Independence Rock

As the emigrants approached the mid-point of their transcontinental journey following the Oregon-California Trail, they necessarily abandoned a "companion" of many, many days. In central Wyoming, the North Platte River makes a big bend, then heads south towards its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies. At Red Buttes, outside present-day Casper, Wyoming, wagon trains cut across some rather barren terrain to pick up the next river which they would then follow all the way to the Continental Divide at South Pass-the Sweetwater River.

Perhaps sixty miles into the valley, emigrants encountered thefirst of its two most famous landmarks, Independence Rock, so named in 1830 by William Sublette when a party he was leading celebrated the Fourth of July, Independence Day, on the site. 700 feet wide, 1900 feet long and a maximum 128 feet above the Sweetwater valley floor, oriented N.W. by S.E., the granite outcrop is one of the most noted landmarks on the overland trail being mentioned in almost every emigrant's diary.

Given the numbers involved in the great emigration during the 1850s, it is not surprising that enterprising entrepreneurs sought to capitalize by constructing a bridge across the Sweetwater near Independence Rock, then charging pretty much "what the traffic would bear" for its use. During the Civil War troops were assigned to the Sweetwater route, and some were stationed near Independence Rock.

Widely known as the site which marked approximately the half-way point in the journey west, the site was at least equally famous for another attribute occasioned by emigrant behavior and, indeed, by that of the Mountain Men who had preceded the wagon trains by a decade or so. From virtually the first white penetration of the region through the years of greatest travel on the road west, emigrants displayed a distinct proclivity for leaving some sign that they had passed that way.

With considerable frequency, that "sign" was their name carved, painted, or smeared at sites along the trail. At one time or another, all of the great landmarks bore the names of passers-by, but none served the function as fully as did Independence Rock. Those who placed their names on Independence Rock did so in part for reasons of simple ego, but there was frequently another reason. Names were carved or painted so that friends from "back home" who might follow in their footsteps would know that the carver/painter had passed this way. It was with considerable justification that Father DeSmet, the pioneer priest whose reputation among the Indians was unmatched by any other white man, dubbed the great granite glacial remnant "The Great Register of the Desert."

John Ball, 1832

[Independence Rock looks] like a big bowl turned upside down; in size about equal to two meeting houses of the old New England Style.

W.W. Chapman, 1849

... it seems to have been ushered from the bowels of the earth.

Sarah Davis, 1850 July 19 we started on and traveled to independance rock and their s[t]oped to noon their is the most names on it I ever saw in my life the rock is completly covered with names as far as I can see and a great many serched out to put theirs their mr Estus brought me some curents from top of it their is plenty of them here we have now arived at the sweete river water [sic.]

Abigail Jane Scott, 1852

June 29 We came twenty miles.: We struck the Sweet water about two o'clock and about three came to Independence rock;The Sweet water is about one hundred feet in width; The water is clear and palatable but is-warmer during the day than water of the Platte; Independence rock is an immense mass covering an area of, I think about ten acres, and is about three hundred feet high,:. My sisters and I went to the base of the rock with the intention of climbing it but we had only ascended about thirty feet when a heavy hail and wind storm arose obliging us to desist: We then started on after the wagons and before we reached them they had all crossed the river except the last wagon in the train which by hard runing we managed to overtake They had intended to let us wade it (it was waist deep) to learn us not to get so far behind the team; I would have liked the fun of wading well enough but did not like to get joked about being left ...

Polly Coon, 1852

6th July Camped 1/2 mile from "Rock Independence" among a multitude of people. We all visited the rock after tea traversed it over & around & enjoyed the excursion very much. Some one had put up a banner the 4th & it still fluttered in the breeze a happy heart cheering symbol of "American Freedom" to the many weary toiling emigrants.

James W. Nesmith, July 30, 1843 ... "After breakfast, myself, with some other young men, had the pleasure of waiting on five or six young ladies to pay a visit to Independence Rock. I had the satisfaction of putting the names of Miss Mary Zachary and Miss Jane Mills on the southeast point of the rock, near the road, on a high point. Facing the road, in all spendor of gun powder, tar and buffalo greese, may be seen the name of J. W. Nesmith, from Maine, with an anchor."

For additional information on Independence Rock, see the following:

Levida Hileman, In Tar and Paint and Stone:  The Inscriptions at Independence Rock and Devil's Gate (High Plains Press, 2001)

Robert L. Munkres, "Independence Rock and Devil's Gate." Annals of Wyoming, April, 1968.

Robert L. Munkres, "Wagons West To Independence Rock." The National Tombstone Epitaph, October, 1979.

The information presented about this site has been adapted from Robert L. Munkres, "Independence Rock," forthcoming in the English Westerners Tally Sheet, with additional contributions from Richard Klein.