Established by “Stagecoach King” Ben Holladay on orders from the U.S. Post Office Department, the Overland Trail carried nearly 20,000 emigrants a year west between 1862 and 1868. During that time, the trail was the only route on which the U.S. government would allow travel due to continuing Indian uprising conflicts on the Oregon Trail.
Today, you can follow the historic route along Interstate 80, traveling across the high grassland of the Laramie Plains and around the north shoulder of Elk Mountain. At Arlington on Rock Creek, you can see one of the oldest standing log cabins in Wyoming.