Showing posts with label Overland Trail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Overland Trail. Show all posts

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Overland Trail Marker, Carbon County Wyoming


This is the second time recently we've put up an Overland Trail marker here.  The other one was in Albany County.


For some reason, the southerly route of the Overland Trail always takes me by surprise.  It really shouldn't however, as in this part of the state the Union Pacific Railroad isn't far away, and it took the same basic route through here.


For that matter, so did the Lincoln Highway. So obviously, the southern route wasn't a bad one, and it was competitive with the Oregon Trail.


This marker is just north of Saratoga Wyoming.  While I don't know for sure, I suspect the two track visible in this photo is the actual trail.  In many places in Wyoming the trails remain quite visible.



Wednesday, July 27, 2016

The Overland Trail, Albany County Wyoming


These are two markers noting the location, in Albany County, where the Overland Trail passed by the current town of Laramie.


The Overland Trail was a southern bypass, basically, on the Oregon Trail, taking immigrants and travelers considerably further south and therefore also out of the more active areas on the Platte that saw a lot of Indian activity.  The Overland Trail was not safe, but it was less likely to see Indian hostilities.


We tend to think, today, only of the Oregon Trail, but this markers serves to remind us that pioneers took a variety of routes.  This one later was exploited, roughly, by the Union Pacific railroad which took a somewhat analogous route for much of its course. 


This location interestingly features at least three, and maybe four, generations of Wyoming highway historical markers. The large wooden sign is a common one still used by Wyoming today.  A new paper sign with a bar code has been added to this and several other monuments in Albany County, suggesting that the state has some sort of new program going on. 


This area, however, also features an older cement marker.  I'm not terribly familiar with this type, so if anyone can add details about it, I'd appreciate it.  Note the circled K on the monument. 


This cement markers is just off the highway easement and I suspect that it is also associated with the trail.  In much of Wyoming the Oregon Trail is marked with cement markers in its course, and I suspect that this is something similar, but older, for the Overland Trail.