![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kirstenlynnwildwest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/southpass1.jpg\" "\\"southpass1\\"")
<\/a>Stuart\u2019s \u201cdiscovery\u201d of South Pass in 1812, was recognized by some as the momentous breakthrough it was. The \u201cMissouri Gazette\u201d quickly announced the news and published a full description of the Astorian\u2019s harrowing journey. A brief report printed on 8 May 1813 predicted this showed \u201cthe world that a journey to the Western Sea will not be considered of much greater importance than a trip to New York.\u201d But, remarkably, South Pass was quickly forgotten. Some speculated John Jacob Astor suppressed the news of South Pass, hoping to keep it a trade secret. Stuart\u2019s journal remained unpublished for more than a century after his historic journey. More likely, it was the fact the news arrived in the middle of the War of 1812. This war drove Americans from the upper Missouri River and halted the nation\u2019s western trade and exploration activities for ten years.<\/p>\nIn 1822, with the reawakening of the American fur trade an ambitious Missouri entrepreneur, William Ashley, advertised he and his partner, Major Andrew Henry, were looking for one hundred \u201cEnterprising Young Men\u201d willing to spend as many as three years risking their lives in the fur trade. Among those who answered his call were Jedediah Smith, the four Sublette brothers, Thomas Fitzpatrick, John H. Weber, David Jackson, Daniel T. Potts, Louis Vasquez, and Mike Fink.\u00a0 [Any of these names ringin\u2019 a bell folks?]<\/p>\n
The first two years were marked with repeated failures as Indian tribes employed all they During their ten week stay, a Crow told Thomas Fitzpatrick about a pass that existed in the Wind River Mountains, through which he could easily take his whole band \u201cupon the streams on the other side.\u201d\u00a0 In late February eleven men left the safety of the Crow village to find this passage.<\/p>\n Bitter cold and Wyoming wind made the search for the passage a grueling journey. After several days of travel, the party moved over a low ridge, likely the Beaver Divide, and struck the Sweetwater River where they camped. One of the men, James Clyman, recorded that after holding up for three weeks near what became Independence Rock the trappers struck out in a Southwesterly direction. \u00a0After another week of travel and another bitter night in sagebrush fighting high winds, Clyman said the next day the trappers realized they \u201chad crossed the man ridge\u201d of the Rocky Mountains. This simple announcement marked the first east-to-west crossing of South Pass.<\/p>\n In July 1867, the \u201cChicago Times\u201d reported, \u201cSalt Lake papers of July 1, received here, give What was discovered by grizzled mountain man, Lewis Robinson, in June 1867, was the Carriso ledge, which soon became the Carissa Mine. By late July there were already several other prospects that looked as good if not better, including the Morning Star, Melrose, Copperopolis, and Last Chance. Half a mile below the Carissa Mine, prospectors soon began building South Pass City. By early November, the settlement boasted fifty houses and several stamping mills. At year\u2019s end, the Dakota Territorial Legislature made the boomtown the seat of Carter County, after the formation of Wyoming Territory, the county was renamed Sweetwater County.<\/p>\n In an entreaty for a post office, it was reported that by March of 1868, the population of South pass was 1,000 and it was anticipated that within one or two months, the town would have 3,000. A postal agent from Salt Lake City estimated that within a few months the City would attain a population of 10,000. Regardless, there was a need for a post office. It cost $1.00 to send a letter by private express. The road from Sweetwater to South Pass City passed over 75 miles through land \u201cdestitute of water. George W.B. Dixson was named as postmaster.\u00a0 However he absconded with some of the government\u2019s money, allegedly to the newly found Cape Colony where he remained until his wife died. He ultimately returned to the United States and died in Chicago.<\/p>\n Despite its short boom,\u00a0 South Pass City, is noted not only for the gold mines, and as a But turn yer wagons into South Pass and y\u2019all will still receive a big WYO welcome. You can see the home of Mrs. Esther Morris (a topic for a blog in the very near future), the Carissa Saloon, The Sherlock Store and the Sherlock Motel (originally the Idaho House), the Exchange Bank and other remains of a city that saw more history in its short boom than some see in a hundred years, and a pass that has served as a gateway for thousands of years.<\/p>\n Well folks, just a few miles from South Pass is what they call the Parting of the Ways where those early pioneers chose one path to California or the other to Oregon. And Cookie and me, well we don\u2019t veer left or right, but stay right here in this part of the West we\u2019re just as happy as pigs in mud to call home. So, we\u2019ll let y\u2019all choose the path that fits yer fancy as we say so long to the trails!!<\/p>\n SOURCES:<\/p>\n http:\/\/wyoshpo.state.wyo.us\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/historicwyoming.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shoot fire! Can y\u2019all believe we\u2019ve made it to the end of the trail in Big WYO! My backside feels like it\u2019s done become a part of this here buckboard and I haven\u2019t even shot Cookie! So all in all … Continue reading <\/a>had to keep the trappers out of their country. Finally, William Sublette, Jedediah Smith, and Thomas Fitzpatrick led a party of some sixteen men up the White River hoping to reach the beaver rich country along the Spanish River (today\u2019s Green River).