Devil's Gate and Fort Seminoe by Zina Abbott

Not far from Devil’s Gate, two fur traders, Charles Lajeunesse and his business partner, Auguste Archambault, built their trading post called Fort Seminoe in 1852. Seminoe comes from Simonot, or “Little Simon,” the French Catholic baptismal name of fur trader, Charles Lajeunesse. 

The pair sold to wagon trains heading west, serviced the mail, and the military companies traveling back and forth across the plains. This trading fort operated only during the summer months. Each winter, the partners returned to St. Louis, Missouri.

 

The fort was built with fourteen buildings formed in a U shape. Besides the main trading post, Fort Seminoe included a blacksmith shop, a horse corral, a cattle yard, storerooms, and living quarters for the family of Lajeunesse, Archambault, and other traders who operated at the post. Travelers who stopped by the fort were able to buy provisions and hardware. They were also able to exchange their worn-out cattle for healthy livestock.

Fort Seminoe to South Pass

For three years, they traded with passing wagon trains during the summer and returned to St. Louis, Missouri, for the winter. In the fall of 1855, with traffic along the trail subsiding and a fight between the Sioux and the U.S. Army looming, Lajeunesse left his trading post for good.

The fort burned down in 1862. The site faded from knowledge, but in 2001, the actual fort site was discovered. After careful research, Fort Seminoe was rebuilt in 2002 near its original location. Inside are exhibits that tell the story of the French trapper’s trading post, as well as the history of what took place at the fort after it was abandoned. The story of how these buildings became a haven after its role of a trading fort ended will be featured in next month’s post.

To see photos of the reconstructed fort as well as information about how it was used following its abandonment, please CLICK HERE.

 

Pearl was my first book published in the Prairie Roses Collection (2022). Many of the same characters are in both Pearl and Clara. It also included the part of the story where the wagon train traveled passed Devil’s Gate as the wagons crossed the Sweetwater River nine times before reaching South Pass. The book is available as an ebook and in paperback, and also at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description for Pearl and the purchase options, please CLICK HERE

Clara is a wagon train story. This book picks up Clara’s romance after the wagon train has already traveled the trail through Sweetwater River valley. The book is currently available for purchase as an ebook or at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

Sources:

Thompson, Julie Nichols, “The Winter Guard at Fort Seminoe,” Tales of Triumph. (Salt Lake City, Utah: International Society of Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2022), pgs. 121-122.

https://www.northamericanforts.com/West/wy.html#seminoe

https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/historic-sites/wyoming/fort-seminoe?lang=eng

Devil's Gate and Emigrant Trails by Zina Abbott

Devil's Gate, or Devils Gate, is a natural rock formation. It is a gorge on the Sweetwater River located five miles (8 km) southwest of Independence Rock. Devil's Gate is a prime example of what is called an antecedent drainage stream. The Sweetwater River cuts a narrow 100-meter deep slot through a granite ridge. If the same river had flowed less than a kilometer to the south, it could have bypassed the ridge completely. The gorge was cut because the landscape was originally buried by valley fill sediments. As the river eroded downward through those sediments, once it hit granite, it kept on cutting. The cleft is about 370 feet deep and 1,500 feet long. It is about thirty feet wide at the base, but 300 feet wide at the top.

Devil's gate by Wm. H. Jackson, 1870

Goldfish 49'er, J.G. Bruff, wrote:
"...some of the boys clambered up the rock on the north side of the Gate...where they fired pistols and threw down rocks, pleased with the reverberation, which was great. I made a careful sketch of this remarkable gorge."

 

According to American Indian legend, they believed a powerful evil spirit in the form of a tremendous beast with enormous tusks ravaged the Sweetwater Valley, preventing the Indians from hunting and camping. A holy man told the tribes that the Great Spirit wanted them to destroy the beast. The Indians launched an attack from the mountain passes and ravines, shooting countless arrows into the evil monster. Enraged, the beast with a mighty upward thrust of its tusks, ripped a gap in the mountain and disappeared, never to be seen again.
Robert L. Munkees, “Independence Rock and Devil’s Gate” in Annals of Wyoming, April 1968.

There are some creatures living around Devil’s Gate that might not be monsters, but they also are not something most people wish to cross their paths. Rattlesnakes. The rock formation of which Devil’s Gate is part is known as the Granite Hills. On an 1872 map, the mountains immediately north of them were identified at Rattlesnake Mountains.

