One of my favorite segments starts after Boulder and wraps up with the ride into South Pass City. South Pass City is so-called because of South Pass, the lowest point on the divide for many miles, and a key area where many emigrant trails crossed the rockies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pass_(Wyoming)While riding here, I recall reading cues mentioning "Lander Cutoff", which I just assumed was the name of some local bypass (cutoff) road.
Hardly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lander_Cutoff#Lander_CutoffThink of how important the Sweetwater River and that pass must have been to folks in wagons or on horses headed west. Think of how history might have been different with a slight change of geography! That pass just skirts the Great Divide Basin, but if such a low pass had not been nearby, perhaps we might have had a history of pioneers dying in the basin and a much-delayed expansion into the west.
