Appendix I 



central route over the Oregon Trail. He sold out to Russell, 

 Majors, and Waddell in 1859. These routes only extended to 

 Salt Lake with California service continuing on the Butterfield 

 line. Russell, Majors, and Waddell also established the famous 

 but short-lived Pony Express which opened on April 3, 1860. 

 Initiated chiefly as publicity for a central federal mail route 

 to California, mail was to be carried by relay riders from St. 

 Joseph to Sacramento in ten days via the Oregon and Mormon 

 Trail in Wyoming. However, a transcontinental telegraph 

 system was under construction at the same time, also utilizing 

 the Oregon Trail corridor. Edward Creighton was in charge 

 of construction from Omaha to Salt Lake City. The entire 

 telegraph system was constructed in just over four months 

 and forced the abandonment of the Pony Express on October 

 24, 1861. 



"The impending Civil War led Congress to switch the 

 Overland Mail route to California from the southern Butterfield 

 line northward to the Oregon Trail. Ben Holladay received the 

 one million dollar federal mail contract in 1862 by forcing the 

 Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company 

 (Russell, Majors, and Waddell) to sell out to him for $100,000 

 to settle outstanding debts. Holladay established stage stops 

 all along the Oregon Trail in present-day Wyoming, using most 

 of the existing Pony Express and stage relay stations. However, 

 he soon moved his line southward to the Overland or Cherokee 

 Trail in an attempt to avoid Indian harassment. From 1862 

 until the complfetion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, 

 the federal mail was carried via this route which stayed south 

 of the Oregon Trail corridor until it rejoined the Mormon branch 

 in the vicinity of Granger. 



"Farther east, two major north-south trails emerged in the 

 1 860s which branched off from the Oregon Trail to the Montana 

 gold fields. The Bozeman Trail was laid out by John M. 

 Bozeman in 1863. It diverged from the Oregon Trail and North 

 Platte River near the future site of Fort Fetterman and 

 proceeded in a northwesterly course through the Powder River 

 Basin, passing by the present-day towns of Buffalo and 

 Sheridan into Montana. This intrusion into the last major Plains 

 Indians' stronghold allowed gold seekers to venture northward 

 from the Oregon Trail. However, the risks were high as 

 evidenced by Bozeman's problems with the Sioux on the initial 

 trip. Therefore, in 1864, Jim Bridger laid out an alternative 

 route which bypassed the Powder River country and utilized 

 the Big Horn Basin to the west. Bridger's route left the Oregon 

 Trail at Red Buttes and proceeded northwesterly through 

 desolate sagebrush country to the Wind River and north to 

 the Bighorn Basin and beyond. 



"In 1866, the Bozeman Trail was strengthened by the military 

 which built a system of forts that included Fort Kearny. Despite 

 the military presence, emigrant travel on the Bozeman was 

 extremely hazardous. In December 1866, 81 soldiers under 

 the command of William J. Fetterman were killed by the Sioux 

 near Fort Kearney, proving that the military could not 

 adequately protect itself. This Indian victory and constant raids 

 effectively closed the Bozeman Trail and led to the Fort Laramie 

 treaty of 1868 which conceded the region to the Indians. The 

 government abandoned its forts and forbade white travel 

 through the area. 



Fort Fetterman was established near the juncture of the 

 Oregon and Bozeman Trails (just north of Douglas) in July 

 1867 and became the chief resupply point in the region during 

 the Indian Wars of the 1870s. Hostilities ceased in the Powder 

 River region of Wyoming by the signing of the Treaty of 

 September 26, 1876, by which the Sioux Nation ceded the 

 Black Hills and all rights to the lands to the west. This treaty 

 opened up the area to white settlement, and the growing 

 Wyoming cattle industry soon filled the vast rangelands in 

 the region. 



"Thus, by the 1860s, the Oregon Trail had become much 

 more than an emigrant corridor. Auxiliary trails, like the 

 Bozeman and the Bridger, diverged from the established route 

 to open new regions. The transcontinental telegraph, the 

 Overland Mail, and freight traffic to the Salt Lake settlements 

 and beyond all utilized the route. Stage stations had been 

 established at regular intervals along with military installations 

 and the associated protection of the military. New trail 

 variations and improvements had been achieved by the Pacific 

 Wagon Road program as well as by the Montana Gold Rush 

 excitement. Indeed, travel along the Oregon Trail had become 

 very different from the early days of the pioneer wagon trains 

 of the 1840s. The Oregon Trail had become the lifeline of 

 a continent and bridged the sparsely populated territory 

 between 'the States' and the far western settlements. 



"Moderate use of the Oregon Trail continued throughout 

 the 1850s and 1860s. There was a dramatic drop after the 

 California Gold Rush had subsided, but the Colorado Gold 

 Rush created a peak year in 1859 with 30,000 emigrants using 

 the trail. Traffic subsided during the Civil War but gradually 

 increased to 25,000 in 1865 and 1866. 



"Trail historians generally use the year 1869 to mark the 

 end of the traditional covered wagon migration as well as the 

 pre-settlement period throughout the Oregon Trail corridor. 

 With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in that 

 year and the beginning of the settlement of the intervening 

 territories, the character of western emigration was changed. 

 However, other historians have noted that wagon travel did 

 continue by those emigrants who could not afford rail or stage 

 transportation, and those traveling shorter distances between 

 or within the territories. 



"The transcontinental railroad was completed on May 10, 

 1869. The immediate result was the demise of the Overland 

 Mail via stagecoach. The far-sighted Ben Holladay had sold 

 out to Wells Fargo Company in 1866 leaving it to suffer heavy 

 losses when the railroad was completed earlier than assumed. 

 Thereafter, the federal mail was carried by the railroads. 



"In Wyoming, the Union Pacific chose a right-of-way which 

 paralleled the route of the southerly Overland Trail rather than 

 the better watered, but longer Oregon Trail. Stage and freight 

 routes were developed along north-south lines emanating from 

 mainline of the Union Pacific Railroad. The railroad 

 encouraged settlement along its tracks, partially due to the 

 granting of a 40-mile wide swath of land along the right-of- 

 way, and because of the dependence of any industries on 

 rail transportation to distant markets. Railroad towns such as 

 Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins, Rock Springs, and Evanston 

 grew up along the mainline far south of the Oregon Trail. 

 They became the early commercial centers in Wyoming 

 Territory, and north-south freight and stage lines generally 

 grew from one of these points. Thus the Cheyenne-Deadwood 

 stage route was built to the Black Hills gold and silver mines 

 in 1874-75. Further west, the Rawlins-Fort Washakie Road 

 connected the Wind River Indian Reservation with the Union 

 Pacific Railroad to supply the Shoshoni and Arapaho tribes 

 with goods. Several routes were developed to connect the 

 Sweetwater Mining District at South Pass with the railroad, 

 including the Point of Rocks-South Pass City Road and the 

 Bryan-South Pass City Road. The railroad had replaced the 

 Oregon Trail as the chief transportation corridor in Wyoming 

 Territory and the West. 



"Emigrant-Indian relations were inconsistent throughout the 

 migration period on the Oregon Trail. Hostile acts and violent 

 confrontations, although they did exist, have been 

 overemphasized in trail history. During the early migration 

 period in the 1840s, attacks were few, and there are many 

 recorded instances of Indians helping the emigrants at 

 treacherous river fords, giving directions, conducting peaceful 



48 



