South Pass

About the Book

In the entire Rocky Mountain intermountain region there is no place that was more traveled in the nineteenth century than the famed 'South Pass', a fortuitous spot along the American continental divide in west-central Wyoming. There people and animals could scurry like ants across the crest of the foreboding Rocky Mountains, and live to tell about it. It was as if the Creator, having surveyed His work in this part of the world, pressed a thumb into the landscape to provide a place for simple farmers, immigrants, and some ne'er-do-wells to pass through on their way to the promised land in the far west. It was on the west side of the South Pass that the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, having existed side-by-side for over 1100 miles, now diverged. The Mormons and the California Forty-niners headed southwest as soon as they cleared the pass; the people bound for Oregon and Washington headed northwest at the same juncture.

About the Author

Richard Braden is a dreamer, first and foremost. He has been afforded the sweetness of life—he was able to walk away unaided from 21 years in the military with only field artillery hearing concussions and some time in support of an airborne battle group. He spent a lot of great years in the satellite building, launching, and listening business, and later years as a usermanual writer for both the satellite and medical technology business. Life could not be much better than it is today.The Bradens live in a suburb of Denver, CO, known as 'Lone Tree.' Their email address is rpbraden@earthlink.net.