\u00a0 The Great Plains, Badlands, and Rocky Mountains stood between the fur traders and their goal. On top of all that, it was already late in the year, October, when they set out on their trek. After an arduous trek \u201ccrossing several steep and high ridges that \u201cin any other country would be called mountains,\u201d the exhausted men sought shelter at the Crows\u2019 main camp high on the Wind River, probably near today\u2019s Dubois, Wyoming, but perhaps farther downstream at Riverton.<\/p>\n<\/a>It was the first crossing, but it opened the door for thousands of crossings to come. In the wake of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, the knowledge that wagons could cross the continent to Oregon, and that women (Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding) had successfully completed the journey altered the way American people thought about the Far West.\u00a0 While there was not an immediate flood of emigrants to the West, by 1843, South Pass was \u201calready traversed by several different roads,\u201d according to John C. Fremont.\u00a0 The number of roads across the open plain increased with the intense traffic that arrived with the California gold rush as travelers sought out campsites that had not been stripped of grass. Jim Bridger told one Forty-niner, \u201che could make fifty roads through South Pass.\u201d\u00a0 By 1848, about 18, 847 Americans had crossed South Pass on their way to new homes in the West.<\/p>\n<\/a>The discovery of gold at Sutter\u2019s Mill in California, would transform South Pass and the nation, as the steady flow over the pass turned to a river. By 1860, trail historian John Unruh, calculated almost 300,000 men, women, and children had crossed South Pass.<\/p>\n<\/a>California wasn\u2019t the only place experiencing a rush due to the finding of gold. In 1864, officers and men from the Eleventh Ohio Volunteers, sent west to guard the telegraph during the Civil War, became convinced that there was enough gold on the upper Sweetwater to make them rich. By the end of the Civil War the West was overrun with experienced prospectors. Fort Bridger commandant Major Noyes Baldwin and Captain John F. Skelton grubstaked John A. James and D.C. Moreland to spend six months surveying the mineral prospects of South Pass.\u00a0 Along with miners they found already operating in the area, the men organized the region\u2019s first mining district, the Lincoln, on November 11, 1864 on a tributary of Beaver Creek. The men found all types of gold, ranging from very fine quality flour gold to course gold. Moreland, James, and their associates began mining on the Willow Creek, where South Pass City eventually grew. \u00a0This mine was abandoned when the miners were run off by Indians, but others returned to the area to take up where these men left off.<\/p>\n<\/a>accounts of rich gold discoveries in the mines are located in Green river [sic] country\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Reports stated the road to the Green River was crowded with citizens from Salt Lake, and the new gold mines \u201cset the people wild in this locality.\u201d\u00a0 Papers and reports from the area and the East kept up the steady drumbeat and Wyoming\u2019s gold rush was on.<\/p>\n<\/a>Despite the postmaster\u2019s less than honorable behavior, South Pass City retained a post office along with a newspaper, five hotels, and some fifteen saloons including: the \u201c49\u2019er,\u201d \u201cKeg,\u201d \u201cMagnolia,\u201d \u201cElephant,\u201d and the \u201cOccidental.\u201d\u00a0 By 1868, the town had stage service south to Bryan on the Union Pacific. By 1869, Iliff & Co. had opened the Exchange Bank and a toll road to Atlantic City 2 and half miles away opened.<\/p>\n<\/a>If the growth of South Pass City was rapid, its decline was equally as fast. By 1870 the bank closed and in 1871 there was a disastrous fire. \u00a0The Carissa Mine remained the chief mine at South Pass City, and by 1868 some $15,000.00 of gold had been mined, but by 1873 the mine was idled, the gold rush over. Governor J.W. Hoyt reported in 1878 that \u201cSouth Pass is a scene of vacant dwellings, saloons, shops, and abandoned gulches.\u201d\u00a0 For some who came and left, the big strike and fortune was just over the next hill, and when the government opened the Black Hills they followed the scent of gold.<\/p>\n<\/a>stop on the Oregon Trail, but as the home of women\u2019s suffrage.\u00a0 In 1869, William H. Bright, South Pass mine and saloon owner, was elected to the First Territorial Assembly. He introduced a bill providing for woman\u2019s suffrage which was passed by the legislature and approved by Governor John A. Campbell. \u00a0There are various versions regarding Bright\u2019s motivation for introducing the bill. One is that Bright was persuaded to do so by a promise made to Esther Hobart Morris, later the first woman justice of the peace in the United States. Another is that Bright was influenced by his wife, Julia, to introduce the act. Another theory is the Democrat controlled legislature thought women would vote Democrat to offset the Black community that tended to vote Republican. However, if this was the case it backfired, since this was in the days before the \u201cAustralian\u201d or secret ballot, and it was soon discovered women tended to vote Republican.\u00a0 In any case, two years later the Democratically controlled legislature attempted to repeal woman\u2019s suffrage, but the act to repeal was vetoed by the Republican Governor, and enough Republicans had been elected (thanks to women) to sustain the veto.<\/p>\n<\/a>The mine that started it all, the Carissa, was reopened in 1901 and the size increased, but was closed again in 1906. In 1946, the mine was again reopened and quickly closed. The three towns that boomed in Wyoming\u2019s short gold rush, South Pass City, Atlantic City, and Miner\u2019s Delight, have faded to ghost towns.<\/p>\n<\/a>Cookie and me are headed on over to Sherlock\u2019s to gear up for a new adventure, and maybe I\u2019ll talk the ol\u2019 coot into a game of billiards and a cold one over at the saloon.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n