South Pass
South Pass near the south end of the Wind River Range in central Wyoming USA, is a wide, low pass through the Rocky Mountains used by many of the western trails. The Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, and California Trail all passed through it. South Pass is a broad open saddle with prairie and sagebrush, crossing the Continental Divide at an elevation of about 7550 feet.
South Pass was known only to Native Americans until 1812 when Robert Stuart and six companions crossed the Rockies here on their return from Astoria:
- "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 had 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)
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. Before the railroads offered an easier crossing, perhaps half a million would trek through South Pass.
Route 28 follows the trail. Not far from the highway, wagon ruts are still clearly visible.
