Oakes and Oliver Ames Monument-- near Buford WY - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The Oakes and Oliver Ames Monument, a landmark on the Lincoln Highway near Buford WY, lies just a short distance off the route of the old Lincoln Highway (and the modern I-80) along Monument Road.

This monument was previously located ON the route of the Union Pacific as it made its way over Sherman Hill, but when the UP rerouted its tracks a bit to the south, the monument was left at this historical point, the summit of Sherman Hill on the UPRR.

In the 19-teens the Lincoln Highway was routed over Sherman Hill, just a bit to the north of the monument. Nevertheless, the monument was visible from the highway, and so it was a tourist draw for those motoring by then, and now.

WPA writers stopped here too, writing three vignettes about this lonely place:

"[page 84] At 73.7 m. is the junction with the Tie Siding road.

Left on this dirt road to the AMES MONUMENT, 1 m., built in 1881-2 at a cost of $80,000 to honor Oliver and Oakes Ames, promoters who played a large part in financing the construction of the Union Pacific R.R. It is a pyramid 60 feet square at its base and 60 feet high, surmounted with an oval cap. In the center of one side is a medallion of Oliver Ames, and on another one of his brother. The monument was erected about six hundred feet from the original rail road bed and marked the highest elevation (8,235 feet) reached by the Union Pacific in the Laramie Range. The Ames brothers were the manufacturers of Ames shovels, the most popular implements of their kind in the days of the gold rush. In the 1860s the brothers became heavily involved in the financing of the first railroad to the West. Oliver was later involved in the Credit Mobilier scandal, and received heavy public censure, though his practices differed little from those of other railroad financiers of his day.

Near the monument is a small graveyard, the sole remnant of old Sherman Sta
tion, a construction terminus and military camp in 1868 during the building of
the railroad.

[page 85]

Nearby are several large piles of granite. Soon after the monument had been completed, some of these stones were used for advertising purposes; inscriptions were painted on them, such as "Plantation Bitters" and "S.T. 1860." An ambitious agent of one patent medicine manufacturing concern contracted with a Wyoming
newspaper correspondent to have an advertisement put across the face of the monument itself. When the job was done, the newspaper man was to furnish the Associated Press with a story severely censuring the vandalism, thus insuring the wide distribution of an advertisement of the nostrum. One morning the whole
country read of the disfigurement of the monument. The newspapers denounced the so-called outrage, naming the patent medicine as the agent had planned. But the campaign of indignation was short-lived; the correspondent had not had the sign painted, reasoning that if people merely read that it had been done, the same result would be achieved.

The monument was again the subject of publicity when a Laramie justice of the peace named Murphy learned that the monument had been placed on public land instead of on railroad property; he hastened to file a homestead claim on the site, then notified the railroad company to take the pile of stone from his property.
A railroad representative tried to arrange a settlement with Murphy, who insisted that the company remove the monument or pay an exorbitant price for his home stead. An agreement was eventually reached whereby the company gave the "homesteader" several lots in Laramie in exchange for his claim to the land."

Book: Oregon Trail Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 84-85 Year Originally Published: 1939

Visit Instructions:
To log a Visit, please supply an original image of the Waymark.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   08/06/2023 Tom.dog visited it 06/27/2009 Benchmark Blasterz visited it

View all visits/logs