(It me from the future Jun 20th. I took a long break from posting for awhile. Back to getting caught up!)
It’s been fun stopping to see all there is to see, but with less than a week to get to Bonnaroo, I needed to get going, so I started racking up some serious milage to get there in time!
Sheridan, Wyoming
I try to take a break every hour or so, to take a stretch and give Lincoln a break too. Stopped at a Loves in Hardin, MT before crossing on over to Wyoming. Stopped at Sheridan Information Center, which was beautiful. Lincoln must’ve liked it, cause he was posing and looking all handsome. Saw a sign for a scenic view of the Bozeman Trail from the freeway, and had to take the quick detour.
Bozeman Trail | Sheridan, WY
Named after John Bozeman, a pioneer and frontiersman who helped establish the Bozeman Trail, and founded the city of Bozeman, MT which was also named after him. This trail was an overland route connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in Eastern Wyoming. A major part of the trail was actually established by Allen Hurlbut, but he got the shaft. He doesn’t even have his own Wiki page.
Did some searching, cause it just felt like theres some juicy goss behind all this, turns out Hurlbut had a wagon train and a dang good route to follow the gold rush, but then Bozeman got his hands on this route and the race began. Problem for Hulburt is, people got impatient, and kept breaking off the wagon train to wherever, meanwhile Bozeman’s wagon train was going strong, passed by Hurlbut, and his prospectors were all “Whee! Thare be gold!” So there wasn’t any gold by the time Hurbert’s dwindling wagon train came along. The prospectors on Hurbert’s wagon train got mad they didn’t find any of the gold they were promised and were like, eff that guy. That is my interpretation of the history behind Bozeman Trail..don’t quote me, cause I paraphrased a lot of this.
Spearfish, South Dakota
Afterwards, made it to the Spearfish Welcome Center in Spearfish, SD. After driving through so many mountainous states with amazing views, it was pretty flat here in comparison. There are these red cliff things though, I googled “Red cliff things in South Dakota” and found this: South Dakota’s deposits of Sioux Quartzite are red & pink in color and estimated to be as old as 2 billion years. So that’s pretty cool!
Today’s Driving Stats: 340 miles, 5hr 40min
Bozeman Trail – Wikipedia
Yellowstone County History | Route of the Allen Hurlbut’s 1864 Wagon Train