Green River Crossing Lander Cut-Off
April 15, 2006
In the 1850s, some 400,000 people traveled along the Oregon Trail to reach Oregon and California. The Lander Cut-off of the Oregon Trail was a short cut saving 85 miles of travel distance. But it meant crossing the desert in what we now call the Mesa south of Pinedale and north of Big Piney.
The Lander Cut-off route took travelers a distance of 50 miles across desolate land with no water and little grass (going through what is today the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah Natural Gas Field).
This is a photo of the Lander Cut-off at the Green River crossing, just north of Hwy 352, taken on Saturday, April 15th.
Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!
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