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My family bought the Warp cottage on Mackinaw Island… he put “H. Warp” on EVERYTHING!!! They left the entire contents of the house due to the cost of shipping off the island.. He was absolutely neat! His son Skip(Harold Jr.) left quite a legacy with the staff of the island..

The cuts in the rock where made by chisels and hammers. Not exactly ruts.

I visited here as a kid in the early 80s. At the time, we lived in Grand Island, Nebraska, which has a really cool grounds similar to this and museum building called Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer. The grounds consists of a small town made up of old houses and shops brought from all over Nebraska. There is a general store, blacksmith shop, school house, the home Henry Fonda was born in, and a real working locomotive that you can ride on.

We spent two days there and barely scratched the surface.

Really enjoyed your video. Thank you for posting it.

Seeing the lady walk out on the trail with a lot of scrub-brush makes me think of, "Where are the Rattlesnakes"??? Whew!!!

Did these backwards but glad I found you! Thanks for the great info.

Thank you for this video, Andy. I'm writing a book about a young soldier who was on the Utah Expedition in 1857. I've been to Ft Laramie and Ft Bridger at different times, but haven't done what you did, following it along the Sweetwater. The video really brought it to life. I especially needed to see how the South Pass looked as some of the written accounts confused me. I've read the diaries of Pvt Scott, Capt. Tracy and Gove, Col. Johnston, and finally the bugler Wm. Drown who amazingly had more details and dates about their progress across the trail. I hope to publish it in 2025.

Ironic that Independence Rock is behind a prison fence. 😢

That country near Prospect Hill may be bleak to you but I consider it one of the most beautiful places in the world.

What do you suppose became of all those possessions that was thrown overboard to make the wagons lighter? I hear there was tons of it. Did you come across anything that looked like remnants of it in following the trail ?

I so wish I could follow the trail like you did here. Good for you for being able to do this. I hope one day I could do this

While up on the Divide, I saw a discount for ice cream at WALL DRUG!?

All of this makes me think of the movie "Mountain Men" with Brian Kieth, and Charelton Heston. A lot of that movie was filmed in the Wind River area.

That settles it for me. It’s Boston to Laramie and on to Bridger this summer. Hoping to make Independence Ledge on the fourth. See you there.

What about Idaho?

Kearney...pronounced.. CAR...KNEE

Motion sickness is real.

This place looks cool. It’s on my list of places to visit if I ever get to Nebraska!

Awesome video guys!

Perhaps a healthy infusion of government largess ... cannot think of a more worthy tax expenditure than to keep this maintained.

Surprised that you didn't tell more about Rock Creek Station. Kit Carson carved his name on a rock here. It is the site of the McCandles fight in which James Butler Hickok, "Wild Bill", killed his first man, an incident vastly exagerated in dime novels of the day. It is written about by Samuel Clemmons, "Mark Twain", who stopped here on his journey to California. Nothing to speak of, I guess.

My great uncle at 19 got his friend and two wagons and oxen and went to Oregon from Alton, Ill. My cousin , living in Oregon, did family research and found our Great Uncle wrote a log in his travels and he sent it home every time he came across a Telegraph. In Alton the Telegrapher who wrote a newspaper kept the log and we got a copy. He did not write much about everyday but it makes me think that I have never done anything in my life to match what he went through. One of the major problems was finding food for the Oxen. This was in 1851. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Good info. I was born and raised in Ohio but now live on the west coast. I still go back to Ohio frequently to visit friends and family, and being a lifelong history buff and outdoors lover, I try to take a different route every time and include as many historical and natural points of interest as time and my endurance will allow. Over the years I've done parts of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, but during my return trip west last month I made a big effort to fill in parts of those trails I had yet to visit. I followed the trails through Nebraska and Wyoming with particular attention to the sites where wagon tracks or inscriptions can still be seen, then I branched off to Salt Lake City, Promontory Point, and ended by crossing Donner Pass and descending into Sacramento. I think my favorite part of this spring's explorations was Independence Rock and Devil's Gate, which are within sight of each other. The whole Sweetwater valley is incredibly beautiful in that area, no doubt enhanced by our perfect May weather on the day we were there. The adventure pup and I walked up the less steep but still challenging back side of Independence Rock and spent about an hour reading inscriptions and just enjoying the view. We also explored Devil's Gate and Martin's Cove from several vantage points and read some first person accounts written by those who passed through the area in the middle 1800s. We skipped South Pass this time because I explored it a couple of summers ago by Jeep. To anyone interested in that chapter of American history, I highly recommend doing what's talked about in this video.

