Historical Marker
Parting of the Ways
Sublette County · Wyoming
Erected by Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming, 1956
Three plaques stand here, and only the oldest is in the wrong place. The state's 1956 stone marks a fork; the Oregon-California Trails Association's plaque of 1988 and the Centennial panel of 1990 put the real Parting of the Ways nine or ten miles west, where the Greenwood Cutoff, later misnamed for Sublette, left the main road in 1844. The ruts that misled the commission belong to a freight road of about 1870 to 1900 between South Pass and the railroad at Green River. The stone's 1852 peak is right; historians put that year near 70,000, not 40,000.
What the plaque says
"Parting of the Ways" This marks a fork in the trail, right to Oregon, left to Utah and California. 1812, Robert Stuart and east- bound Astorians used South Pass gateway. 1824, Eleven westbound Ashley- Henry men led by Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick. 1832, N. Wyeth and Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville parties. 1836, Missionaries M. Whitman and H. H. Spalding and wives. 1841, Bartleson-Bidwell party. 1852, Peak year, estimated 40,000 emigrants. Erected by the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming 1956 The Parting of the Ways In July 1844 the California bound Stevens-Townsend-Murphy wagon train, guided by Isaac Hitchcock and 81-year old Caleb Greenwood, passed this point and continued nine and one half miles west southwest from here, to a place destined to become prominent in Oregon Trail history - the starting point of the Sublette Cut-off. There, instead of following the regular Oregon Trail route southwest to Fort Bridger, then northwest to reach the Bear river below present day Cokeville, Wyoming, this wagon train pioneered a new route. Either Hitchcock or Greenwood, it is uncertain which, made the decision to lead the wagons due west, in effect along one side of a triangle. The route was hazardous, entailing crossing some 50 miles of semi-arid desert in the heat of summer and surmounting mountain ridges, but it saved approximately 85 miles from the Fort Bridger route and 5 or 6 days travel. The route was first known as the Greenwood Cut-off. It was the Gold Rush year of 1849 that brought this "Parting of the Ways" into prominence. Of the estimated 30,000 Forty-niners probably 20,000 travelled the Greenwood Cut-off which, due to an error in the 1849 Joseph E. Ware guide book, became known as the Sublette Cut-off. In the ensuing years further refinements of the Trail route were made. In 1852 the Kinney and Slate Creek Cut-offs diverted trains from portions of the Sublette Cut-off, but until the covered wagon period ended, the Sublette Cut-off remained a popular direct route, and this "Parting of the Ways" was the place for crucial decisions. A quartzite post inscribed ← Fort Bridger S. Cut-off → and a Bureau of Land Management information panel now mark the historic "Parting of the Ways" site. Research and signing by the: Oregon-California Trails Association 1988 This is a part of your American heritage. Honor it, protect it, preserve it for your children. Parting of the Ways Trail ruts at this site were mistakenly identified as the Parting-of-the-Ways where emigrant parties separated on their journeys to Oregon, California, or Utah. The actual Parting-of-the-Ways is approximately 10 miles west of this spot. Where you are standing now is part of the main Oregon Trail over which 350,000 - 500,000 people passed on their way West between 1844 and 1869. Look closely at the ground between the pullout fence and the monuments. The uneven "ridges" in the ground are trail ruts made by the passage of iron-wheeled freight wagons and stagecoaches on a road that connected South Pass with the Union Pacific Railroad in Green River, southwest of this spot. The freight road was used from about 1870 to 1900 - and the resulting ruts caused the confusion later with the actual Parting-of-the-Ways west of here. Enjoy and appreciate your trail resources, but remember that they are very fragile. Please ensure that your visit doesn't result in any disturbance to the Trail. Donated by the Wyoming Centennial Commission
Where it stands
42.28496, -109.05919 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- South Pass City State Historic Site — 18 miThe Carissa lode built the town in a year; the mine outlived the boom by eight decades, and its mill runs again for visitors.
- Boar's Tusk and the Killpecker Dunes — 23 miThe throat of a vanished volcano made of rock from the mantle, standing over a fifty-five-mile river of dunes that crosses the Continental Divide.