Oregon Trail: Wagon Ruts near Guernsey Wyoming
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- Опубліковано 1 гру 2021
- During the mid 1800s, more than 500,000 pioneers journeyed west. Never more than a rocky, rutted trail, the road west began in Missouri, crossing the plains before entering Wyoming along the north platte river. Travel became more difficult, upon reaching Wyoming, as the terrain changed from the wide open plains, to the rugged arid landscape typical of the west. The westward migration by wagon trains dwindled with the completion of the trans continental railroad in 1869. However, the trails continued to be used by local travelers, ranchers and the military.
This brings back a lot of memories. I have lived in Wyoming my whole life. In the early 70s I rode horses along the Oregon trail with my Father further west of here...more in the Sweet Water country. There were still pieces of furniture and other unnecessary thing scattered along the trail that where thrown from wagons to lighten them for the South Pass accent.
It seem like the ruts should be roped off some how. If every person that visits there scratches and kicks at the sand stone it won't be there for ever. Wind and water has already changed it.
I agree. These are historic remains and it seems that some of these yahoos can't control their urges to kick or scratch away at things. I'm surprised these doofus did'n't show up with a rock hammer and a metal detector.
@@58landman I was just thinking the same. Every time someone scratches away a bit means one more thing that will not survive.
That's "Townie" tourists for ya. They should never be allowed off the pavement. IMHO
Oh yes because no one would ever cross over a rope
I mean, who cares it’s just some ruts, eventually they’ll probably build a parking lot on top of them anyway.
I have spent a lot of time in the area. I used to be stationed at Camp Guernsey with the Wyoming Army National Guard. I have a theory about the Oregon Trail ruts. First, at the time the North Platte River was much closer to the rock where the ruts are located. If it was in the present location the immigrants would have just followed the flat terrain where the modern road lies. Second, I believe the ruts were made by freighter wagons returning to Ft. Laramie rather than the immigrant wagons. The freighters would have been applying their brakes as they went down hill going east and that would have cause much more friction between the wagon wheels and the soft sandstone. The immigrants, going uphill while west bound, would have had freely turning wheels which would not have eroded the sandstone so much.
A final quote about the immigrants on the Oregon Trail which can be applied to almost all immigrants, past and present, "The cowards never started and the weak died along the way."
Most of the "ruts" you see today are from erosion. It is all sandstone which is soft. The wagon wheel going across the sandstone softened the rock to make tracks for the water to erode to what you see today. I think you are correct as far as the river goes, It was closer to the rock edge where the ruts are, but did turn back towards town before register cliff, as the wagons did go around the point over there.
@@johnhawley4467 I would agree that runoff and erosion have deepened the ruts but the grooves in the walls of the ruts that parallel the bottom show that they were cut mechanically. Also, I would expect erosion to soften the difference between the center of the cut and the wheel ruts on the edges rather than keeping a uniform profile across the whole cut. So, I would say that they were primarily cut by wagon wheels (you see similar ruts in the paving stones in Pompeii) that were subsequently modified by erosion. BTW, I'm an old Wyoming geologist.
I was there in 1985. Sure didn't look like that. Imagine how many wagons it took to do that. Thanks for the memories.
😂😂😂😂
They arent from wagons.
Thats not what they are.
They are millions of years old.
Watching the show 1883 and seeing this gives it life, how many people are prob buried on the side of the roads and no one knows they are there
I was thinking the exact Dane same thing. That one quote about the Great Plains becoming the graveyards of so many is unbelievably heartbreaking to consider. I have a little girl, 6 years old and a 12 year old son. The whole time watching that show was emotional and couldn’t help to think of the pain that families went through. Leaving their children behind on that trail, or children continuing on without their mother or father. Watching the show to me was very humbling and taught me some humility if I’m being honest. I am grateful to have the good fortune to at least know with some amount of certainty that my little girl will be coming home each day and running to give my a hug. When my daughter was 3 she had a severe dog bite to the face, her nose and half her face was hanging off. I’ll never forget that day holding her with face together to stop the bleeding, but the harder I held pressure to stop the bleeding, the harder she cried. I don’t know if she was in shock but I just kept telling her I was there and to look in my eyes and I won’t let her go. But at the end of the day I KNEW that the ambulance was on its way, I KNEW my little girl would be given pain medication so that she wouldn’t have to suffer any more if we just held on a few more minutes, and I KNEW that some of the best Pediatric Plastic Surgeons would be able to put her to sleep and put her back together again.
To know that back then, without modern medicine, surgical procedures and medications to treat systemic infections like penicillin. She would have died in my arms that day, or worse it could have taken days for her to die and her last memories would have been pain and suffering.
I don’t dwell on these thoughts but they certainly allow me to be thankful for each day
@@Jmacdonald2386 wow , what a deep story sir , it does give you perspective , I hope your daughter is ok , god bless you both
@@billlombard9911 thank you man i do appreciate you asking about how she’s doing and the kind words, gives me hope for the world in this age you know what I mean? Man, I’m thankful every day that she got as lucky as she did. It was our neighbor’s dog, one that was friendly to us all and knew my kids since birth. The ER nurse had a theory that it had something to do with the fact that the day it happened was the first really hot day of the summer, I guess dogs can get irritated in the heat, then act aggressively sometimes. Anyway, she got very lucky and made a full recovery, the dog basically bit through the bridge of her nose and down her cheek. However, unlike most dog bites where they commonly tear the flesh away from the victim during the bite, this one appeared to be a warning bite because it was less torn and mangled. One of the top pediatric plastic surgeons from Boston Children’s Hospital happened to be covering a shift in my city, about 40 miles away that morning and she literally worked miracles, put the kid back together like nothing ever happened and we were out of then hospital within 4 days…she’s turning 6 this month and gas a badass scar to show for it but absolutely no facial deformities whatsoever…. Truly a blessing…. I’m thankful everyday for that surgeon and every day I’m reminded how even though that was the worst day and subsequent few weeks of my life, we can always be thankful for how good we have it and how lucky we are. I felt bit was relevant to the show because it really brings home that idea of what COULD go wrong. Making me thankful every day for what didn’t.
Thanks again for the interest and kind words once again, even between random strangers on UA-cam, i wanted to take the time to let you know I truly appreciate it, you are a rare person in the world and it doesn’t go unnoticed
@@Jmacdonald2386 I went through a situation with my son he fell down a hill and pierced his inner intestine on a boulder I didn’t think that was even possible the other part of his skin was not damaged but inside his intestine was pierced he almost died and has a huge scar that he actually likes, lol he always lies to people how he got it but you know how boys are, anyway it’s nice to talk to another decent human being in this world
@@billlombard9911 damn man that’s one hell of an injury! A Pierced Intestine sounds like an injury that would have most certainly been worthy of a mention in 1883! Haha 😂 in all seriousness though, I’m glad to hear that he turned out alright! Good to trade stories with you! Take care of yourself
Thank you for documenting this site! I now have a new road trip destination.
If you go to see the ruts, You need to go see Register cliff also. It is about a mile to the east of the ruts. The pioneers would write their names in the sandstone cliff as they went by the area. But there is some modern names there also that does degrade the history some.
Loved this video. I went on my big 2021 Adventure last July 2021 after retiring from a life of work. I was going from New Mexico to Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana Idaho Utah and then home to Albuquerque. In two months total. I somehow ended up on little ol Guernsey, Wyoming. I fell in love with it and its townsfolk. Even went to a Sunday church service as I met the pastor at a fundraising garage sale on a Saturday afternoon. An overnight camping stop at the local city RV Park at the golf course turned into a weeklong stay. I fell in love with that little town and I will definitely be back. So much history carved into the nearby sandstone "Register Cliff" and the "Ruts". Definitely stop if you ever get near there. $15 hookups at the City RV Park. A great deal.
Next trip - go over to the reservoir and drive and explore - you will love it....
@@jeepgirljody I actually stopped their first. But it was too hot in July to dry camp without AC so I found the little RV park coming in the back road south of town. That's what I love about my lifestyle. Great surprises.
I used to work at the mine across the valley from where you were here. My family and I have had many great outings along the trail.
Shhh, my favorite place for r and r😎
Beautiful country. Thanks for sharing.
I love golfing at Guernsey!! There's that playful prairie breeze that keeps the riff-raff out of our state. You can also see the wknd warriors playing sometimes while golfing too.
Loved this video, please make more on the wagon trains!
It's amazing how tough the people were back then act today they can't even go to the fridge and get their own soda
Amen brother
Awesome thank you for the video
Great video
That's really neat. Just think of the thousands of people who passed through that part of the trail.
Hi, I live near there and if you're still in the area you should drive just a little further and make a video on Register Cliff. It's only about 1.5 miles from that site. Just a video idea for you
LOVING the Google Earth zoom in!
I did my MK19 training at Guernsey ohh about 20 years ago will in the Air Force. That all I got to see out there.. sure do miss that thumper..
If the deep trench was made by wagon wheels, how did the middle of it get scraped out? It's like 3 feet deep there. That would have had to be pickaxed out by hand, which seems improbable. They would have just gone around it.
My grandma lived in guernsey I have walked those very ruts many times
Now we just get on an airplane for 1/2 a day, and bitch about it. Imagine doing it in a wagon.
...any petrified horse apples located on this adventure, sir?
many cross country travelers who couldn't afford the train still used the trail up until the 1920s as well.
Looks more like a railroad cut ?
Wow
On the deeper ruts they would have put down timber boards to keep the wagons from bottoming out
Not sure why wagoneers wouldn’t go 10’ right or left to avoid the ruts?
pretty soft rock
Is the rock volcanic ash?
limestone, iirc
It does seem to me that travel through there would have been a lot easier if they would have used the sidewalk.🤣
Sandstone
So WHAT??? The Chisholm Cattle Trail thru Western Oklahoma was never formally marked but you can easily see it from satellite and Goggle images (or a drone) across Oklahoma County and in far Southern Oklahoma where it crossed the Red River!!! Down along the Red, I've hunted wild boars at the main crossing on the Okie side!!! We killed nearly a hundred one weekend for a wheat/cattle rancher and should have stayed a week for him and his neighbors. Across the entire state, you can see the Trail and up across Kansas too like an abandoned railroad right-of-way, but it's a dip in the land instead of a raised place where millions of cattle pounded the dirt for almost 30 years.
Pretty damn cool
So What flat lander. They were crossing the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming.
It's all cool, Oklahoma and Wyoming. There is so much history in both places. Be happy to be an American since there is lots of history all over this wonderful country we call home.
Nice history but please do away with the sound effects
Wagons? No wagoneer would ever risk these ruts. The horses or oxen are always in tandem, side by side. they'd be so close to stepping into one makes no sense.Look at the ground clearance needed. Also how the trail melts away and there's a perfect valley nearby? Something else...Maybe waaay older
Ox cart ?
Maybe military gear ?
Hey! I was going to show this to my students but you were CUSSING and I couldn't use it!!!! Do it again and watch your mouth! ;)
EDIT OUT THE WIND SOUNDS!
That's a little tricky for amateur footage 😅
It was clay
Sandstone
Have you ever been there?
Stop picking and digging at that to what's wrong with you
Everyone keeps picking at it won’t be nothing left 100 yrs from now
Exactly
This video was so noisy and not very educational.
Amazing!!!!! Very cool