Nearby Guernsey State Park is also worth a stop. The fort was abandoned in 1890, the year that Wyoming gained statehood, but visitors today can still see 22 original structures complete with an audio tour. It witnessed the growth of the open range cattle industry, the coming of the homesteaders, and the final settlement in the 1890s marking the closing of the frontier. During its active 56-year existence, Fort Laramie became a haven for gold seekers and weary emigrants, a station for the Pony Express and the Overland Stage, and served as an important military post during the Plains Indian Wars. The fort had its beginning in June 1834, when fourteen Rocky Mountain Fur Company men built a small stockaded post. If you only make one stop along this drive, make it at Historic Fort Laramie. The nearby Oregon Trail Marker indicates the spot where the Oregon Trail entered Wyoming, and you’re well on your way to the Old West. The History: As you cross the state line from Nebraska to Wyoming, you’re already walking in the footsteps of history.

The total length is 57 miles and should take an hour and a half without stopping. From there it follows US 26 west through Torrington, Lingle, Fort Laramie, and Guernsey to the intersection with Interstate 25 at Dwyer Junction. Leave late, and you'd be waiting on the shores of a river where people and animals had been doing their business for months and months, and yes, you were drinking that water, too.The Oregon Trail Historic Byway begins on US 26 at the Wyoming/Nebraska border.

Historian Aaron Smith (via Deseret News) notes that the later settlers left, the more susceptible to cholera they would be, mostly because you were following in the footsteps of people who were essentially pooping out cholera as they went. There were a few reasons for it, and Brian Altonen says part of the problem was the saline-alkaline waters of the Platte were the perfect breeding ground for cholera left behind in settlers' waste products. By 1850, the area was swimming with cholera.

Those who didn't wait tended to drown in full view of others. Even as they started ferrying wagons across, they found they couldn't keep up - dozens of wagons were lined up waiting for their turn to cross. The river crossing was massively dangerous, and according to WyoHistory, it was made safer but more expensive by the Mormon ferries that were set up in 1847.

The oregon trail