My husband and I made a visit to some of the landmarks along the emigrant trail. Stopping near Devil’s Gate, a docent advised us we could walk to the river where we could have a better view of the water going through the gorge. He also warned us there are a lot of rattlesnakes there.

This author took a pass on hiking closer to Devil’s Gate.

 

Both Devil’s Gate and Independence Rock were landmarks on the three major emigrant trails: Oregon, California, and Mormon. The above drawing by William Henry Jackson, circa 1870, shows circled wagon trains at Independence Rock, with Devil's Gate in the distance.

Emigrant Charles E. Boyle wrote in 1849:

“Although the cleft was too narrow for wagons to pass through alongside the river, emigrants frequently stopped to hike around these rocks and carve their names. Often they noticed bighorn sheep climbing the hills. The chasm is one of the wonders of the world,… The water rushes roaring and raving into the gorge, and the noise it makes as it comes in contact with the huge fragments of rock lying in its course is almost deafening.”

Map by Ezra Meeker, 1907

As mountain men and adventurers began traveling west through the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, which became United States territory in 1803, they soon discovered Devil’s Gate. It became one of the landmarks which bordered what became a popular trail. The trail allowed wagons and livestock to cross the Continental Divide through South Pass, a reasonably smooth, gentle sloping pass over otherwise steep and rugged territory.

Fr. Pierre-Jean DeSmet, S.J.,  said in 1841:
"...Travelers have named this spot the Devil's Entrance (Devil's Gate). In my opinion they should have rather called it Heaven's Avenue."

Devil's Gate was a marker along the trail that many pioneers hoped would lead to a heaven on earth. However, there is far more to Devil’s Gate’s history than being a landmark. Next month, I will share about a trading post built near Devil’s Gate.

 

Pearl was my first book published in the Prairie Roses Collection (2022). Many of the same characters are in both Pearl and Clara. It also included the part of the story where the wagon train traveled passed Devil’s Gate as the wagons crossed the Sweetwater River nine times before reaching South Pass. The book is available as an ebook and in paperback, and also at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description for Pearl and the purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

Clara picks up Clara’s romance after the wagon train has already traveled the trail through the Sweetwater River valley. The book is currently available for purchase as an ebook or at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

https://plantsandrocks.blogspot.com/2014/08/sweetwater-river-at-devils-gate.html

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=95488

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Gate_(Wyoming)

Forts Along the California and Oregon Trails by Zina Abbott

The following is from my Author Notes in Pearl, my most recent romance, which is a wagon train story set in 1858. Entire books have been written about each of these places mentioned, so this is a very brief summary:

         Pioneers on the Oregon and California Trails—unless individual trains in which they traveled took a cutoff—passed by four major trading forts.

Fort Kearney

          Fort Kearney was a military installation established in 1848 to protect travelers on the Great Platte River Road. It was located about one-sixth of the way to either Oregon or California. Wagon trains moving west were able to resupply, trade trail-weary livestock for fresh, and letters could be sent back to the United States.

Fort Laramie

         Fort Laramie began in 1834 as a fur trading post. It was bought by the U.S. Army in 1849. As pioneer traffic to the west increased, it provided security, a trading post for supplies, and a place for repairs. It was the major stop between Fort Kearney and Fort Bridger.

 Fort Bridger 1840s

         Fort Bridger began as a trading post. It was on the trail to Salt Lake City, plus wagon trains bound for Oregon and California often made the relatively small detour to reach the fort for supplies and repairs. It was bought by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1855, although the sales documents and powers of attorney involved were challenged by Jim Bridger. With the belief that the coming U.S. Army had been sent to exterminate the church and its people, the same church burned and abandoned the fort in 1857. 

 

Fort Bridger 1858

    Fort Bridger was taken over by the U.S. Army. By 1858, construction on the fort had begun and a sutler’s store run by William A. Carter was established. He ran it until his death in 1881, at which time his wife, Elizabeth, took over supplying both military men stationed at the fort and travelers alike. The sutler also ran the post office.

 

Fort Hall

         On the banks of the Snake River, Fort Hall was a trading post built in 1834 by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth. In 1858, it was located in Oregon Territory. In February 1859, when Oregon became a state, it was part of Washington Territory. Initially, Fort Hall’s owners did not wish to be a supplier for travelers bound for Oregon or California, but it was soon forced into that role as it became a regular stop on both trails. It became one of the most important stopping places along the trails.

 

 

Pearl, Book 16 in the Prairie Roses Collection, is set in 1858 and follows both the Oregon and California Trails.It is currently for sale as an ebook and at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. It will shortly be available in print.

To find the link to the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE.