South Pass City

 

(National Park Service photo) 

South Pass is a twenty mile wide gentle slope that travelers on the California, Oregon, and Mormon Trails in southern Wyoming used to cross the Continental Divide. The grade is so gradual that most people were not even aware when they had reached the 7,412 foot summit. The trail followed the Sweetwater River and isn't used today. Instead Route 28 climbs up and over the pass. 

South Pass City is just a couple miles off of Route 28 and was founded after gold was discovered in1867. Large gold deposits were never discovered and the town declined in just five years but investors continued to hope and poured money into the mines to no avail. By 1949 it was a ghost town. Most of the miners, shop keepers, saloon and hotel operators had moved on.

Today the town is a state park with over twenty restored buildings featuring rooms furnished with period pieces. Some of the buildings have interpretive displays. A video of the area history can be watched in the South Pass Hotel and Restaurant. 

The Clarissa Mill which was moved from nearby Atlantic City, another mining town, was refurbished after WWII but the mining and milling operations did not pay off and it closed in 1955. Tours are conducted Thursday to Sunday at 2 PM. We did not go on a tour. 

 

The town site is partly accessible. A ramp is located on the right side of the information/admission building. A boardwalk leads to about eight of the buildings situated on either side of Main Street. The rest of the street is dirt without boardwalks or ramps into the buildings. The video in the South Pass Hotel and Restaurant includes tours of the buildings that aren't accessible. A log (very bumpy) bridge goes across Willow Creek. There are no paths or ramps to the four buildings located there. 

Other access problems include high thresholds and glare from the plexiglass used to block entry to the rooms in the buildings. The Smith-Sherlock Company Store is the only building without plexiglass blocking off the exhibits.  

There are four intersecting loop trails. We did not attempt any of them but I suspect that even the easiest is not accessible.  

The dirt road from Route 28 to South Park City is in good condition, passable by any vehicle. The parking lot is large enough for any vehicle.  South Pass City  42.46867, -108.80331