The Boomer Bus: Casper, Wyoming

Monday 19 May, 2014

Whew, what a day.We left Cheyenne around 1030 and headed toward Ft Laramie. It is nowhere close to Laramie, in fact it about 150 miles East of Laramie and 25 miles East of Wheatland. Along the way we stopped at Guernsey to visit the historical site where there were ruts of the wagon trains that transited the area during pioneer days preserved. It's a small park located close to the North Platte River. It seems that the pioneers followed the river when possible as they headed West.

You see these everywhere

Guernsey Historical Park

Some of the settlers were headed for Oregon, the Mormons were headed to Salt Lake City and the rest were headed to California. In all they estimated over 500,000 passed through there. This is also the area where a US Army Lt went to an Indian village and tried to arrest an Indian for killing an emigrants cow. A shot was fired and his entire 29 men (plus him) were killed and that started the Plains Indian war.

Ruts in the soft limestone rocks.

Where did the wagon go?

More of the ruts

Shows the depth of the ruts in the limestone rocks

After visiting the ruts we drove to Register Cliff where a lot of the pioneers would stop and rest and send letters back East. There was a Pony Express Station there and the horses and cattle could drink from the river. They buried their dead there and would inscribe their name into the side of the soft rock mountain. At one point the owner blasted a hole in the mountain to store potatoes and other vegetables. It kept them cool , yet they didn't freeze either. he also donated the land to the state for the historical site.

The root cellar blasted in the side of the cliff.

These nests are built of mud and clay and are built under the rocks ledges. The birds appear to be Cliff Swallows

Now we were off to Ft Laramie. Ft Laramie was the primary supply stopping place for all the emigrants that were heading West. Their other purpose was to provide a safe passage for the emigrants. As such they were tasked with keeping the Indians satisfied and peaceful. The agreement was to allow the emigrants safe passage and the Indians could keep the Black Hills (SD & ND) without any intrusion. It worked until the LT and his 29 men were killed by the Lakota (Souix) Indians.
They negotiated the treaties between the government and the Indians, most famous was the Horse Creek Treaty of 1851 and the Treaty of 1868, which remains controversial and contested to this day.