|
 Wagonhound Rest Area - Arlington, WY
N 41° 37.854 W 106° 17.154
13T E 392890 N 4609595
This historical marker talks about the many travelers to cross this route from Native Americans to modern Interstate drivers.
Waymark Code: WMHMCN
Location: Wyoming, United States
Date Posted: 07/23/2013
Views: 8
This historical marker appears at the Wagonhound Rest Area off I-80 just west of the town of Arlington. Nearby are traces of Native American teepee rings—circles of stones used to secure buffalo hides to the ground. The rest area contains parking for cars, trucks and trailers and includes restrooms and a couple picnic shelters.
The complete marker text is transcribed below:
The area near the Wagonhound Rest Area has played an important role in western transportation since the earliest days of human activity in the Rocky Mountain West. The are has provided Wyoming's earliest inhabitants, explorers, westbound settlers, and modern travelers with a viable route around the formidable Elk Mountain and the Medicine Bow range. Numerous Teepee rings in the immediate vicinity attest to the fact Native Americans utilized the area for thousands of years as they lived and traveled through Southern Wyoming.
With the westward expansion of the United States, the Wagonhound area took on great importance as a southern transportation corridor. During the 1850's, Captain Howard Stansbury lead an expedition near this area to document and survey potential routes for the future Union Pacific Railroad located approximately 30 miles north. In 1862, stagecoach operator Ben Holladay transferred his transcontinental operations from the established Oregon Trail route to a shorter and safer route known as the "Overland Trail." This trail crossed Rock Creek at Arlington to the east and passed Elk Mountain through Rattlesnake Pass on the mountain's north flank. In the opening years of the Twentieth Century, the Wagonhound Area saw increased use with the construction of the Lincoln Highway in 1913, the nation's first transcontinental automobile road. In the 1960's, surveyors for the new Interstate Highway System returned to Wagonhound for the route of Interstate 80, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Highway.
In recent years the region has become a favorable location for the wind power generation business. Travelers along I-80 can see one of the largest wind farms in the west from miles away. Over one-hundred turbine windmills generate over 91.4 megawatts of electricity, enough power to supply 23,764 homes with electricity for an entire year.
Marker Name: Wagonhound Rest Area
Marker Type: Rural Roadside
Addtional Information: Not listed
Group Responsible for Placement: Not listed
Date Dedicated: Not listed
Marker Number: Not listed
Web link(s) for additional information: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Please post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Wyoming history please include that in your log.
|