
So, while traveling throughout Wyoming, remember that much of what you see is still wide open, untrammeled wildland and part of the formula critical to conserving Wyoming’s outstanding wildlife resources.
21 Wednesday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inContinuing the Journey West
Just a few miles from where you’re standing, the emigrants would come to the first of several trail “splits” that would take them to a crossing on the Green River where they would camp for the evening.
Even with South Pass behind them, Oregon or California-bound travelers still faced more than half their journey and the roughest traveling portion of the trail. Emigrants headed to Utah were slightly better off as they were less than a month away from journey’s end.
As you continue your journey, think about the courage of the people who passed through this country and settled half our nation.
This historic marker is located on a walking path loop on Highway 28 just west of Farson, stopping here you can see all these markers:
21 Wednesday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inPilot Butte & “Graves” of the Unknown Emigrants
Welcome to the Pilot Butte Emigrant Trails Interpretive Site. The purpose of the site is to help you gain a sense of what life was like for the 400,000 emigrants who left their homes to seek a new life in the West. They were seeking wealth, religious freedom, land of their own, a new life. They all found hardship and suffering along the trail.
At the bottom of the path you’ll see the actual trail ruts of the Oregon, California, Mormon Pioneer, and Pony Express National Historic Trails.
The signs along the path relate some of the history of the westward expansion. During your visit, look around. This area is largely unchanged from the days of overland emigrants. Imagine what it would have been like to walk, ride a horse, or drive a wagon halfway across America and a long way from home.
This historic marker is located on a walking path loop on Highway 28 just west of Farson, stopping here you can see all these markers:
21 Wednesday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inEmigrant/Indian Relations
Relations between emigrants using the trails and the Indians were inconsistent during the migration period. While hostile acts and violent confrontation did occur, they have been overemphasized in trail history. During the early migration period of the 1840s, there is documentation of the Indians helping emigrants with treacherous river crossings, giving directions, conducting peaceful trading, and providing food. It appeared that the native populations did not view the small numbers of emigrants as a threat, even though they were trespassing on tribal lands. Chief Washakie and his Shoshones were well-known for their kindness and…
The California Gold Rush period, with its large increase in emigrant numbers, seems to mark the beginning of ill feelings and openly hostile acts. The large emigrant numbers disturbed the game herds upon which the Indians heavily depended. The emigrants’ cut all the available wood and their livestock overgrazed the trail corridor. Confrontations increased and the paying of a tribute to cross tribal lands became a common practice.
Indians suffered heavier losses than did the emigrants. In the 20-year period from 1840 to 1860, only 362 emigrants were killed by Indians. Large groups of emigrants were seldom attacked, and most deaths resulted when individuals were out hunting or exploring. An emigrant was much more likely to die from disease, be run over by a wagon, trampled in a stampede, accidentally shot, or drowned while crossing a river.
This historic marker is located on a walking path loop on Highway 28 just west of Farson, stopping here you can see all these markers:
21 Wednesday Mar 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inFirst Transcontinental Telegraph
In 1859, the California legislature offered $6,000 a year for the first overland telegraph. This was followed by an act of the United States Congress on June 16, 1860, pledging $40,000 a year for ten years for carrying government messages. With these inducements, the first work was begun in 1860, but by the end of that year the line ran only to Fort Kearny, Nebraska, from the east and to Fort Churchill, Nevada, from the west.
There was some question of which route should be followed over the Rocky Mountains. The Western Union and Missouri Telegraph Company informed Colorado residents that if they would subscribe $20,000 worth of stock in the enterprise, the company would run the line through Denver, otherwise, the emigrant and mail route over South Pass would be followed. The support in Colorado did not come, and the telegraph was pushed across Wyoming in the summer and fall of 1861. The lack of trees along much of the western route posed a considerable construction problem, but in the fall of 1861, the transcontinental telegraph carried the first message from New York to San Francisco. The remains of the telegraph poles have long since disappeared, but it passed along the emigrant trail in front of this sign.
This historic marker is located on a walking path loop on Highway 28 just west of Farson, stopping here you can see all these markers: