South Pass

South Pass
Historic South Pass, seen from the east looking westward towards Pacific Springs
Elevation	7,412 ft (2,259 m)
Traversed by	Oregon Trail, California Trail, and Mormon Trail, Wyoming Highway 28
Location
Location	Fremont County, Wyoming, United States
Range	Wind River Range and Antelope Hills
Coordinates	42°22′12″N 108°54′49″W
Topo map	USGS Pacific Springs

South Pass
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Nearest city:	South Pass City, Wyoming
Built:	1824
Architect:	Unknown
Governing body:	BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
NRHP Reference#:	66000754
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL:	January 20, 1961

South Pass (elevation 7,412 feet (2,259 m) and 7,550 feet (2,300 m)) is two mountain passes on the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Wyoming. The passes are located in a broad low region, 35 miles broad, between the Wind River Range to the north and the Oregon Buttes and Great Divide Basin to the south, in southwestern Fremont County, approximately 35 miles (54 km) SSW of Lander. South Pass is the lowest point on the Continental Divide between the Central Rocky Mountains and the Southern Rocky Mountains. The passes furnish a natural crossing point of the Rockies and the historic pass has historically been the route for the Oregon Trail, California Trail, and Mormon Trail during the 19th century. It is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. 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 flows past the east side of the pass, and Pacific Creek rises on the west side. Historic South Pass is the lower of the two passes, (elevation 7,412 feet (2,259 m)) and was the easy crossing point used by emigrants. Wyoming highway 28 crosses the Continental Divide 2.5 miles to the northwest at elevation 7,550 feet (2,300 m) and the crossing is also named South Pass. The Lander Cutoff Route crosses the Continental Divide at the far northwest end of the broad South Pass region, about 25 miles to the northwest of the South Passes, at an elevation of 8,030 feet (2,450 m).

History

South Pass sign

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 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.

Map of southwestern Wyoming showing location of South Pass at the headwaters of the Sweetwater River.

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)

The 20th century saw Oregon Trail boosters mark the trailway with monuments as patriotic pathways of Manifest Destiny. Ezra Meeker erected this boulder near Pacific Springs on Wyoming's South Pass in 1906.

Despite Stuart's meticulous journal of the trip, which was presented to Astor and President James Madison, and published in France, its location did not immediately become 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 Spalding were the first white 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 was not 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.

South Pass was designated a national historic landmark in 1961.

Wyoming Highway 28 traverses the modern pass, roughly following the route of the Oregon Trail. Wagon ruts are still clearly visible in numerous sites within a few miles of the highway.

External links

• History and virtual tour of South pass
• Ramsay Crooks" letter
• South Pass National Historic Landmark at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office