The Oregon Trail traversed the Continental Divide at South Pass, Wyoming, because it was a gentle ascent and descent over what was known as “Uncle Sam’s Backbone.” After the 1848 discovery of gold in California, hundreds of thousands of the trail pioneers headed over South Pass with dreams of getting in on the stories of incredible riches. They did not realize that they were practically tromping on a field of gold as they passed.
Although modest quantities of gold were discovered near South Pass as early as 1842, it wasn’t until 1867 that a group of Mormon prospectors (or Fort Bridger soldiers—sources disagree) found what would become the Carissa Mine. Others rushed to the area and founded South Pass City near the site of an 1850s stagecoach stop and telegraph station. Founded at about the same time were two other smaller communities, Atlantic City and Miner’s Delight. As many as three thousand citizens packed the three towns and the surrounding hills searching for gold—or in support, in one way or another, of those who were.
By 1868, the arrival of families had made South Pass City, despite its early rowdy reputation, a fairly civilized place. The men, women, and children of South Pass City enjoyed a main thoroughfare of hotels, general stores, butcher shops, a billiard parlor, a bowling alley, a school, and the usual saloons.
When I revisited South Pass City in 2007, it was a dusty, windy, and chilly September day. This and the other three photos of the townsite were taken in more peaceful conditions in August 2000. All buildings look much the same. This view taken of the community shows the Carissa Mine in the background.
South Pass City became the seat of Carter County in Dakota Territory, and, when Wyoming Territory was separated from Dakota Territory in 1869, it retained its county seat.
The big rush was remarkably short. The federal census of 1870 tallied 1,166 people in the entire mining district. By 1872, only a few hundred diehards held on. Subsequent explorations in the 1880s and 1890s brought some people back, followed by another small boom in the 1930s, as the Great Depression forced hundreds of former prospectors and miners to rework, in desperation, older diggings across the American West.
South Pass City’s Carissa Saloon served thirsty patrons sporadically until 1949. Behind it is the cabin in which Barney Tibbals, manager of the Carissa Mine, lived.
WALKING AROUND SOUTH PASS CITY
On your way to the townsite, you’ll pass the enormous workings of the Carissa Mine, the principal reason for the existence of South Pass City, which closed for a final time in the 1950s. The State of Wyoming purchased the mine property in 2003 and intends to complete an interpretive center and offer a tour of the mill. Most of the buildings at the Carissa, which produced somewhere between 60,000 and 180,000 ounces of gold, date from the 1930s.
South Pass City State Historic Site, just down the road from the Carissa, is now a quiet village that once pulsed with a much more vibrant heartbeat. At the visitors’ center, located in an 1890s dance hall, you will receive an informative brochure that takes you through the almost three dozen standing buildings and ruins of South Pass City. The town is a classic example of a place whose structures were built of crude logs and hand-adzed beams on three sides, but with more genteel (and expensive) sawed boards as a false front. Of particular interest are the 1890s Carissa Saloon, the 1868 South Pass Hotel, an 1870s mercantile (now housing a gold mining exhibit with some life-size dioramas), and the 1890s schoolhouse. The school last served students in 1948. West of the schoolhouse is the Wolverine Mine, which features a ten-stamp mill.
Up the hill from the parking lot .3 of a mile is the South Pass City Cemetery, which consists of two headstones, two wrought-iron fences, and, very likely, many unmarked graves.
The Smith-Sherlock Company Store was built in 1896 using logs salvaged from the 1870 Episcopal church. The Sherlock family operated the general mercantile until 1948.
In the foreground stands the Exchange Saloon and Card Room. Next door is a restaurant erected by Janet Sherlock Smith in 1899 to support her South Pass Hotel, which is next door to the restaurant.
WHEN YOU GO
Start in Lander, about 255 miles west-northwest of Fort Laramie.
South Pass City, Atlantic City, and Miner’s Delight are south of Lander. From Lander, head southeast for 8 miles on U.S. Highway 287 to the intersection with Wyoming Highway 28. The turnoff to the South Pass City area is clearly marked near milepost 43, about 29 miles from that intersection.