Shortcut to the Goldfields

The lieutenant this panel quotes, and misspells, was Henry E. Maynadier of the 10th Infantry, second in command of Captain William Raynolds's survey. In May 1860 the two parties split: Raynolds took Jim Bridger up the Wind River, while Maynadier went north down the Bighorn through this basin with a less experienced guide. Later historians credited Maynadier with finding the route Bridger used four years afterward, but Wyoming's preservation office gives it to Bridger, who had known the country for decades. The officer who called the basin unfit for wagons has sometimes been credited with its wagon road.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heart Mountain Interpretive Center — 25 mi
  The incarcerated cleared and watered the land; when the camp closed it went to veterans to homestead, and the barracks sold for a dollar each.

More markers nearby

• McCullough Peaks Wild Horses — steps away
• Sheep Mountain — 18 mi
• Sidon Canal — 22 mi