|
Welcome
to Point of Interest Road
Signs! A
collection of photos of road and trail signs. Click
here for more Wyoming Signs
Register
Cliff
Location
of sign - Follow South Guernsey Road south out of Guernsey.
After you cross the river (west to Trail Ruts), continue on
South
Guernsey Road for just over a mile. You'll see the sign for Register
Cliff State Historic Site. It's at the end (about a mile) of
this
dirt road.
Photo
taken June 2007
Photo
courtesy of Jimmy Wayne
Text
of sign:
The wayfarer's penchant
for inscribing names and dates on prominent landmarks excites the
interest of his descendants. Regrettably,
marks of historic value
are often effaced by later opportunists.
Along the Oregon Trail,
famed transcontinental route of the 19th century, pertinent dates
are from the 1820's through the 1860's.
Three outstanding
recording areas exist within Wyoming: Register Cliff here;
Independence Rock, 180 miles west; and Names Hill,
a further 175 miles along
the Trail's wandering course. Register Cliff and Names Hill are
self-evident titles; Independence Rock
derives from a July 4th
1825 observance which, according to some authorities, was staged by
Mountain Men of Fur Trade fame.
Register Cliff invited
emigrants because broad river bottoms offered pleasing campsites and
excellent pasture. Hardship and illness
were inevitable to Trail
travel; of 55,000 emigrants during a peak years, some 5,000 died
enroute. Cliffside graves attest to the high
mortality. This
being their lot, travelers eagerly sought and singularly valued
recuperative layovers. Here, rest offered the
opportunity to register.
But
not all who registered were worn and grieving emigrants. early inscriptions
were by Mountain Men inured to wilderness life --
many
descendants of two centuries of French Fur Trade; One reads: 1829 Does
it denote an observance? If the American
Independence
Day was celebrated in 1825 at Independence Rock could the French trappers
have noted Bastille Day at Register
Cliff
in 1829?
Please help us
out by submitting
a photo!
You
can find more information about the state of Wyoming here.
|
