The Oregon Trail

Emigrants leaving Fort Laramie had three camps within a day's pull: Register Cliff, Warm Springs and, farthest out, Cold Springs, reached over a low pass west of present Guernsey. The North Platte was no help. In emigration season it ran high and muddy with snowmelt, so the camps followed springs instead. The Historical Landmark Commission set this stone in 1943, dating the trail from 1841, and sent readers 500 feet north to the rifle pits. The newer panel beside it uses the same 500 feet for a branch of the trail.

What the plaque says

The Oregon Trail 1841 Cold Spring camping ground. Rifle pits on brow of hill 500 feet north. Erected by the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming 1943

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site — 2.2 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 — 4.3 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 — 13 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

• Rifle Pit Hill — steps away
• Oregon Trail Ruts — 2.3 mi
• Oregon Trail Ruts — 2.3 mi
• Oregon Trail Memorial — 2.5 mi