First Tie Drive on Green River

The ties came down ahead of the town that caught them. DeLoney's crew cut through the winter of 1867-68 and drove to Green River City in the spring of 1868, but building there began only that July, and the Union Pacific's track arrived on October 1. Drives came down the Green to a boom at the town every spring after that, and Green River kept a sawmill until the railroad's yards swallowed it in 1920. DeLoney moved on, and in 1899 opened Jackson Hole's first general store, in his own house.

What the plaque says

First Tie Drive on Green River Because timber was scarce in neighboring states along the first transcontinental railroad line, the tie business flourished here and in other Wyoming mountain locations. Ties were cut in winter, stored on the river bank until spring, and floated downstream during high water. Charles DeLoney was a youthful Michigan Civil War veteran who came to Wyoming after the war. An experienced timberman, he contracted with the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867 to supply ties. A crew of 30 men hauled equipment and supplies upriver and constructed a combined office-bunkhouse-cookshack-commissary building between this marker and the river. Cabins were built high in the timber, forcing the men to snowshoe for meals. DeLoney's was the first tie drive down the river, a trip of 130 miles. Ties were skidded down nearby hills and held by a boom across the river until the drive. Another boom at Green River City caught ties near the railhead. The operation continued successfully for two years, and newspaper advertisements as late as fall, 1868 solicited tie hacks to work at the head of the Green River. Charles DeLoney was a versatile person. He was a rancher, a pioneer merchant in Jackson and helped found the town of Evanston. He was the state's first forest supervisor and served in Wyoming territorial and state legislatures. State of Wyoming

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Mountain Man — 26 mi
  Six fur-trade rendezvous met near here on the Green; the only artist who ever saw one, Alfred Jacob Miller, came in 1837.

More markers nearby

• Fort Bonneville — 24 mi
• Rendezvous - Birth of an Empire — 24 mi
• First Holy Mass in Wyoming — 25 mi
• The Naming of a Lake — 25 mi