Emigrant Trail in Wyoming - Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff

Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff

The Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff was opened in 1844 by the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party led by mountaineers Caleb Greenwood and Isaac Hitchcock. Hitchcock, an old mountain man and trapper and one of the first of his kind to have been in California in 1832, recommended that the wagon trail go due west from the Little Sandy and cross 40 miles (64 km) of desert territory to the Green River and from there cross the ridge into the Bear River Valley, completely bypassing Fort Bridger and the crossing of Bear River Ridge. The route shaved about 85 miles (137 km) and 7 days off the main route, but the decision to cross nearly 45 waterless miles before reaching the Green River was not one to be taken lightly. Settlers had to decide between time and the health of their livestock. A traveler in 1846 wrote:

We lay by preparing to Crossing the Cut off to Green river a distance of 40 miles without Wood or Water set out on the Journey at 3AM and landed on Green river the distance aforesaid at 3'Oclock of the 19th it being 24 hours drive

The route reached the height of popularity during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s when a desire to speed to the California gold fields outweighed the risks. The route was named the Sublette cutoff by Joseph Ware in his popular 1849 guide book to the trail after an individual named Solomon Sublette who told him about the route, and not William Sublette as is popular myth. The popularity of the guide book during the 1850s cemented the name, though most scholars today call it the Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff after its original discoverer.

As on the main route, several ferries operated where the cutoff crossed the Green River near the present day town of La Barge. Early settlers crossed the Names Hill Ford, which was barely passable when the water was low. Later The Names Hill Ferry offered a safer alternative. The nearby Mormon Ferry was located a mile upstream, and the Mountain Man Ferry operated during the Gold Rush days. West of the ford is its namesake, Names Hill, which is a prominent emigrant "recording area" with signatures and other carvings. One notable signature is James Bridger,1844,Trapper. It is unclear if the signature is authentic, since Bridger was known to be illiterate. The hill also features native American pictographs.

A secondary cutoff named the Slate Creek or Kinney Cutoff breaks from the main trail near the Lombard Ferry on the Green River, and meets the Sublette cutoff on Slate Creek Ridge. This route was slightly longer than the Sublette, but had the advantage of only 10 waterless miles rather than the 45 endured on the Sublette trail.