Really nicely done video - thank you!

Beautiful video❤

When I lived in Junction Texas on the S. Llano river a guy down the roads father had a 600 acer,or as they're called a section of land. He showed me around the property and took me to a bluff overlooking what used to be the only trail into town. It was common for outlaws to sit on this bluff and watch for the Texas Rangers and other law enforcement coming into town. Junction was a known hiding place for outlaws since the border was only 100 miles away. He told me to look closely at a small soft spot on the limestone bluff. I did and said I dont see anything. He asked if I had to take a leak since we'd been drinking beer. I said yeah I could take a piss,he told me to piss on a single rock and low and behold there were initials and a date carved into the rock that showed once I pissed on em. The initials were C S and the date was 1856. Man I love that kind of shit!!!!

It's a shame they have to fence in our history like that. Why people cant just admire US history and not deface it is saddening.

I enjoyed this video. Your wife or partner there, she's really sweet too I'll try and catch more videos yal have.

Born in Wyoming, welcome

Good job

Hello from Kansas🇺🇸

Really great to see your videos of your trip. I live in Hastings, Nebraska where the Trail crosses highways 6&34 out west of town. You missed the story of the grave that the area people have kept up northwest of Kenesaw. A fellow's wife died, and didn't want to leave her in an unmarked grave. So he sent his children and belongings on with the train while he traveled clear up to Omaha to have a tombstone made, and returned to the grave site to set it at his wife's grave. A monument is out at the county blacktop, and the grave is a ways into private land to the east. So much history along the route that I hope is never lost. Thank you for your part in trying to keep it alive!

Spray painting with camera... keep camera still and let subject move... if you pan, do it slow..very slow..

Dang,America too big a country to see & explore all one would want to!! Life long dream to travel West & experience some of this. It has been a fascination since childhood.

You have a wonderful voice & narration for this series.

Maybe modern historians do not give our ancestors enough credit for handling teams & wagons. It was all they knew. They had grown up with them. If they were from east of the Allegany mountains in particular, they would have been familiar & fairly comfortable with a team/ wagons on hills. Just a thought. Not that it was easy or not dangerous.

stopped at Independence rock a few times when i drove semis, have a ancestor on my moms side who name is on this rock he was in the Army

i was at Guernsey looking at the ruts when someone from town shot at me 3 times, there was a lady walking her dog said she got down on the ground when the shots went over her head, called cops took a report then left and i will never go to that place again, that was in 2006

Camera moves to fast.

I live in northern CO and have visited many of these OT landmarks in WY. Thanks for the video!

There is a pony express marker at ft laramie ..

When will we get more videos in this series? ☹

Thank you so much for showing us the remains of this historic journey. I played Oregon trail game in my childhood and it made me to learn more about Oregon trail. Love from india.

Illustrations on line. Good Moderator. Bk ground music and pics n your set. Then I will subscribe. Thks for efforts

A go and see location in history.......video doesn't do it justice.

Good work buddy!

Thousands of bodies are buried along this trail.

We planing a visit on Aug 10 2022 …this will be our second visit

The settlers back then didn't have cars, but they didn't have a planet where Nuclear proliferation exists like we have today, they were fortunate they didn't have to see what devastation humans have brought forth on mother earth and continue to do so.