May 26, 2019 Sunday Day 8
After another mediocre breakfast at the hotel, but enlivened by a conversation with a couple of women who were traveling west, we opted to skip the Legend Rock Petroglyph site because it would have required us to backtrack and continuing south we left Thermopolis we quickly entered the Wind River Gorge. That was a speculator 45 minute ride. The canyon walls rise over 2500 ft. and have beautiful colors. We spotted some wildlife scampering around the canyon walls.The Wind and Big Horn Rivers surged along us and would have made for a great river run. Perhaps next trip.
The remainder of the 2 hour trip to Casper was uneventful. We passed by Boysen State Park which has a large reservoir and through Shoshoni, but we did not stop as we were on our way to the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. This is a wonderful museum that is operated by the BLM and tells the story of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion over the four pioneer trails, Oregon, California, Mormon and Bozeman, in the mid 19th century. Over 400,000 pioneers trekked west in what was the largest voluntary mass migration in history. There were lots of interactive exhibits, a very helpful staff and an interesting multi-media show.
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The exhibits highlighted the hardships of the early pioneer travels. The first group of 69 pioneers, the Bidwell-Bartleson Party left Independence Missouri with no road to follow, no guide, a wildly inaccurate map, no experience with overland long distance travel and no guide. They subsequently were joined by a mountain man, Thomas "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick, who lead them over the plains and into the mountains in present day Idaho. There he abandoned them and by themselves they finally made their way to Oregon after blazing a trail that in part was later used for the trans-continental railroad. Subsequent groups created the Hastings Cutoff Trail, but that went through the Great Salt Desert and killed off many of the livestock. Salt Lake City became the half way house on the California Trail in 1849 and afforded the Mormons the opportunity to profit, many said to a larcenous degree, off the gold rushers.
The Pony Express arose indirectly out of the Utah War. Russell, Majors &Waddell contracted with the War Department to haul military freight to Utah. That firm lost scores of wagons and hundreds of livestock to the Mormons who "liberated" them. Seeking a government mail contract to ward off bankruptcy they organized a horse and rider relay to carry mail between St. Joseph Missouri and San Francisco. The service worked well, deliveries were regularly made within 10 days, but it was not sufficient to rescue the firm and it had to sell the service to Wells Fargo. Two days after the telegraph line across the continent opened, the Pony Express shut down. We spent most of the afternoon there.
We the drove into town to check in at the Days Inn. Easy to find off the freeway and they permitted me to use an outside outlet to charge up the car. We were given a large room and the bed was good. Hot cookies and lemonade at check-in was a nice touch.
After unpacking we walked to the Platte River. The neighborhood that we walked through was pretty run down. A large trailer park and the free standing homes were not well cared for. This belied what we had read about Casper as a prosperous town built on energy. The river view was nice, but it appeared that the river walk was on the other side of the river. So we turned back and picked up the car for a drive through town. We drove south toward Casper College and this tour revealed a more prosperous looking Casper. Tree lined streets with medium sized, well maintained older homes. The two renowned museums on and near the campus were closed and the campus looked deserted.
We then drove into downtown. It was easy to park as there was very little activity and most of the businesses were closed. Memorial day weekend. Most of the buildings were old, built in the early 1900s, the tallest being the 10 story Petroleum Building, but there were no boarded up storefronts, the place was clean and we saw no homeless. I was struck by the presence of three active movie theatres downtown. There were very few restaurants open, but we soon found the Branding Iron that had been recommended to us during our walk to the river. Primarily a brew and burger place, but they also served pork belly mac and cheese. The first two were good.
Casper got its start as a hub of the four major pioneer overland trails in the mid 1800s. Independence Rock which is where the trails start to diverge is about an hour west of the city. An oil boom beginning in 1910 sparked development of the town and notoriety followed in the wake of the Teapot Dome scandal that lead to the imprisonment of two Cabinet Secretaries for bribery. It was a military hub during WWII and now it is a center for a coal mining industry which produces 24% of the nation's coal.
We drove back to the hotel through the east part of town and charged up the car.
After another mediocre breakfast at the hotel, but enlivened by a conversation with a couple of women who were traveling west, we opted to skip the Legend Rock Petroglyph site because it would have required us to backtrack and continuing south we left Thermopolis we quickly entered the Wind River Gorge. That was a speculator 45 minute ride. The canyon walls rise over 2500 ft. and have beautiful colors. We spotted some wildlife scampering around the canyon walls.The Wind and Big Horn Rivers surged along us and would have made for a great river run. Perhaps next trip.
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| Wind River Canyon |
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The exhibits highlighted the hardships of the early pioneer travels. The first group of 69 pioneers, the Bidwell-Bartleson Party left Independence Missouri with no road to follow, no guide, a wildly inaccurate map, no experience with overland long distance travel and no guide. They subsequently were joined by a mountain man, Thomas "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick, who lead them over the plains and into the mountains in present day Idaho. There he abandoned them and by themselves they finally made their way to Oregon after blazing a trail that in part was later used for the trans-continental railroad. Subsequent groups created the Hastings Cutoff Trail, but that went through the Great Salt Desert and killed off many of the livestock. Salt Lake City became the half way house on the California Trail in 1849 and afforded the Mormons the opportunity to profit, many said to a larcenous degree, off the gold rushers.
The Pony Express arose indirectly out of the Utah War. Russell, Majors &Waddell contracted with the War Department to haul military freight to Utah. That firm lost scores of wagons and hundreds of livestock to the Mormons who "liberated" them. Seeking a government mail contract to ward off bankruptcy they organized a horse and rider relay to carry mail between St. Joseph Missouri and San Francisco. The service worked well, deliveries were regularly made within 10 days, but it was not sufficient to rescue the firm and it had to sell the service to Wells Fargo. Two days after the telegraph line across the continent opened, the Pony Express shut down. We spent most of the afternoon there.
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Pony Express Recruiting Poster seeking young, light weight, orphans
Pioneer covered wagon
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After unpacking we walked to the Platte River. The neighborhood that we walked through was pretty run down. A large trailer park and the free standing homes were not well cared for. This belied what we had read about Casper as a prosperous town built on energy. The river view was nice, but it appeared that the river walk was on the other side of the river. So we turned back and picked up the car for a drive through town. We drove south toward Casper College and this tour revealed a more prosperous looking Casper. Tree lined streets with medium sized, well maintained older homes. The two renowned museums on and near the campus were closed and the campus looked deserted.
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| Platte River |
Casper got its start as a hub of the four major pioneer overland trails in the mid 1800s. Independence Rock which is where the trails start to diverge is about an hour west of the city. An oil boom beginning in 1910 sparked development of the town and notoriety followed in the wake of the Teapot Dome scandal that lead to the imprisonment of two Cabinet Secretaries for bribery. It was a military hub during WWII and now it is a center for a coal mining industry which produces 24% of the nation's coal.
We drove back to the hotel through the east part of town and charged up the car.
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