In Casper, Wyoming we stopped at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. This was an amazing display of life on all of the trails west. We even got to “ride a wagon” fording the North Platte River. There were many trails, mostly starting from St. Joseph, Missouri. There was the California trail (used by the 49ers), the Mormon trail, and many others.
Click on a picture to enlarge it and start a slideshow. And don’t miss the video at the end of the post.
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- Parts of the story were in bronze.
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- Parts of the story were told through displays.
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- Parts of the story were in a lifesize multimedia presentation.
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- There were at least 500 graves along the Oregon Trail.
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- The engineering picture. Not very visible is a Roadometer that counts wheel revolutions. Prior to its use a handkercheif would be tied to the wheel and a child would count the revolutions to obtain distance (like our car’s odometer today).
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- We prepare to ford the North Platte (see the video).
