Sand Springs

This site is a crossing of the Lander Cut-off - the northern fork of the Oregon Trail, following a route of the fur traders. It was suggested as an emigrant road by Mountain Man John Hockaday in order to avoid alkali plains of the desert, shorten the trip to the Pacific by five days and provide more water, grass and wood.

In 1857 it was improved as a wagon road by the Government under the supervision of F.W. Lander and termed the Fort Kearney-South Pass-Honey Lake Road. As many as three hundred wagons and thousands of cattle, horses and mules passed here each day. An expanding nation moved with hope and high courage. The trail, cut deep into the dirt of the plains and the mountains, remains as a reminder of a great epoch."
These are the wagon ruts leading away from the sign...

Just another fasinating old homestead off from the road...