Wide Open Spaces

Although our BLM campground is in a grove of pine and aspen, this area of WY is mainly open country.  We walked up to the top of the hill overlooking the campground and spotted Atlantic City 2 miles away, and had great views of the mountains to the west and the plains to our east and south. We startled a pronghorn antelope, which are plentiful in WY.  An interesting fact about pronghorns - they are the second fastest land animal (cheetah being first) but they cannot jump!

Back to Atlantic City.  It’s a living ghost town established during the gold rush of the 1860’s along with South Pass City and Hamilton City.  It claims a population of ‘about 57’.  The other two towns are dead. An historic walking tour of the city takes you to about 30 sites including the Episcopal church, the Atlantic Hotel, Huff Candy store, and the Giessler Store and Post Office aka Atlantic City Mercantile.

As we continued to explore the area, we traveled along the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail and stopped at a site called  Rock Creek Mission.  On Oct 23,1856, during a freezing snow storm, The Willie Handcart Co. led a larg group of Mormon families over Rock Creek Ridge to a point where supply wagons were waiting. They were pulling 2-wheeled handcarts for 3 miles up a 600 ft ridge and had already traveled 11 miles in freezing weather.  By the time rescuers came, 15 men women and children had died and many suffered frostbite.  Today Mormon groups camp here so they can re-create that fateful trek, pulling over 200 handcarts for 14 miles and up the ridge in one day.