The Oregon Trail stretches more than 2,000 miles from Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley of Oregon, and today, more than 150 years after the first wagons rumbled over the land, there are more miles of trail to be seen in Wyoming than any other state. The trail is not a single path, but a corridor where branches sometimes overlap, and often converge with the California and Mormon Pioneer Trails.
Fort Laramie, established as a fur trade post in 1835 and revamped into a military post to protect trail travelers in 1849, was the first important stopping point for emigrants in Wyoming and is a good place to begin a journey over the trail today. Because Fort Laramie first served the fur trade, then was an important Indian treaty site and a supply station for emigrants, and then finally had a role in the military history of the region, its story takes you from the period before wagons left their mark to the end of the trail era. You will find buildings – some restored, others relics – where emigrants rested and re-supplied and you can walk in the swales and ruts their wagons carved.