Natrona County Historic Preservation Commission

Trails:

Alcova Area, Natrona County, Wyoming

National Historic Trails in Natrona County, Wyoming

Salt Creek Oil Field Tour

Trail: National Historic Trails in Natrona county, Wyoming

Welcome to the Oregon, California, Mormon Pioneer, and Pony Express National Historic Trails in Natrona County. By following this tour, one can trace the paths of some 500,000 pioneers who pulled up stakes back east and headed out to find riches or a better life in Oregon, California, or Utah between 1841 and 1869. The first emigrants to use the trail in this time period were primarily farmers whose goal was Oregon, where land was fertile and cheap. The great Mormon migration to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah began in Winter Quarters in 1846 with the movement westward in 1847, and of course the famed forty-niners made tracks for the California gold mines starting in 1849. The trail migration represents the largest unforced migration of peoples ever witnesses.

East Map

West Map

Stop 1 Oregon Trail Burial - Quintina Snoderly · Stop 2 Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park · Stop 3 Richard's (Reshaw's) Bridge and Trading Post · Stop 4 Mormon Ferry, Probable Second Site · Stop 5 Mormon Ferry, Probable First Site · Stop 6 Fort Caspar · Stop 7 Battle of Red Buttes · Stop 8 Bessemer Bend/Red Buttes Crossing · Stop 9 Emigrant Gap · Stop 10 Avenue of Rocks/Devil's Backbone/Clayton's Slough · Stop 11 Willow Springs · Stop 12 Prospect Hill/Ryan Hill · Stop 13 Horse Creek (Greasewood) · Stop 14 Saleratus (Playa) Lake/Sweetwater Pony Express Station · Stop 15 Independence Rock · Stop 16 Devil's Gate · Stop 17 Martin's Cove · Stop 18 Split Rock

Introduction

The emigrants followed the Trails System westward during the great 19th century migration to what is now Oregon, California, and Utah. Farmers bound for the fertile valley, and adventurers bound for the Salt Lake Valley, and adventurers bound for the California gold fields all ventured across the plains and mountains by way of the Trails System. This route was also used for the first transcontinental telegraph, the Overland Mail service, and the Pony Express. From Independence, Missouri, to western Oregon, a wagon traveled 1,932 miles. For a journey of such magnitude, emigrants needed dependable sources of water and grass and a passable grade through the mountains. The low topographic relief of the Continental Divide at South Pass provided a "gentle" passageway across the mountains. It became the favored route of the emigrants.
Travelers followed the same "Emigrant Road," to just beyond South Pass, where, at the "Parting of the Ways," the trails diverged. Here travelers bound for the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, or beyond to California, headed southwesterly while most of those bound for Oregon turned to the northwest. Although "Oregon Trail" is the name often used today, emigrants who followed it commonly called it "the road."

Origins of the Trail

The Oregon Trail was originally blazed by fur trappers and traders who were following the well-worn trails of the Native American Indian. To exploit the rich fur country of the Pacific Northwest, the American fur Company established a trading headquarters in 1810 at Astoria near the mouth of the Columbia River. Wilson Price Hunt led the company's first overland expedition to Astoria in 1811. He crossed the Wind River Range by way of Union Pass and the Rocky Mountains via Teton Pass, then followed the Snake and Columbia Rivers to Astoria. A return expedition in 1812 was led by Robert Stuart, who followed the Columbia and Snake Rivers and crossed Teton Pass, then crossed the Wind River Mountains over South Pass, and continued east on the Sweetwater and North Platte Rivers. In November 1812, Stuart established a winter camp in the vicinity of Red Buttes on the North Platte River. Stuart not only "discovered" South Pass, but also traveled west to east along a large portion of what would become the Oregon Trail.
England claimed Oregon as its territory, but after the War of 1812, the United States attempted to curb British interests by encouraging American settlement and competition with the Hudson Bay Company. The federal government later offered free land to emigrants willing to make the trip. This incentive, as well as economic hardship and social upheaval, induced emigrants to go west and start anew.

Trail: Salt Creek Oil Field Natrona County, Wyoming

Take yourself back about seventy-five years, and you're driving through the Salt Creek Oil Field, the biggest and richest oil reserve in the Rocky Mountain region and one of the five or six largest in the entire country. Over 3000 oil derricks dominate the landscape. Midwest Wildcats are about to play the first night football game in the country under lights.
Although the Salt Creek Oil Field was linked to Casper by highway, rail, and pipeline, residents of the company town and camps were quite self-sufficient. Workers and their families lived in small cottages provided by the company, and the town of Midwest offered all the amenities of any small town. Millions of dollars worth of oil were pumped out of the Salt Creek Field, and thousands of people, from the 1880s to the present, have lived and worked at Salt Creek. The field is still active today.

This self-guided tour is most easily followed from south to north, beginning at the junction of Interstate 25 and State Route 259, located about twenty-two miles north of Casper. The tour terminates at the town of Midwest. the following sites are included in the tour of the Salt Creek Oil Field area, listed roughly from south to north:

North Map

South Map
Stop 1 A Symbol of Scandal: Teapot Rock · Stop 2 Not a Trace: Teapot Townsite · Stop 3 New Lavoye: The Palm Beach of Wyoming · Stop 4 Teapot Dome (Naval Petroleum Reserve): Watergate of the 1920s · Stop 5 Pumping Station/Storage Tank Facility · Stop 6 Old Lavoye: Picked Up and Moved · Stop 7 The North-South Railroad: Remnants of a Grand Scheme · Stop 8 Gas Plant Camp, Midwest's Major Suburb · Stop 9 Salt Creek Oil Field Interpretive Sign and Oil Derrick · Stop 10 Canadian Camp · Stop 11 Midwest Cemetery · Stop 12 Lewis Camp (Camp No. 3) · Stop 13 Jackass (IBA) Spring · Stop 14 The First Well: Shannon Pool Oil Field; Shannon Camp · Stop 15 A Monument to Engineering: The Midwest Electric Plant · Stop 16 Midwest: Where "Democracy and Fairness Predominates"

Safety and Etiquette:

The sites listed in this tour are located on both private and public land; however, they have been carefully selected so that visitors may view all of them without trespassing. Some of the roads on the tour are not paved or graveled and should be avoided during wet weather, and portions of the route may not be plowed in winter. Be aware of livestock on the road, deep ditches, and narrow bridges. Several of the sites are located in the active portion of the Salt Creek Oil Field. Much of this land is "public," that is, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, and although the active wells are leased by private concerns, visitors should not encounter any problems while visiting the sites on the tour.

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