the trek west on the overland trail

The Trek West

Historical trails, trail basics - the trek west.

During the nineteenth century, over 200,000 men, women and children traveled the Oregon and California Trails in search of new homes in the west. The trek was a difficult journey and took five months to travel the 2,000 miles by ox-drawn wagon. Today, you could make the same trip by car in four days or by jet in four hours.

At first the emigrant flood was a trickle . It began in 1841 as a small, lonely caravan of only 58 people in the Bidwell/Bartleson company followed the trail. Near Soda Springs, half of the party continued to Ft. Hall and across southern Idaho to Oregon, while the smaller half followed the Bear River, crossed the Great Salt Lake Desert and over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to become the first emigrants to follow a land route to California. This first group established what would become the Oregon and the California trails.

This was the beginning of the Great Migration. Two years later, 875 farmers went to Oregon while 38 split at Soda Springs and followed the new California Trail to California. After the Mexican War was over in 1847, an other 4,000 ventured west on the trail.

Who were the people that dared to leave home and hearth and venture into the wilderness? Most were farmers; a few were artisans. After selling their farms, machinery, draft animals and house-hold goods most had a sizable amount of cash in invest in their trip and to settle on new land. They were also a religious people, most were Protestant. The discovery of gold in California 1848 dramatically changed the character and experience of travelling the trail.Men dropped everything in a rush to get to California. By the end of 1849 over 25,000 more people traveled the trail and arrived in California. The Gold Rush didn’t end in 1849 and the following year another 55,000 migrated to California and 50,000 more came in 1852.

By the 1860s when interest waned due to Indian scares, over 300,000 had moved west.

Legends of America

Traveling through american history, destinations & legends since 2003., the overland trail across the american west.

Stagecoach on the Overland Trail near Laramie, Wyoming.

By Grace Raymond Hebard and Earl Alonzo Brininstool 1922, with additional edits/information by Legends Of America.

The Overland Trail, also known as the Overland Stage Line, was a stagecoach and wagon road in the American West . Portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, especially along what would later become the California , Oregon , and Mormon Trails . Ben Holladay established the Overland Trail Mail route in 1862, closely following the Pony Express Trail .

Oregon Trail, Albert Bierstadt, 1869

As the Oregon Trail widened and became deeper in the mountains and on the plains, many people eventually did not have the Pacific Coast in mind for their destination. Gradually, men and families unyoked their oxen, unharnessed the horses, and prepared to make a home in those sections most attractive in what was named and known as “ The Great American Desert .” As more and more people came to claim free land, isolated towns sprung up, and civilization pushed west. However, most of these new settlements were camps in the mining districts.

The necessity for safer and better transportation of supplies to these mining camps became most urgent. One of these places was Sacramento , at the end of the California branch of the Oregon Trail and the center of the early gold excitement in California.

A wagon train and Indians

After more gold was found in the inland territories of Idaho , Utah , Montana , and Colorado , new trails were blazed. The government did not construct these but were side routes from the main trails made by the men seeking gold. As a logical outcome of the constant need for food, clothing, and tools, an organized movement started to have supplies transferred from the Missouri River to the wealth-bearing mountains.

Over the Oregon Trail, supply caravans or wagon trains made their way through a country that had been earlier pronounced as “only fit for prairie dogs and Indians .” Most people who came to the mountains in the earliest days did not go into agriculture or other occupations but went there to find gold or silver. To have things to eat and wear, tools for digging the ore, horses, and mules to operate the heavy work of the mines, and food for these working animals, made the commerce of freighting an absolute necessity. Wagon traffic was to supply necessities and luxuries for the West and on the isolated portions of the plains or in the hidden passes in the mountains.

Freight Team on the Plains

Before establishing the regular freight trains, individual families on their way to the West banded together for self-protection from the hostile Indians. How commerce could be extended to those who had pushed into the unoccupied lands received the perplexing consideration of those who were to make the journey and the companies doing a transporting business.

Finally, the people of the Pacific coast demanded that the government take the necessary steps toward establishing a mail route across the mountains and the plains. When Utah was created as a territory, the people had to wait for the official Act of Congress from September 1850 to January 1851 because the documents traveled via the Panama route to California and then east back to Utah. In July 1850, the first mail route of monthly service was established between Independence , Missouri , and Salt Lake City , Utah, where it met an extension line going to California.

Alexander Majors, in 1858, when helping the government fill its contracts to carry supplies to Utah, used 3,500, 4,000 men, 1,000 mules, and more than 40,000 oxen. In May 1859, people such as Horace Greeley, Henry Villiard, and Albert D. Richardson rode into Denver on Majors’ first stagecoach, “Horsepower Pullman,” making 665 miles in six days, a distance that previously had been covered in 22 days. This first through stagecoach made the trip of 600 miles between Denver and Salt Lake “without a single town, hamlet or house being encountered on the way,” there being, of course, a few necessary stage stations.

Efficient mail service to the far West also occurred in 1858, when the Butterfield Southern Overland Mail route was implemented. The mail was first sent only semi-weekly but soon changed to six days per week. This route was 2,759 miles long, going by way of El Paso, Texas , to Yuma, Arizona , and then to  California , making the journey, under favorable conditions, in 23-25 days. The letters cost 10¢ per half an ounce, and passengers paid a fair of $100. The one great advantage of this route over other routes was that it was so far south that it avoided the snow found on northern trails.

The Butterfield stage starts its journey in Tipton, Missouri.

This stage line was 40% longer than any other established stage line , an expensive affair from the mere fact of its unusual length. The road’s equipment was also costly, for it contained 100 Concord coaches, 1,000 horses, 500 mules, 750 men, and 150 drivers. When the  Civil War began in 1861, it forced the government to change the route to a more northern territory, selecting the Overland Trail as a new road to run from St. Joseph , Missouri , to Placerville , California, which became known as the “Central Route.”

Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company then ran mail stages over the Oregon Trail, simultaneously east and west. Each stage made the journey in 18 days, compared to 25 days over the southern route. The fare for the trip across the plains from Atchison , Kansas to Placerville , California, in the early 1860s was $600, including 25 pounds of baggage. Any excess baggage cost $1 per pound.

Stagecoach with a guard sitting on top, protecting whatever wealth it might have been carrying.

But the lumbering stages were too slow in their mail transportation to the impatient, news-hungry people of California, demanding that a more speedy method to carry the mail must be found.

As a result of persistent demand, through the efforts of William H. Russell, the Pony Express was established, which carried mail to California in 10 days. The road for the Pony Express, from St. Joseph, Missouri to Placerville, California, a distance of almost 2,000 miles, followed the Oregon and Mormon Trails to Salt Lake City and the Central Nevada Route to Sacramento. The horses employed were all small and of a western breed. There were 500 of them, and the riders were light of weight to match their mounts.

