I-25 through Wyoming

If you would rather view a narrated video, rather than read about this trip, it is available on youtube. 

We spend most of the day heading north on I-25 through Wyoming. Our only stop of the day was at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, WY. We both felt that we had been here before, because the building looked so familiar. Run by the BLM, I suspect that it is a similar museum to another we’ve visited. As we arrived they were having a special talk on firearms used by the settlers and Indians of the area. We learned a few new things. While the settlers gave the Indians rifles, the Indians were dependent upon white men for both gun powder and bullets for many years. These became profitable trade items. The first Colt pistol had 5 shots in the revolver. But these had to be individually loaded with shot and tamped with gun powder. Each shot also had to be surrounded with grease or firing one of them would light the entire set, usually resulting in severe injury to the shooter.

The Oregon Trail

The museum itself covers the story of the key trails that came through Casper: the Oregon, California, and Mormon trail as well as the pony express route. All these trails crossed the continental divide at South Pass (southwest of here). All these trails follow the Platt River for over 500 miles and here they cross the Platt for the last time. This was often a dangerous crossing, the river can be 10 feet deep here, and often wagon trains would get delayed here waiting for the water to recede. In the 1850’s a ferry was created and later a toll bridge. The trains then followed the Sweetwater passing Independence rock (the goal was to reach here before July 4^th to beat the winter snows).  This all ended in the late 1860’s when the first transcontinental railroad was completed.