Everything about South Pass totally explained
South Pass (elevation 7550 ft) is a
mountain pass on the
Continental Divide in the
Rocky Mountains in southwestern
Wyoming. The pass is located in a broad valley between the
Wind River Range to the north and the
Antelope Hills to the south, in southwestern
Fremont County, approximately 35 miles (54 km) SSW of
Lander. The pass furnishes a natural crossing point of the Rockies and has historically been the route for the
Oregon Trail,
California Trail, and
Mormon Trail during the
19th century. The pass is a broad open saddle with
prairie and
sagebrush, allowing a broad and nearly level route between the
Atlantic and
Pacific watersheds. The
Sweetwater River rises on the east side of the pass, and
Pacific Creek rises on the west side.
History
The discovery of the pass as a natural crossing point of the Rockies was a significant but surprisingly difficult achievement in the westward expansion of the
United States. It was unknown to the
Lewis and Clark Expedition, which followed a northerly route up the
Missouri River, crossing the Rockies over difficult passes in the
Bitteroot Range in
Montana. South Pass, by comparison, was known only to
Native Americans until
1812, when
Robert Stuart and six companions from the
Pacific Fur Company (the
Astorians) crossed the Rockies here on their return from
Astoria, Oregon:
» "In 1811, the overland party of Mr. Astor's expedition, under the command of Mr. Wilson P. Hunt, of Trenton, New Jersey, although numbering sixty well armed men, found the Indians so very troublesome in the country of the Yellowstone River, that the party of seven persons who left Astoria toward the end of June, 1812, considering it dangerous to pass again by the route of 1811, turned toward the southeast as soon as they'd crossed the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, and, after several days' journey, came through the celebrated 'South Pass' in the month of November, 1812.
» Pursuing from thence an easterly course, they fell upon the River Platte of the Missouri, where they passed the winter and reached St. Louis in April, 1813.
» The seven persons forming the party were Robert McClelland of Hagerstown, who, with the celebrated Captain Wells, was captain of spies under General Wayne in his famous Indian campaign, Joseph Miller of Baltimore, for several years an officer of the U. S. Army, Robert Stuart, a citizen of Detroit, Benjamin Jones, of Missouri, who acted as huntsman of the party, Francois LeClaire, a halfbreed, and André Valée, a Canadian voyageur, and Ramsay Crooks, who is the only survivor of this small band of adventurers." (Letter of Ramsay Crooks to the
Detroit free Press, June 28, 1856)
Despite Stuart's meticulous journal of the trip, which was presented to Astor and President
James Madison, and published in France, the knowledge of its location wasn't widely known, so for over a decade trappers used a longer, more northern route which included an extra
mountain range and offered a shorter season for crossing. In
1824,
Jedediah Smith rediscovered the pass. In
1832, Captain
Benjamin Bonneville and a caravan of 110 men and 20 wagons became the first group to take wagons over the pass. In July
1836,
Narcissa Whitman and
Eliza Spaulding were the first pioneer women to cross South Pass. Between 1848 and 1868, it furnished the convenient crossing point for
emigrants westward, most of whom followed the Sweetwater River across Wyoming to its headwaters, following the
Central Route. Before the railroads offered an easier crossing in
1869, perhaps half a million would trek through South Pass.
Gold had been discovered in the gulches near the pass as early as
1842. It wasn't until
1867, when an ore sample was transported to
Salt Lake City, that an influx of miners descended into the region. The gold rush led to the establishment of booming mining communities such as
South Pass City and
Atlantic City. The
placer gold in the streams was exhausted quickly, however, and by
1870 the miners began leaving the region. In
1884, Emile Granier, a
French mining engineer, established a hydraulic drilling operation that allowed gold mining to continue. Gold mining was revived once again in nearby Rock Creek in the
1930s. From the
1960s through
1983, a
US Steel iron ore mine operated in Atlantic City.
Wyoming State Highway 28 traverses the pass, roughly following the route of the Oregon Trail. Wagon ruts are still clearly visible in numerous sites along the highway.
South Pass was designated a
national historic landmark in
1961.
Further Information
Get more info on 'South Pass'.
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