The company operating the Pony Express had 200 station-keepers and 190 stations at which the 80 riders were given only two minutes to change horses and transfer their saddlebags of mail. The stations were nine to 15 miles apart, depending on the water’s proximity.

Letters, costing $5 a half-ounce, were limited to 15 pounds for the average rider, the weight equally divided into two flat leather securely locked mail pouches. During the years of operation of the Pony Express, from April 23, 1860, to October 22, 1861, the mail was lost but once, when the Indians stole it.

The relay riders’ best time with this overland service was seven days and 17 hours when President Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural message was whisked over the route. There is no more picturesque achievement of the plains than the operation of the Pony Express, which shortened the time for Pacific mail service, thus bringing the people of the coast many days nearer to their former homes and the national government.

First Ride of the Pony Express

General John Reynolds, when at his winter headquarters in 1859-60, not far from the junction of Deer Creek with the North Platte Rivers, on the south side of the Oregon Trail , was one of the first west of Fort Laramie , Wyoming , to receive mail utilizing the Pony Express .

“The Pony Express was established while we were in winter quarters, and by it, we several times received interesting news but three days old. The sight of a solitary horseman galloping along the road was in itself nothing remarkable, but when we remember that he was one of a series stretching across the continent and forming a continuous chain for two thousand miles through an almost absolute wilderness, the undertaking was justly ranked among the events of the age, and the most striking triumph of American energy.” — General John Reynolds

But, the Pony Express lasted only a year before Central Overland California, and Pikes Peak Express Company went bankrupt, and the assets were sold to Ben Holladay .

Ben Holladay

In 1861, Holladay was awarded the Postal Department contract for overland mail service between the end of the railroad’s western terminus in Missouri and Kansas  and Salt Lake City. Service from Utah to California was given to the Overland Mail Company and other stage lines .

With the discovery of gold in Colorado and the consequent growth of the city of Denver , Holladay changed the Overland Trail to the West, using the banks of the South Platte River, as well as those of the North Platte, as a thoroughfare descending into Colorado before looping back up to southern Wyoming and rejoining the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger , Wyoming . Due to Indian uprisings occurring on the Oregon Trail farther north through central Wyoming along the Sweetwater- South Pass route, the new route became the only emigrant route on which the US Government would allow travel and consequently was the principal corridor to the west from 1862 to 1868.

Between 1861 and 1866, Holaday operated about 5,000 miles of stagecoaches daily, having equipment of 500 coaches and express wagons, 500 freight wagons, 5,000 horses and mules, and numerous oxen. The cost to take care of this company’s stock averaged a million dollars annually, while to equip and run the line for the first year incurred the added expense of $2,425,000. After five years of freighting, Holladay sold out his entire business to the Wells Fargo Company, which remained an active operation until 1869 in that particular transportation line, when the Union Pacific  and Central Pacific Railroads were completed. Holladay, in 1865, to help out the Overland Route to the Montana goldfields, established a branch line of his road from Fort Hall , Idaho , north to Virginia City , Montana. In addition to freighting, Holladay carried the mail for the government during the Civil War , receiving annually one million dollars for the service. Statistics show that in 1861 over 21 million pounds of freight went west from the shipping points of Atchison , Kansas , which brought with it to the plains using 4,917 wagons, 6,164 mules, 27,685 oxen, and 1,256 men.

The Overland Trail close followed the Pony Express Route, drawn by William Henry Jackson, 1860

For many years, Russell, Majors, and Waddell , the government contractors to transport military supplies to the forts along the trails, used in their trail-freighting train, 6,250 over-sized wagons, with a carrying capacity of 6,000 pounds each, and 75,000 oxen. This array of transportation facilities, if placed one in front of the other, would have covered the trail for a stretch of 40 miles. After a reliable freighting system was in place, it was not uncommon to see over 1,000 of these patient, plodding ox teams stretched across the plains each week, with wagons loaded many feet beyond the side-boards.

The Pony Express was running while the telegraph lines were being built. This drawing by George M. Ottinger appeared in  Harper’s Weekly , 1867.

The extension of the telegraph line across the continent, under the management of Edward Creighton, in 1861 was the undoing of the Pony Express, which had been inaugurated to have a better and more rapid mail service from the Missouri River to San Francisco . The telegraph was put into operation on October 24, 1861, when the first transcontinental message was flashed over the line. Thus, an unprecedented step was taken in binding and uniting the Missouri River with the Pacific Ocean. This telegraph line ran parallel with and over the Oregon Trail. It soon became to the Indians a symbol of the white man’s despotism and his determination to finally possess the country through which the singing wires had spun their way to the lands of the mining camps and new mountain homes.

There were established two stage and telegraph lines from the Missouri River, one running from Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , to Fort Kearny , Nebraska , and the other from Omaha to Fort Kearny, Nebraska.

At Fort Kearny, the lines consolidated, going up the Platte Valley as far as Julesburg , Colorado , a conspicuous stage station near the mouth of Lodge Pole Creek, where it emptied into the Platte River. The lines again separated at this characteristically busy border town, the main telegraph line going north-westward to Fort Laramie , Wyoming, and beyond to South Pass and Utah . In contrast, the stage line went southwestward to Denver, Colorado, using the South Platte River. From Denver, the coaches went north to Fort Collins, then to Virginia Dale , Colorado, across the Laramie Plains, Fort Halleck, Elk Mountain, Bridger’s Pass, Bitter Creek, out to Fort Bridger , on to Utah , California , Oregon , and Montana . Just east of Fort Bridger, the Oregon Trail and the Overland Trail united and became one.

Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company in Denver, Colorado, about 1865

The route of the stage lines crossing these savagely contested lands had stage stations situated about every 12 miles along their length, while the government troops were posted along the route at specially constructed forts or blockhouses at intervals of about 100 miles. The scarcity of soldiers , particularly during the Civil War , available for this dangerous duty made the lives of the few who served one of extreme danger. Only a few armed and trained men were distributed at each station. In addition to these fortified buildings along the way were the occasional farmer and ranchman, the relay stations for changing horses, and the eating houses.

The shrewd Ben Holladay maintained a virtual monopoly of the Overland Stage line until 1866, when he decided to sell out. Well aware that the inevitable completion of the new Transcontinental Railroad would eliminate the need for stagecoach transportation, Holladay was fortunate to be able to sell the route, the equipment, and the contracts to Wells Fargo . The overland mail continued for another 2 1/2 years along the Overland Trail until the Union Pacific, and the Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah , in 1869, eliminating the need for mail service via the stagecoach.

The Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as an alternative route to the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails through central Wyoming.

It was a colossal business to supply those things most needed for the towns and cities that were springing into existence in the West, and the Oregon Trail became broader and deeper. This mighty traffic scarred the face of the trail to the West so deep that in many places, for miles, there remained discernible traces of the heavy traffic of this period, even after more than 50 years of disuse.

Oregon Trail Ruts in Wyoming By Kathy Alexander.

Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander / Legends of America , updated June 2022.

Adventures & Tragedies on the Overland Trail

Stagecoaches of the American West

Stagecoach Kings (Lines) & Drivers

Wagons and Stagecoaches Photo Gallery

Source: Much of this article was written by Grace Raymond Hebard and Earl Alonzo Brininstool who were western historians in the early 20th century. This account was excerpted from their book, The Bozeman Trail: Historical Accounts of the Blazing of the Overland Routes Into the Northwest , published by the Arthur H. Clark Company in 1922. However, the article as it appears here has been heavily edited for spelling and grammatical corrections, truncated, and additional information has been added.

Other Sources:

Overland Trail Wikipedia

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A thousand pioneers head West as part of the Great Emigration

The first major wagon train to the northwest departs from Elm Grove, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail .

Although U.S. sovereignty over the Oregon Territory was not clearly established until 1846, American fur trappers and missionary groups had been living in the region for decades, to say nothing of the Native Americans who had settled the land centuries earlier. Dozens of books and lectures proclaimed Oregon’s agricultural potential, piquing the interest of white American farmers. The first overland migrants to Oregon, intending primarily to farm, came in 1841 when a small band of 70 pioneers left Independence, Missouri. They followed a route blazed by fur traders, which took them west along the Platte River through the Rocky Mountains via the easy South Pass in Wyoming and then northwest to the Columbia River. In the years to come, pioneers came to call the route the Oregon Trail.

In 1842, a slightly larger group of 100 pioneers made the 2,000-mile journey to Oregon. The next year, however, the number of emigrants skyrocketed to 1,000. The sudden increase was a product of a severe depression in the Midwest combined with a flood of propaganda from fur traders, missionaries, and government officials extolling the virtues of the land. Farmers dissatisfied with their prospects in Ohio , Illinois , Kentucky , and Tennessee , hoped to find better lives in the supposed paradise of Oregon.

On this day in 1843, some 1,000 men, women, and children climbed aboard their wagons and steered their horses west out of the small town of Elm Grove, Missouri. The train comprised more than 100 wagons with a herd of 5,000 oxen and cattle trailing behind. Dr. Elijah White, a Presbyterian missionary who had made the trip the year before, served as a guide.

The first section of the Oregon Trail ran through the relatively flat country of the Great Plains. Obstacles were few, though the river crossings could be dangerous for wagons. As they traversed through Native American territories, the danger of attacks was a small but genuine risk. To be on the safe side, the pioneers drew their wagons into a circle at night to create a makeshift stockade. If they feared Native Americans might raid their livestock—the Plains tribes valued the horses , though generally ignored the oxen—they would drive the animals into the enclosure.

The pioneers quickly learned that they were more likely to be injured or killed by a host of other causes. Obstacles included accidental discharge of firearms, falling off mules or horses, drowning in river crossings, and disease. After entering the mountains, the trail also became much more difficult, with steep ascents and descents over rocky terrain. The pioneers risked injury from overturned and runaway wagons.

Yet, as with the 1,000-person party that made the journey in 1843, the vast majority of pioneers on the trail survived to reach their destination in the fertile, well-watered land of western Oregon. The migration of 1844 was smaller than that of the previous season, but in 1845 it jumped to nearly 3,000. Thereafter, migration on the Oregon Trail was an annual event, although the practice of traveling in giant convoys of wagons gave way to many smaller bands of one or two-dozen wagons. The trail was heavily traveled until 1884, when the Union Pacific constructed a railway along the route.

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Overland West : the story of the Oregon and California trails

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Women and Their Families on the Overland Trail to California and Oregon, 1842-1867

1975, Feminist Studies

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The Overland Trail in Wyoming

In the wake of the California gold rush, traffic by Euro-Americans along the Oregon/California/Mormon Trail across what’s now central Wyoming grew dramatically for three years, and then, in the 1850s, stayed high. This was the old fur-trade route up the North Platte and Sweetwater rivers to South Pass, after which the routes divided according to a traveler’s destination—California, Oregon or Utah.

The increased traffic brought increasing resistance from tribal people whose lives and lands the trail cut through, heavily damaging their economies and cultures. Gold strikes on the Front Range in what’s now Colorado in the late 1850s brought a new flood of white people and more conflict. To deal with these conflicts, meet demands for new transcontinental routes into and out of Colorado and to bolster its campaign to reassert federal power in Utah, the U. S. Army developed a shorter route west. It ran across what’s now southern Wyoming, and it came to be called the Overland Trail.

The Overland Trail began along the Platte River in today’s western Nebraska where it diverged from the Oregon Trail. The Oregon Trail followed the North Platte River to Fort Laramie, the Sweetwater River and South Pass, all in present Wyoming.

The east end of the Overland Trail followed two distinct routes. One followed the South Platte River to today’s Denver and then turned north along the Front Range to the Cache la Poudre River and Virginia Dale before entering present Wyoming south of what’s now Laramie. This became the stagecoach and Overland Mail route. Much of the trail running north from Denver through present southeastern Wyoming followed the earlier Cherokee Trail.

The second Overland Trail route followed Lodgepole Creek. (See map.) This segment began at Julesburg, Colo., and continued through present western Nebraska along the route later followed by the Union Pacific Railroad, the Lincoln Highway, and U.S. 30. This was the original military road. Emigrants used both routes.

The two routes met near what’s now Laramie and the Overland Trail continued west, crossing the Laramie and Medicine Bow rivers and passing the north side of Elk Mountain along Rattlesnake Creek. The trail crossed the North Platte River 14 miles south of present Interstate 80 and then crossed the Continental Divide at Bridger Pass south of present Rawlins, Wyo. West of the Divide, the Overland Trail followed Muddy Creek and then skirted the south edge of the Red Desert before reaching Bitter Creek. The trail ran along Bitter Creek to the Green River and then followed the Blacks Fork River to rejoin the Oregon Trail at present Granger , Wyo.

The Military Surveys: 1850-1858

Capt. Howard Stansbury of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers pioneered the route of the Overland Trail in present Wyoming. Stansbury was returning east after completing a topographical survey of the Great Salt Lake. Upon reaching Fort Bridger in September 1850, Stansbury hired Jim Bridger as a guide to locate a direct route east avoiding South Pass. Bridger guided Stansbury’s party along Bitter Creek, Muddy Creek, through Bridger Pass and past the north side of Elk Mountain before turning north to Fort Laramie.

