Oregon Trail Memorial

Guernsey was thirty years old when its people raised the white shaft here in 1932, the Oregon Trail Memorial medallion set above a plaque pointing a mile south to the trail and Register Cliff. Elsewhere in the park, a replacement boulder repeats the plaque word for word but one: it adds ruts. The change makes the distance truer. The ruts lie about a mile south of the park, while Register Cliff is closer to two miles, to the southeast. Neither object says who placed the boulder or when.

What the plaque says

Oregon Trail Memorial To all pioneers who passed this way to win and hold the West Trail and Register Cliff one mile south Erected by people of Guernsey 1932 Old Oregon Trail To all pioneers who passed this way to win and hold the West Trail ruts and Register Cliff one mile south Erected by people of Guernsey 1932

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

• Historic Guernsey Area — steps away
• Oregon Trail Ruts — 1.0 mi
• Oregon Trail Ruts — 1.0 mi
• Pony Express Station — 2.0 mi