Oregon Trail Ruts

The plaque's long sentence is the Historic Sites Act of 1935 speaking in its own words: the law told the Secretary of the Interior to survey places of exceptional value in commemorating or illustrating the nation's history, and the phrase became the test. The National Park Service made the survey a landmarks program on October 9, 1960, with ninety-two first designations. Landmarks of that decade were registered, the word cast here. The National Historic Preservation Act of October 15, 1966, created the National Register, and every landmark has been entered on it since.

What the plaque says

Oregon Trail Ruts Has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark Under the provisions of the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1935 this site possesses exceptional value in commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States U. S. Department of the Interior National Park Service 1966

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site — steps away
  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 — 2.0 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 Ruts — steps away
• Pony Express Station — 1.7 mi
• Register Cliff — 2.0 mi
• Oregon Trail Memorial — 2.0 mi