In 1856, the Army became interested in developing Stansbury’s route as a military road. In the summer of that year, Lt. Francis Bryan was ordered to survey a route for a military road from Fort Riley, Kan. to Bridger Pass. Bryan followed the Platte River west to the mouth of Lodgepole Creek at present Julesburg, Colo. Bryan then followed Lodgepole Creek across southwestern Nebraska Territory and southeastern Wyoming, then part of Dakota Territory. He followed Stansbury’s route around Elk Mountain, and on to Bridger Pass. On his return trip, Bryan turned southeast on the Cherokee Trail toward the Cache la Poudre, Crow Creek, and the South Platte River, in future Colorado.

Bryan’s assessments of the Lodgepole Creek-Bridger Pass and the South Platte River routes were positive although the lack of water, grass and wood in certain areas was seen as problematic. In 1857 and 1858, Bryan returned to the Lodgepole Creek-Bridger Pass route with a second expedition. Bryan’s troops improved the trail, including building bridges across several large rivers and creeks.

Part of a transcontinental road

The year 1858 saw the beginnings of the Overland Trail as a part of a major transcontinental road system. The development of the Overland Trail was tied to the presence of the U.S. Army at Fort Bridger and in Utah Territory. In 1857, mounting tensions between the federal government and Brigham Young, governor of Utah, led President James Buchanan to appoint a new territorial governor.

U.S. Army troops accompanied the new governor west toward Utah Territory over the Oregon Trail. In October 1857, the army occupied the abandoned Mormon outpost at Fort Bridger which had been burned days before. The destruction of Army supply wagons along the Oregon Trail by Mormon militia halted the Army’s advance at Fort Bridger. The urgent need to provide supplies for 2,500 troops over the winter of 1857-1858 necessitated the development of a military road.

Relief expeditions left Fort Bridger during the winter of 1857-1858 to obtain supplies. One expedition, commanded by Major Isaac Lynde, left Fort Bridger in early December 1857 and followed the Stansbury/Bryan route to Fort Laramie. Major Lynde and Army officers in Washington D.C. were not initially enthusiastic about the trail due to the lack of water, grass and wood.

However, the Army’s attitude changed, helped by Jim Bridger’s endorsement of the route. The Army judged that the advantages in terms of distance and time saved by using Bridger Pass instead of South Pass were substantial and this outweighed the lack of water, grass and wood along the trail. After debating the merits of several routes, the U.S. Army decided in February 1858 that the Lodgepole Creek-to-Bridger Pass route would be developed as a military road.

In late April 1858, elements of the 6th Infantry were ordered to move to Fort Bridger via Lodgepole Creek and Bridger Pass. The infantry assisted Lt. Bryan’s engineers in further improving the road. By July 22 Bryan had completed road improvements to a point 15 miles east of the Green River near modern Rock Springs, Wyo.

Stagecoaches, Emigrants and the Overland Mail: 1859 to 1869

The U.S. Army construction along the Overland Trail was largely complete by the fall of 1858 and both military and civilian traffic began to use the route. In April 1860, the 7th Infantry was reassigned from Utah Territory to New Mexico Territory in response to attacks by the Navajo. The 7th marched east along the Overland Trail. In 1859 and 1860, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver published guides to the Overland Trail for civilians, giving mileages between major camping points and springs.

In 1862 stagecoach magnate Ben Holladay shifted the route of his Central Overland, California and Pikes Peak Express Company from the Oregon Trail to the now well-established Overland Trail. This was due to Indian attacks along the Oregon Trail and to access the business in the booming Colorado Front Range towns. Holladay would use the South Platte River variant—through Virginia Dale—and not the Lodgepole Creek military road.

As the Army had recognized in the 1850s, travel across the Overland Trail would be difficult given the lack of water, grass and fuel. The U.S. Army had begun improving the route between 1856 and 1858 with road construction, improved arroyo crossings and bridges. Water sources such as Barrel Springs were also improved by the Army. Ben Holladay expanded this infrastructure with his stage stations.

Swing and home stations

Holladay built two types of stage stations. Swing stations were built at roughly 10 to 12-mile intervals, but locating a station close to a source of water was a primary concern. Swing stations maintained livestock, horses and company equipment. Water was available from springs, creeks, rivers or wells . Home stations were larger and more elaborate. Spaced 40 to 60 miles apart, they provided meals for passengers and facilities for more extended stopovers. Teams of horses and drivers would be changed at home stations. Telegraph equipment was placed at the home stations when the second transcontinental telegraph line, running along the Overland Trail in addition to the first one along the Oregon Trail, was built in 1862. The stage stations located east of the Continental Divide were largely wood or log buildings while those west of the Divide were constructed of sandstone slabs with wood pole roofs.

Stagecoaches ran year-round. A February 1867 New York Times article described a stagecoach traveling blind through a blizzard. Without knowing it, the stage driver drove up onto the roof of the LaClede Station barn. Although the stage stations were built and maintained specifically for the benefit of the Overland Stage and Mail, emigrants could make use of these services. Dr. Waid Howard wrote of his stop at LaClede on July 31, 1865.

Drove until one o-clock through an awful dust waste and came to the headwaters of the long sought but unknown stream to travelers, known as Bitter creek where we drove our stock four miles to grass and water, whilst McMahan, Doc Bernard and myself went to the ranch [LaClede Station] nearby, sought and obtained a warm breakfast. The lady gave us cream in our coffee, butter and cornbread, pies and molasses three times passing bacon and last but not least, bountiful supply of Black-tail Deer steak, which was most excellent indeed. This however came very near being the cause of our excommunication from our regular mess at camp as our most worthy and accommodating cooks John Vaughne and Jerry Lewis gave us most emphatically to understand they would not by any means permit a repetition of the like again.

The presence of a woman—likely the LaClede Station keeper’s wife—was also mentioned by Ruth Shackleford who passed LaClede on July 28, 1865. She wrote, “we crossed Bitter Creek, a nasty looking stream. The water looks green and is poison.... There is a stone house just this side with three rooms and a porch and a stone wall around the lot I saw one very nice looking lady here”. Shackleford also mentioned the presence of a woman at the Point of Rocks home station. The station keepers were not always as generous to emigrants as was the lady at LaClede. In 1866 the Duck Lake station men tried to force Johann Schmidt to buy water from their well by hiding the bucket. The Salt Wells station men in 1863 also tried to sell well water to emigrants, to the disgust of diarist Howard Cutting.

