Historic Guernsey Area

The panel calls Charles Guernsey a legislator, rancher and investor; the town owes him for iron. He assembled mining claims at Sunrise, north of here, and they went to Colorado Fuel and Iron, whose royalties made him one of the wealthiest men in Wyoming. The Burlington's Lincoln Land Company platted the town where the ore spur met its main line, and a promotional map it published in 1900 billed the place as the New Birmingham of the West. Guernsey incorporated in 1902, a shipping point first.

What the plaque says

Historic Guernsey Area Platted and established by the Lincoln Land Company of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, Guernsey garners its name from Charles A. Guernsey, noted legislator, rancher, and investor in early Wyoming. The historic Guernsey area encompasses a key stretch of the North Platte River Valley from the Nebraska border west to the Hartville Uplift. The river forms an historic transportation corridor that began with Native Americans, continued with emigrants along the Oregon/California/Mormon Pioneer/Pony Express National Historic Trails and continues today with US Highway 26, which has been designated the Oregon Trail Historic Byway. Major irrigation projects, large mining operations, a state park, and a military training center are nearby.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site — 1.0 mi
  The clearest wagon ruts on the trail, worn by iron tires and cut deeper by travelers who hacked at the ledge to get their wagons over.
• Register Cliff State Historic Site — 2.1 mi
  The first camp out of Fort Laramie, where the oldest date on the rock reads 1829 and three emigrants never left.
• Fort Laramie National Historic Site — 10 mi
  Old Bedlam, the officers' quarters of 1849, survived the auction that scattered the rest of the post; an 1875 Army bridge still crosses the river.

More markers nearby

• Oregon Trail Memorial — steps away
• Oregon Trail Ruts — 1.0 mi
• Oregon Trail Ruts — 1.0 mi
• Pony Express Station — 2.0 mi