, 1925-08-20
The Overland Trail


THE old emigrant road Overland
Trail) extending along the north side
of Elk mountain to what was COM
monty known as Fort Halleck, then
from there crossing the Platte river
near the mouth of Sage Creek. and
from there westward through Old
Pine Grove, Bridger Pass and
through the Muddy Canyon to Sui
phur, and then again in a westerly
direction, was to me interesting. for
with the stories told of the pony eX-
press riders, stage drivers and Indi-
ans, it was history. At Old Pine
Grove on a little hill this side of the
creek, there + a number of graves,
and the inscriptions on the head
boards told the story, and invariably
it was Killed by Indians In the
Muddy Canyon on the rocks along
the road were numerous names, some
painted and other chiseled in the
rock and also the year. noe
This. road was so we'll travelled
up to about 1881 that twofand three
wagons could drive abreast. Every
day during the summer season emf
grants would pass in trains of from
five to thirty or forty wagons, some
would have a span of mules, others
horses and some few a yoke of oxen.
The most of them were headed for
the northwest, Idaho, Oregon and
Washington. Covered wagons, all of
them. When l now hear Of the Gov
cred Wagon at the picture show ]
wonder what the novelty is that a
picture of this kind should attract
so much interest and attention. A
covered wagon meant much hardship
and p~rivation in those days.
Lost Soldier
I'm October 1889, William Hislip
and I had occasion to ride on horse
back down the Sweetwater from
South Pass to Rongis and then on
the old Lander road to Rawlins. AS
we passed through Lost Soldier we
could only see sage brush, hills and
sand, and a little water here and
there in the creek. 1t would have
been a far stretch of imagination and
optimism to predict that th~irty-five
years later at Lost Soldier there
would be a small town with numer-
Gus oil wells, a pipe line to Parco.
and another pipe line (gas) to Cas-
per, and numerous oil rigs dottins
the prairie as far east as the Sem
mole mountains and between the
Ferris mountains and Bell Springs
on the south.
Every summer for five or six
years l have driven a teal two and
three times each week over the road
from Rawlins, past the nine mile
lakes to little Sage Creek. was
never able to see anything interest
ing except the wild animal life: there
was nothing which could be turned
into money except wild hay. Today
the story is different. There are
two producing gas wells with a pipe
line to the refinery at Parco. and de-
velopn1ent work is done which prom
ises we'll for one or more oil wells
Some Old settlers /
Between the years 1877 and 1900
newcomers came to Rawlins and be-
came a valued. addition to the 1900
population. There were many, and OF
the number l at this time recall the
following: A. NJ. Startxell, John e.
Osborne. William E. Daley. Sr.. Ray
mond Barber, Geo. A. Bible. james
Rankin. Joseph Rankin. Mute Ran
kin. II. p. Henderson, John Mahoney.
p. j. Foster. John c. Davis. James
G. Rumsey. Richard A. Mayor. Henry
Rasmussen. Fred Rendle. H. Larsen,
George r. Brimmer. L. E. Armstrong.
n. Il. Greenfield H. s. BrOdt. II. A.
Daley. A. +. Thode. r. Sundin. r. J.
Swisher, Homer Merrill. Mig Rendle,
William l.. Ash. 2. T. Brown, ID. II.
Craig. James E. Cosgrin. Thomas
Cosgrin. John Cosgrin. John A.
Donnell. J. A. Bennett, j. A. Rendle.
. "a number of these, while they
had not been residents OF Rawlins
in the early days, were pioneers of
the early seventies In the territory of
Wyoming as It vas known when later
organized.
"All were prominently identified