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Oregon Trail Ruts Interpretive Trail

Explore Dramatic Oregon Trail Ruts Near Guernsey

Interpretive Trail on Guernsey Fish Pond, North Platte River in Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Park, Great Plains, MTCH Camp Guernsey in Guernsey, WY

One of the best preserved and most dramatic places to see the Oregon Trail is at Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Park outside of Guernsey, WY. Here, the wagons of thousands of travelers wore ruts over a foot deep through the soft sandstone. A short 15-30 minute (round-trip) walk along the paved, handicap-accessible loop brings you right next to the ruts.

National Register of Historic Places

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Length

½mi

Getting There

When in Guernsey, the route to the Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site is pretty clearly marked – from downtown Guernsey you drive south on South Wyoming Avenue and shortly after crossing the North Platte River there will be a sign leading you to the site.

Interpretive Signs

Along the trail there are 7 interpretive signs which mostly tell the fairly one-sided story of the U.S. Army’s job in protecting the travelers from attacks from the Sioux Indians.

Wagon wheels cut solid rock, carving a memorial to Empire Builders. What manner of men and beasts impelled conveyances weighing on those grinding wheels? Look! A line of shadows crossing boundless wilderness.

— Sign at the parking lot

Nearby Historical Places

Inscription on Great Plains near Guernsey, WY

Lucindy Rollins Grave

Grave on Great Plains, MTCH Camp Guernsey near Guernsey, WY

On the Web

On Wikipedia

Oregon Trail Ruts is a preserved site of wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail on the North Platte River, about .5 miles south of Guernsey, Wyoming. The Oregon Trail here was winding up towards South Pass. Wagon wheels, draft animals, and people wore down the trail about two to six feet into a sandstone ridge here, during its heavy usage from 1841-1869. The half-mile stretch is "unsurpassed" and is the best-preserved set of Oregon Trail ruts anywhere along its former length. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The site is maintained as a State Historic Site within Guernsey State Park, which separately was declared a National Historic Landmark for its Civilian Conservation Corps structures, unrelated to the Oregon Trail Ruts.