Parting of the Ways (Wyoming)
The Parting of the Ways is an historic site in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States, where the Oregon and California Trails fork from the original route to Fort Bridger to an alternative route, the Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff, across the Little Colorado Desert. Many wagon trains parted company, some preferring the shorter cutoff route, which involved fifty waterless miles, to the longer but better-watered main route.[2]
Parting of the Ways | |
 | |
  Location in Wyoming  Parting of the Ways (Wyoming) (the United States) | |
| Nearest city | Farson, Wyoming |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°15′27″N 109°13′42″W |
| Built | 1844 |
| NRHP reference No. | 76001962 |
| Added to NRHP | January 11, 1976[1] |
The junction is marked by a small sandstone boulder about 15 inches (38 cm) high, placed by L.C. Bishop and Paul Henderson and inscribed with a left-pointing arrow with "F. Bridger" and aright-pointing arrow with "S. Cut Off." The route was not established by Sublette, but rather a mountain man named Greenwood. The error in attribution arose when Joseph E. Ware's Emigrant's Guide to California (1849) listed the alternate path as the "Sublette Cutoff."[3]
References
- "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- "Parting of the Ways". National Register of Historic Places. Wyoming State Preservation Office. 2008-10-24.
- Benton, J. Homer (July 19, 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: Parting-of-the-Ways (Oregon Trail Site)". National Park Service. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
External links
- Parting of the Ways photographs at the National Park Service's NRHP database
- Parting of the Ways at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office
