Wander Along a Trail of Western History at Fort Bridger
Visit the grounds at Wyoming’s Fort Bridger State Historic Site and it’s like wandering along a trail of history, a tributary of the great American West where explorers, fur trappers, Oregon Trail emigrants and Pony Express riders coursed by on their way to settling and taming the frontier.Fort Bridger’s beginnings go back to 1843 when mountain man Jim Bridger set up a trading post on the Black Fork ofthe Green River, close to the Oregon Trail.But Fort Bridger State Historic Site is more than just the story of a mountain man’s trading post, and later a US Army outpost. It reflects the history of what was going on in the West from the 1840s through the early 1900s.
Historic interpreter Ariel Staley shown by Fort Bridger's bellows. LFP photo
Arizona:
Saguaro NP Offers A View of the Southwest's Desert Giants
Saguaro National Park—adjacent to Tucson, Arizona—celebrated its 75th anniversary on March 1, and since April and May are great months to see desert wildflowers in bloom, we thought in this issue of OldWestNewWest.Com we’d spotlight the park and its desert beauty.The park is one of the most unique properties within the National Park System. For one thing, the 91,000-acre park has a major U.S. city right in the middle of it. The population of greater Tucson is nearly 1 million persons.
In the United States only southern Arizona and extreme southwest California harbor these giant cacti. NPS photo
Nevada:
Red Rock Canyon NCA Offers World-Class Routes for Rock Climbers
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just 17 miles outside of the Las Vegas Strip, has become one of the finest rock climbing areas in the world, and a favorite place for fans of the sport. The area offers a variety of routes and trails, and climbing courses that range from easy to difficult. More than one million people a year visit the 195,819-acre park unit, which includes a 13-mile scenic drive, 30 miles of hiking trails, picnic areas, campground, interpretive boardwalk, and visitor center. The area is about to get a new $23 million visitor center.
A climber ascends a sandstone wall at Red Rock Canyon. BLM photo
Deadwood, South Dakota:
City Says Historic Saint Ambrose Cemetery Will Have a Future
Some simply call it Deadwood’s other cemetery, while others don’t even know that it’s there, but all that’s about to change for the Black Hills’ historic Saint Ambrose Cemetery. Due to erosion, sporadic maintenance and even vandalism, the cemetery currently is depressed and unsafe. But the city says the 1880s graveyard that originally served as a resting place for many Irish Catholic settlers will be restored and preserved for generations to come.
The Angel of Saint Ambrose guards the remains of two-year-old Oscar Stanley Rewman. Deadwood Preservation Dept. photo
Northern California:
Fort Ross Historic Park Has Russian Surprises for Visitors
Many visitors to Fort Ross State Historic Park, 12 miles north of the town of Jenner on state Highway One, are surprised to discover that Russians, along with native Alaskans, established a place for themselves in early California history. Roughly 75 miles north of San Francisco—about a two-hour drive—Fort Ross State Historic Park is one of the first five state parks developed in the California State Park system.
Russian explorers in 1812 founded a Northern California colony for trading. California State Parks photo
Wyoming:
High Def Rockefeller Center will Bring Grand Tetons to Visitors Up Close
The new Laurance Rockefeller Preserve Center at Grand Teton National Park will offer visitors a new way to experience the park. Photo by David J. Swift
The new Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve Center, opening around mid-summer, will offer visitors a new way to experience Grand Teton National Park through high definition television and audio sensaround presentations. We offer our readers a special sneak preview of what the building looks like, both inside and out. The Center is part of Laurance Rockefeller's $160 million gift of 1,100 acres of land, the new Center and an endowment to support the Center. Early reports say the experience will 'wow' park visitors. Click here for more
Southern California:
Southwest Museum Marks 100th Birthday With Cake and Controversy
The Southwest Museum celebrated its 100th birthday with plenty of cake. LFP photo
With an abundance of two-layered birthday cake, gallons of punch, an American Indian hoop dancer, and a trio performing the music of early Spanish California –– the Sunday afternoon party on Oct. 21 proved to be a perfectly grand way of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian. The Autry National Center rescued the Southwest Museum from hard times in 2003, but plans to relocate the Southwest's world-class Native American artifact collection to the Autry's main campus at Griffith Park is not without controversy.
Scotts Bluff National Monument—A Landmark of Western Legend
Scotts Bluff National Monument was a guidepost for thousands of pioneers. LFP photo
Scotts Bluff National Monument, part legend, part fact, is one of those natural wonders in America’s West that must be experienced to be appreciated.Rising up more than 800 feet above western Nebraska’s North Platte River, between 1841 and 1869 more than 350,000 pioneers and emigrants (some historians say as many as half a million) used this natural landmark as a guidepost along the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails to point them westward to their own personal promised land.
New $18.5 Million Grand Teton Visitor Center Opens
The interior of the new Grand Teton National Park visitor center. NPS photo
It took more than 20 years of discussion and planning, but on Aug. 11, with more than 1,000 persons on hand to watch the dedication ceremony, National Park Service officials, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Vice President Dick Cheney officially opened the new Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center for Grand Teton National Park Click here for more
Wyoming:
A Home in the West—If We Can Just Get There
Visitors get a chance to feel what it's link to pull a handcart at the National Trails Center. BLM photo
what was travel like back in the great westward migration during the mid 1800s? What was it like to walk those thousands of miles, pull a handcart, ride in a covered wagon, and struggle to even greet another day?Sharing some of those experiences, giving us a glimpse of what life was like on the trail, is the purpose of the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, Wyoming.
Discover the Real Deadwood at Adams Museun and House
Photo courtesy Adams Museum and House
How do you experience Wild Bill Hickok's Deadwood? How do you discover what is real about the Black Hills gold rush town of the late 1870s and what is Hollywood glitz? The answer is the Adams Museum and House in Deadwood, South Dakota.
Get a Feel for the Los Angeles of 200 years Ago on Olvera Street
Olvera Street in Los Angeles. LFP photo
Los Angeles wasn't always a megalopolis of nearly 4 million people. Get a feel for the City of the Angels as it was 200 years ago on Olvera Street in downtown L.A. Enjoy the street's Mexican marketplace (be sure to have a churro) and see the oldest residence in the city, the Avila Adobe House built around 1818.
Renovated Yavapai Point Gives Fresh Look at Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon's Yavapai Point museum has been given a facelift and new features to see. NPS photo
For nearly 80 years, visitors to the Grand Canyon have stopped at the Yavapai Point Trailside Museum to take in some of the breathtaking beauty and scope of one of the West’s incredible natural wonders. Time and wear, however, began taking a toll on the buildings, and for several years now, efforts have been going on to preserve and upgrade the facility. Earlier this year, all the cooperative hard work came to fruition as representatives from several organizations came together to rededicate a much improved Grand Canyon National Park Yavapai Observation Station.