Bitter Creek was seen as the most difficult section of the Overland Trail. A. K. McClure wrote in 1869, “Bitter Creek, which drains the country, is so impregnated with alkali that neither man nor beast can drink it without injury; and the wells at the stations are almost equally bad. The water if drunk in the usual quantities, produced violent nausea, and does not satisfy thirst. Even in coffee and tea, it is tasted, and the ‘square meals’ seem throughout as if alkali had been spilled profusely on everything”. Howard Cutting wrote, “Bitter Creek is too miserable a stream to have a name. Tho’ I don’t know [how] Emigrants would get across this desert country without it.”

Indian Resistance along the Overland Trail: 1862-1868

The importance of the stage stations to the Overland Trail did not escape the attention of American Indians intent on blocking American expansion into the Intermountain West. The hostilities with the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho which led Holladay to abandon the Oregon Trail eventually spread to the Overland Trail. Fort Halleck was established near Elk Mountain in the fall of 1862 with elements of the 11th Ohio Cavalry stationed there to protect the trail. Troops were posted at the stage stations east from LaClede beginning in 1863.

The year 1865 ushered in a period of Indian raids along the Overland Trail. Between May 26 and June 22, attacks occurred at Bridger Pass, Sage Creek, Pine Grove and Sulphur Springs. On June 2, Washakie Station was attacked, one man was wounded and nine U.S. Cavalry horses were driven off. On the same day, two emigrants were killed in the Sage Creek area, and the country was raided for 50 miles along the mail line. Thirty-one soldiers of the 11th Ohio Cavalry were sent from Fort Halleck to open up the mail route. The Pine Grove and Bridger Pass stations were found deserted; all employees had retreated to the station at Sulphur Springs. At the height of these attacks, the mail was protected by stationing three to five soldiers and a non-commissioned officer at each stage station most likely to be attacked. A mounted escort of cavalry also accompanied the stage at times of greatest peril.

On May 28, 1865, the First Battalion of the Nevada Volunteer Cavalry was sent east from Fort Bridger to patrol the Overland Trail. This contingent set up a temporary headquarters at Washakie Station, and posted five soldiers each at the stations at Rock Spring, Salt Wells, Point of Rocks, Black Buttes and Big Pond. Indian attacks declined in 1866, but the following year fresh hostilities broke out as a result of the Powder River wars to the north. On June 4, 1867, two stage men were killed on Bridger’s Pass, and stock was driven off along the line for a distance of 45 miles east of Sulphur Springs Station. Bridger Pass Station was burned to the ground on June 6 without loss of life. From April 1 to Aug. 15, 1867, the entire Overland Line reportedly lost 350 head of stage stock, 12 stations were burned and three coaches destroyed. Thirteen employees were killed during the attacks. The Peace Commission of 1867 negotiated with the Indians for more than a year and eventually drafted treaties which, by late 1868, largely ended attacks along the Overland Trail in the new Wyoming Territory.

Post-1869 Use of the Overland Trail: 1869-1913

Transcontinental emigrant traffic along the Overland Trail did not end with the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869. The Overland Trail continued to see emigrant traffic through the 1880s and possibly longer. In 1865, Union Pacific surveyors examined the Overland Trail but ultimately chose a more northerly route across the Red Desert. While the Union Pacific was still building across Nebraska in 1866, Ben Holladay sold his Overland Stage Line to Wells Fargo. Through 1868 Wells Fargo continued running stages west from the nearest station on the Union Pacific railhead. As the railroad was built across what’s now Wyoming in 1868, Overland Trail stage stations closed sequentially from east to west and military posts such as Fort Halleck were replaced by new forts along the railroad. When the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah in May 1869, the era of transcontinental stagecoach traffic through Wyoming ended. Wells Fargo sold its stagecoach holdings in October 1869.

With the stage stations closed, emigrants created post-1869 Overland Trail variants to bypass the most difficult sections of the trail. One post-1869 route ran north from Sulphur Springs to Rawlins and then continued north through Crooks Gap or Muddy Gap to the Oregon Trail along the Sweetwater River. This variant, used by emigrants since the late-1850s, then followed the Oregon Trail west over South Pass. This was also an active freight road connecting Rawlins with the Sweetwater Mining Districts and the Eastern Shoshone Indian agency at Fort Washakie.

Bypassing Bitter Creek led to the creation of a second post-1869 emigrant variant, the Pine Butte Cutoff. The name Pine Butte Cutoff is modern. The route was used by emigrants in the 1870s and 1880s. The cutoff began at LaClede and ran west, passing Antelope Spring, a source of good water. Wells at cattle and sheep ranches were also used by emigrants. The Pine Butte Cutoff next made the descent of Kinney Rim known to some emigrants as “The Elephant” because it was so steep. After crossing Salt Wells Creek, South Baxter Basin and Aspen Mountain, the western end of the Pine Butte Cutoff met the Union Pacific between Rock Springs and Green River. Emigrants continued west along the Overland Trail to Granger.

Beginning in 1913, the Lincoln Highway became the principal automobile road across southern Wyoming. Portions of the Overland Trail between Point of Rocks and Granger were incorporated into the early Lincoln Highway. Other segments of the Overland Trail saw use in the 20th century as local ranch roads. Some stage stations were reused as sheep ranches but eventually the trail and the stage stations were abandoned to the wind and sand.

Appendix: some Overland Trail sites today

Green River   The Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River contains exhibits on the Overland Trail. Green River City was the site of a home station at the point where the Overland Trail crossed the Green River. Overland Park is located near the site of the stage station at the Green River ford. No building remains are present.

Rock Springs   The Overland Trail swing station was named Rock Spring. The town became Rock Springs following the arrival of the Union Pacific. The Rock Springs Historical Museum located in the old city hall contains exhibits on the history of Rock Springs. A historical marker at the site of the Rock Spring swing station is located on Springs Drive north of downtown. No building remains are present. A section of preserved Overland Trail ruts and interpretive signs are located at Stagecoach Elementary School.

Salt Wells stage station   The Salt Wells swing station is located near the point where Salt Wells Creek flows into Bitter Creek. Remains of the building foundation are present. Archaeological excavations at Salt Wells Station in the 1990s revealed that stage stations had flagstone floors and an unexpectedly complex roof structure. The station was torn down for use by the Union Pacific in 1868. Use of metal detectors and unauthorized excavations on public lands are prohibited by law.

Point of Rocks stage station   The Point of Rocks home station is located south of Point of Rocks, Wyo. The station has been restored. Interpretive signs, historic inscriptions and a small cemetery are present. Approximately 1.6 miles east of the Point of Rocks Stage Station on the east side of Bitter Creek are active sulphur springs (not to be confused with the Sulphur Springs home station on Muddy Creek in Carbon County). A large emigrant inscription register is located along the cliffs at these springs. Use of metal detectors and unauthorized excavations on public lands are prohibited by law.

