Wagonhound Rest Area

Wagonhound Rest Area (HMVQG)

Location: Elk Mountain, WY 82324 Carbon County
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Country: United States of America
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N 41° 37.859', W 106° 17.146'

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Inscription
The area near the Wagonhound Rest Area has played an important role in western transportation since the earliest days of human activity in the Rock Mountain west. The area has provided Wyoming's earliest inhabitants, explorers, westbound settlers, and modern travelers with a viable rout around the formidable Elk Mountain and the Medicine Bow range. numerous teepee rings in the immediate vicinity attest to the fact Native Americans utilized the area for thousands of years as they lived and traveled through Southern Wyoming.

With the westward expansion of the United States, the Wagonhound area took on great importance as a southern transportation corridor. During the 1850's, Captain Howard Stansbury lead an expedition near this area to document and survey potential routes for the future Union Pacific Railroad located approximately 30 miles north. In 1862, stagecoach operator Ben Holladay transferred his transcontinental operations from the established Oregon Trail route to a shorter and safer route known as the "Overland Trail." This trail crossed Rock Creek as Arlington to the east and passed Elk Mountain through Rattlesnake Pass on the mountain's north flank. In the opening years of the Twentieth Century, the Wagonhound Area saw increased use with the construction of the Lincoln Highway in 1913, the nation's first transcontinental automobile road. In the 1960's, surveyors for the new Interstate Highway System returned to Wagonhound for the route of Interstate 80, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Highway.

In recent years the region has become a favorable location for the wind power generation business. Travelers along I-80 can see one of the largest wind farms in the west from miles away. Over one-hundred turbine windmills generate over 91.4 megawatts of electricity, enough power to supply 23,764 homes with electricity for an entire year.

Details
HM NumberHMVQG
Series This marker is part of the The Overland Trail series
Tags
Placed ByWyoming
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Tuesday, September 30th, 2014 at 10:15pm PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)13T E 392901 N 4609604
Decimal Degrees41.63098333, -106.28576667
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 41° 37.859', W 106° 17.146'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds41° 37' 51.54" N, 106° 17' 8.76" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)307
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 4055 Elk Mountain Arlington Rd, Elk Mountain WY 82324, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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