Old Oregon Trail (Cokeville)

The span cast on the 1950 plate stretches the trail at both ends. Its 1812 belongs to Robert Stuart's returning Astorians, fur traders heading east rather than emigrants heading west; wagons came in the 1840s, and the emigration faded after the railroad was finished in 1869. Its 1912 matches the year Ezra Meeker's second ox-team trek ended, back in Puyallup that August. Meeker personally set only two stones in Wyoming in 1906, at South Pass and Independence Rock, so whatever he raised here came from a later trip.

What the plaque says

Old Oregon Trail Used from 1812 to 1912 Monument erected by Ezra Meeker Plaque placed by the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming 1950

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fossil Butte National Monument — 19 mi
  The floor of a 52-million-year-old lake, packed with whole fish, the oldest complete bats and the only complete freshwater stingrays.
• Bear Lake — 21 mi
  The Caribbean of the Rockies — a turquoise lake straddling the Utah-Idaho border
• Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 22 mi
  The Bear River crosses this marsh twice: once in a canal into Bear Lake, and once in another canal on its way back out.
• National Oregon/California Trail Center — 24 mi
  Emigrants came down off Big Hill and camped in the clover here. Brigham Young renamed the town; the trail center brings the camp back in costume.

More markers nearby

• Cokeville — 0.3 mi
• Oregon Trail Memorial (Cokeville) — 0.6 mi
• State Boundary Monument (Utah, Idaho and Wyoming) — 0.6 mi
• Tri State Survey Monument — 7.7 mi