Black Butte stage station   The Black Butte swing station is located along Bitter Creek in the active Black Butte Coal Mine Lease Area. Foundation and wall remnants for the main building and a small outbuilding are located within fenced enclosures. Accessing this site involves driving on mine haul roads. Follow all mine traffic rules. Use of metal detectors and unauthorized excavations on public lands are prohibited by law.

Big Pond stage station   The Big Pond swing station is located along Bitter Creek. Remains of foundations and walls of two buildings are present. Immediately south of the stage station are the remains of an early twentieth century sheep shearing complex. The Big Pond station buildings were reused for sheep ranching following the end of the Overland Trail stagecoach operations. Use of metal detectors and unauthorized excavations on public lands are prohibited by law.

LaClede stage station   The LaClede home station is located near the head of Bitter Creek. The remains of two large buildings are present within a fenced enclosure. For many years in the twentieth century, the LaClede home station was known as Fort LaClede, but this is incorrect. No known nineteenth century document describes LaClede as anything but a stage station and no known nineteenth century document refers to any site as Fort LaClede—as they do for Fort Bridger or Fort Halleck. Also, there are no known U.S. Army records for a military post on the Overland Trail between Fort Bridger and Fort Halleck. Soldiers were deployed intermittently at LaClede and many other stage stations during the 1860s, but this does not make these stations formal military outposts. “Fort LaClede” is now considered to be a twentieth century invention.

Two miles northwest of LaClede is a historic building originally identified as the LaClede stage station. The site is now identified as the early twentieth century Boyer sheep ranch. Use of metal detectors and unauthorized excavations on public lands are prohibited by law.

Dug Springs stage station   The Dug Springs swing station is located along a small dry wash. The foundation and lower walls of one building are located within a fenced enclosure, which also contains an interpretive sign. The springs are visible along the east side of the station as two circular areas of wet earth. Several miles of intact Overland Trail ruts run through the site. Use of metal detectors and unauthorized excavations on public lands are prohibited by law.

Duck Lake stage station   The Duck Lake swing station was destroyed by well field construction. No trace of this station remains.

Washakie stage station   A historic marker turnout is located along Highway 789 at the Overland Trail crossing west of Washakie Station. The Washakie swing station is located along Muddy Creek two miles east of State Highway 789 and 20 miles south of the I-80 exit at Creston Junction. The foundation and lower walls of one building are present. Use of metal detectors and unauthorized excavations on public lands are prohibited by law.

Approximately six miles of relatively intact Overland Trail remains run east from the Washakie Station, but at the east end the trail is blocked by locked gates. Locked gates prevent access to the Sulphur Springs home station, which is located on private land.

Editors’ note: This article was funded in part by Rocky Mountain Conservancy, a nonprofit Cooperating Association based in Estes Park, Colo., through book store sales at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, Wyo. We offer our special thanks.

Primary Sources

• Bryan, Francis T. “The Report of Lieut. Francis T. Bryan,” issued as Appendix H to the Report of the Chief of Topographical Engineers, 1856/57. Geological Report by H. Engelmann, 1857, 487-517.
• Cutting, A. Howard. Journal of an Overland Trip, 1863. Manuscript. Henry Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, Calif., 1863.
• McClure, A. K. Three Thousand Miles Through the Rocky Mountains . Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1869.
• Post Commander, Fort Bridger. Letter to Lt. Stewart, June 22, 1865. Fort Bridger, Letters Sent, 1860-1868 . 1865. Wyoming State Archives, Cheyenne, Wyo. (Hereafter WSA)
• Post Returns, 1858-1890. Fort Bridger. Microfilm. WSA.
• Schmidt, Johann H. Johann Heinrich Schmidt Diary. Manuscript. Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City, 1866.
• Settle, Raymond W. and Mary L. Settle. Overland Days to Montana in 1865: The Diary of Sarah Raymond and Journal of Dr. Waid Howard . Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1971.
• Shackleford, Ruth. “To California by the Mormon Trail, 1865.” In Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1890 , Vol. IX, 1864-1868. Edited by Kenneth L. Holmes, 1990, 87-150. Spokane, Wash.: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1990.
• United States Engineer Department. Stansbury, Howard. Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah . (Published by order of the United States House of Representatives). Washington D.C.: Robert Armstrong, Public Printer, 1853, accessed Oct. 16, 2022 at https://webapps.fhsu.edu/ksherp/bibFiles/63.pdf .
• United States House of Representatives. Executive Documents, The House of Representatives Second Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress 1858-1859 Vol II, Report of the Secretary of War, Washington D.C . Bartletson, John. “Diary of a Trip from Fort Bridger, Utah Territory, via Bridger’s Pass and Laramie Plain to Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory.” Washington D.C.: James B Stuman Printer, 1859, accessed Oct. 16, 2022 at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Report_of_the_Secretary_of_War_which_Acc/3L1MAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Bartletson,+John.+“Diary+of+a+Trip+from+Fort+Bridger,+Utah+Territory,+via+Bridger’s+Pass+and+Laramie+Plain+to+Fort+Laramie,+Nebraska+Territory.”&pg=PA52&printsec=frontcover .
• _______________________________. Executive Documents, The House of Representatives Second Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress 1858-1859 Vol II, Report of the Secretary of War, Washington D.C . Bryan, Francis T. Letter to George Andrews, Haystacks, July 19, 1858.
• ______________________________. Executive Documents, The House of Representatives Second Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress 1858-1859 Vol II, Report of the Secretary of War, Washington D.C . Executive Documents. Washington D.C.: James B Stuman Printer, 1859a.
• ______________________________. Executive Documents, The House of Representatives Second Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress 1858-1859 Vol II, Report of the Secretary of War, Washington D.C . Loring, W. W. Colonel Loring to Army Headquarters, Camp Scott, Utah Territory, June 11, 1858. Washington D.C.: James B Stuman Printer 1859.
• ______________________________. Executive Documents, The House of Representatives Second Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress 1858-1859 Vol V, Maps, Washington D.C.: James B Stuman Printer, 1859b.
• United States Postmaster-General. U.S. Postmaster-General’s Annual Report of 40th Congress, 1st Sess., Vol. No. 1327. House Exec. Doc. 1. 1867.
• United States Senate. Testimony as to the Claim of Ben Holladay. 46th Cong., 2nd Sess., Vol. No. 1890, Senate Miscellaneous Doc. 19, Washington D.C.: GPO, 1880, 1-89.

