Parting of the Ways (Wyoming)

For the Doctor Who episode, see The Parting of the Ways.

Parting of the Ways
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location in Wyoming Show map of Wyoming Parting of the Ways (Wyoming) (the United States) Show map of the United States
Nearest city	Farson, Wyoming
Coordinates	42°15′27″N109°13′42″W / 42.25750°N 109.22833°W / 42.25750; -109.22833
Built	1844
NRHP reference No.	76001962
Added to NRHP	January 11, 1976 [1]

The Parting of the Ways is a historic site in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States, where the Oregon and California Trails fork from the original route to Fort Bridger to an alternative route, the Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff, across the Little Colorado Desert. Many wagon trains parted company, some preferring the shorter cutoff route, which involved fifty waterless miles, to the longer but better-watered main route. ^[2]

The junction is marked by a small sandstone boulder about 15 inches (38 cm) high, placed by L.C. Bishop and Paul Henderson and inscribed with a left-pointing arrow with "F. Bridger" and a right-pointing arrow with "S. Cut Off." The route was not established by Sublette, but rather a mountain man named Greenwood. The error in attribution arose when Joseph E. Ware's Emigrant's Guide to California (1849) listed the alternate path as the "Sublette Cutoff." ^[3]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. "Parting of the Ways". National Register of Historic Places. Wyoming State Preservation Office. October 24, 2008.
3. Benton, J. Homer (July 19, 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: Parting-of-the-Ways (Oregon Trail Site)". National Park Service. Retrieved June 22, 2009.

External links

• Parting of the Ways photographs at the National Park Service's NRHP database
• (WYOHistory.Org) by Wyoming Historical Society
• Parting of the Ways at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office ^{[ dead link ]}