Secondary Sources

• Erb, Louise B., Ann B. Brown, and Gilberta B. Hughes. The Bridger Pass, Overland Trail, 1862-1869 . Littleton, Colo., ERBGEM Publishing, 1989.
• Fletcher, Jack E., and Patricia K. A. Fletcher. Cherokee Trail Diaries, Volume 3, 1851-1900. Dexter, Mich.: Thomas-Shore Inc., 2001.
• Gardner, A. Dudley, Debbie Allen and Mike Allen. The Washakie Stage Station and Surrounding Environment, 1849 to 1868. Report prepared by Western Archaeological Services, (Hereafter WAS) Western Wyoming Community College, Rock Springs, Wyo. Also on file at Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins Field Office, Rawlins, Wyo., 1993.
• Gardner, A. Dudley, David E. Johnson, and Russel L. Tanner. The Overland Trail . Report on file at WAS, 1995.
• Gowens, Fred and Eugene Campbell. Fort Bridger: Island in the Wilderness . Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1975.
• Hafen, LeRoy R. The Overland Mail, 1849-1869 . Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1926.
• Jackson, W. Turrentine. Wells Fargo in Colorado Territory . Colorado Historical Society Monograph Series. Denver Colo., 1982.
• Johnson, David E . A Historical Assessment of Overland Trail Segments From the Washakie Stage Station To Sulphur Springs, Carbon County, Wyoming. Report on file at WAS, 2006.
• Johnson, David E., Robert G. Rosenberg, and A. Dudley Gardner. A Historical Assessment of Overland Trail Segments From the Washakie Stage Station To Point of Rocks, Carbon and Sweetwater Counties, Wyoming. Report on file at WAS, 2005.
• Jones, Robert H. Guarding the Overland Trails: The Eleventh Ohio Cavalry in the Civil War . Spokane, Wash.: The Arthur H. Clarke Company, 2005.
• Madsen, Brigham D. Exploring the Great Salt Lake: The Stansbury Expedition of 1849 to 1850. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989.
• Rogers, Fred B. Soldiers of the Overland . San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1938.
• Rosenberg, Robert G. and Elizabeth Rosenberg. Wyoming Cultural Properties Form for 48SW1832, Fort LaClede. Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, Cultural Records Division, Laramie, Wyo., 2003.
• Tanner, Russel L. Who Built the Little Rock Houses: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of the Overland Stage Stations in Southwestern Wyoming . Master of Arts Degree, Plan B Paper. American Studies Department, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo., 1995.

Illustrations

• The Overland Trail map and the photos of the two inscriptions, the trail near Muddy Creek and the wells at Dug Springs are by the author. Used with permission and thanks.
• Bugler Moellman’s sketch of Fort Halleck is from the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. Used with permission and thanks.
• The photos of the trail marker on Highway 789 and the stage station at Point of Rocks are by Tom Rea.
• The photo of ruins at LaClede Station is from Over-land.com . Used with thanks.

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Address: 3100 Snowy Range Rd, Laramie, WY 82070

Pioneers, Wagons, and a 575 Mile Journey.

The Overland Trail and Stagecoach Line was an alternate wagon route off the famous Oregon Trail. Pioneers crossed this area as they headed westward in the late 1800’s.

The  Overland Trail  (also known as the Overland Stage Line) was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as an alternative route to the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails through central Wyoming. The Overland Trail was famously used by the Overland Stage Company owned by Ben Holladay to run mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah, via stagecoaches in the early 1860s. Starting from Atchison, Kansas, the trail descended into Colorado before looping back up to southern Wyoming and rejoining the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger. The stage line operated until 1869 when the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad eliminated the need for mail service via the stagecoach.

Benjamin Holladay  (October 14, 1819 – July 8, 1887) was an American transportation businessman responsible for creating the Overland Stage to California during the height of the 1849 California Gold Rush. Ben Holladay created a stagecoach empire and he is known in history as the “Stagecoach King”. A native of Kentucky, he also was hired as a private courier to General Alexander Doniphan of Missouri. Doniphan refused point-blank to carry out orders to kill the Mormons during the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. Through Holladay’s friendship with Brigham Young, Holladay established a profitable freighting contract to Salt Lake City. His transportation empire later included steamships and railroads in Oregon.

Several modern highways follow the same route as the Overland Trail. Interstate 76 follows the South Platte River to Fort Morgan, Colorado, and U.S. Route 34 goes between Fort Morgan and Greeley. North of Fort Collins, U.S. Route 287 follows the path of the Overland Trail north to Laramie. West of Laramie the Overland Trail route was closely followed by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 and the Lincoln Highway and Interstate 80 in the 20th century.

Remains of stage stops are scattered throughout Wyoming and northern Colorado including well preserved buildings at Virginia Dale, Colorado and Point of Rocks, Wyoming. The trail is occasionally marked with markers and historical signs where the trail crosses a highway. Switchbacks on the route can be clearly seen when on highway 287, just north of the town of Laporte, Colorado, above the present day Forks Lumber company, and portions of the route just east of that spot are well preserved and easily seen (although they are crossing through private property).

Wagons. Raids. Dysentery. See the harsh journey of a pioneer.*

BYU Harold B. Lee Library

Trails of hope: overland diaries and letters, 1846–1869.

• Collections
• Overland Trails
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These maps have been created using photographs and images for the purpose of better understanding the contents of the collection.

Map of Photographs and Illustrations - Navigate the trails viewing photographs and illustrations.

Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846–1869 is a collection of the original writings of 49 voyagers on the Mormon, California, Oregon, and Montana trails who wrote while traveling on the trail. Some diarists speak with uncommon eloquence and others with maddening brevity, while telling their stories of persistence and pain, birth and death, God and gold, dust and debris, bugs and buffalo, love and laughter, and trail tedium.

Accompanying the original diary images and their searchable transcripts are 43 contemporary maps; seven trail guides; 82 photographs, watercolors and art sketches; four essays on the Mormon and California trails, maps and trail guides; suggested readings for further discovery; and brief biographies of 45 of the 49 diarists.

• About the Collection
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• Biographies
• Building the Digital Collection
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Business | Chamber Member of the Week: Overland Trail Museum

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The museum has evolved and changed over the years and now boasts 15 buildings including a village of historic buildings, two barns, two large farm equipment sheds, a Print Shop, a caboose and depot and the High Plains Education Center. All buildings strive to offer visitors a unique experience of what life for the pioneers might have been like on the Colorado prairie and offer children many hands-on experience opportunities.

New projects are always in the works at the Museum. This year (summer/fall 2024) they will be opening a Barn Quilt exhibit. Eight original wooden barn quilts are being designed, painted and installed which will help tell the story of our Colorado prairie. This exhibit is a companion exhibit for their late summer exhibition from the Smithsonian Institute, Crossroads ~ Change in Rural America. This exhibit will open in early August and will be available to see through mid-September. Events, programs and children’s experiences are being planned to accompany and celebrate the exhibit.

The Overland Trail Museums largest event of the year is their July 4 Heritage Festival. This free event offers visitors live music, historic crafters, children’s games and activities, food and much, much more! Watch for details of their upcoming Heritage Festival!

The Overland Trail Museum welcomes all visitors and encourages them to step into the past while enjoying the fascinating history of northeastern Colorado. They also offer children’s programs, Family Fun Saturday and their monthly History Café programs as well as special events that take place throughout the year. Family Fun Saturday occurs the first Saturday of every month and children 12 and under are admitted free of charge. The Overland Trail Museum is also a wonderful facility that can be reserved and rented for small weddings, business meetings, family reunions and private parties.

The Overland Trail Museum is open (April 1-October 31) Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and (November 1-March 31) Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Please like them on Facebook and visit them at www.sterlingcolo.com . They also encourage you to subscribe to their outstanding monthly newsletter, The Overland Post.

The Overland trail Museum is located just off of Exit 125 at the junction of Highway 6 and I-76. They are happy to help you with research and any other questions that you may have. Call them at 970-522-3895.

Please join the Logan County Chamber of Commerce in congratulating Overland Trail Museum as this week’s Member of the Week and tying our Community together!

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Trek From Coast To Coast On One Of The Longest Hiking Trails In America

T he U.S. is no stranger to extremely long hikes. Two of the most famous are the Appalachian Trail (AT), which runs from Georgia to Maine, and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), which goes from the Mexican to Canadian borders, California to Washington. But they're not that long. The PCT is "only" 2,650 miles, and the AT is a measly 2,190 miles. You can knock both of those hikes out in six months.

If you're looking for a real challenge, how about trekking from coast to coast, all the way across America? The American Discovery Trail (ADT) runs for around 5,000 miles from Cape Henlopen, Delaware, to Point Reyes National Seashore, California. Hiking this trail takes an average person 390 days. During that time, you get to experience the full diversity of America's landscapes: mountains and deserts, big cities and vast prairies. So step aside Route 66; we're crossing the country on foot.

Read more: The Best Methods For Securing Your Tent To Feel Safer While Camping

Exploring The East

Most through hikers start the ADT on the East Coast and head west, according to discoverytrail.org , so that's where we will begin. Hikers set out from the Atlantic Ocean in Delaware's Cape Henlopen State Park. The Delaware section is just 44 miles. According to one poster on the r/hiking forum on Reddit, that is no bad thing, as this state's section is mainly on paved roads.

From Delaware, you'll hit Maryland and Washington, D.C., crossing the Chesapeake Bay. You can take a side trip into D.C. and see the stunning Great Falls on the Potomac. Next, you're in West Virginia, where you can spend some time around Harpers Ferry, discovering Civil War history in the area . After this, you'll be on a particularly scenic section of the trail. You'll hike over ancient mountains and in deep valleys and spend some time on the North Bend Rail Trail, which one user on Reddit's r/bicycletouring forum writes has lovely scenery.

Your final state in this eastern section is Ohio (with a dip into Kentucky). You'll pass caves, sandstone hills, and an area called the "Little Smokies," thanks to their resemblance to the Great Smoky Mountains. Think steep hills and dense woodland. From Elizabethtown, you have a choice to make: the northern or the southern route.

Sightseeing In The Center

The ADT splits into two between Elizabethtown, Ohio, and Denver, Colorado. Both routes pass through Indiana and Illinois, but the northern route crosses Iowa and Nebraska, while the southern route goes through Missouri and Kansas. The northern route is slightly over 200 miles shorter than the southern route.

Taking the northern route, you'll pass through Indiana's Midwestern Corn Belt, the flat, northern part of Illinois (you can take a side trip to Chicago), and Iowa and Nebraska's vast corn and bean fields. On the southern route, you'll go through hillier country in Indiana and Illinois before going into St. Louis, Missouri, and crossing the state's limestone bluffs. In Kansas, you'll spend 570 miles walking beside great corn and wheat fields and through small towns.

We're going to be honest: This might not be your favorite section of the trail. As one user put it in Reddit's r/campingandhiking forum, despite having two trails to choose from in the central section, "either way it'll be terrible." We wouldn't go that far, as these states have their charms. However, be aware that though Kansas is relatively flat, it is a tough state to trek through on the ADT. In the r/thruhiking forum on Reddit, one poster wrote that several hikers describe Kansas as the "roughest stretch," partly due to the weather and partly due to the lack of water sources.

West To The Coast

Once you've crossed the Midwest, the only way is up. We mean that literally because your next state is Colorado. From Denver, the trail joins up and heads into the Rocky Mountains. The scenery will be spectacular, and hopefully, you'll have your trail legs, as you'll need to cross six peaks that reach over 9,000 feet.

After this, you cross into Utah. The Trek writes that the ADT is the only long-distance trail that allows hikers to really explore this glorious state, differentiating it from all other long-distance hikes. The scenery is wonderfully diverse in southern Utah: You'll cross the red rocks of Canyonlands National Park and hike through high forests, deep canyons, and towering mountains.

From Utah, you go into Nevada, which is not a state that usually attracts hordes of hikers. But that's a shame, as Nevada offers ADT hikers mountain crossings, valleys covered in sagebrush, and a chance to visit Great Basin National Park, where there are over 40 caves to explore . Finally, you reach your last state of California. You enter the state on the gorgeous Tahoe Rim Trail, descend through the Sierras, and pop out on the Pacific Ocean at Point Reyes National Seashore. Here, you can relax on long sandy beaches and find an epic spot to set up your tent for the last time.

Practicalities Of The ADT

How do you even begin to plan for hiking the ADT? First, we've been talking about America's longest trek, but you don't have to do this trail on foot. Most of it is open to cyclists; one person has even completed the whole length on horseback. One couple, Bill and Laurie Foot, completed the trail by doing a mixture of hiking and biking. You can do the ADT your way.

Be aware that the weather will present challenges. One Reddit poster in the r/hiking forum wrote that Nevada is a "brutal" stretch, saying that hikers should carry gallons of water in a stroller. Meanwhile, the snow in the mountains in Colorado can also make hiking difficult and perhaps dangerous. With this in mind, you'll need to time your start date well if you want to do the whole hike. Ken and Marcia Powers began in February and ended in October, being the first couple to successfully complete the whole trail in one continuous go.

Finally, one user on Reddit writing in the r/hiking forum suggests using the official ADT as a guide and planning your own route. The ADT meanders, and there are often faster ways to walk between towns, so you may want to skip some parts. Hike your own trail.

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