STEPPING BACK IN HISTORY AT THE NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAILS INTERPRETIVE CENTER IN CASPER, WY - Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Another day of waiting in Casper, WY for our truck to be repaired. The weather is beautiful again today -- starting out around 45 degrees and approaching 61 degrees! As we're always looking for something unique to do, and coming highly recommended by the lady at the campground -- we decided to make it a bike trip to the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center located at 1501 N. Poplar Street in Casper, WY. And another good thing, it is absolutely free. It definitely is a must-see attraction!

A brief bit of history about this area in Casper . . .

Between 1840 and 1869, approximately 500,000 emigrants traveled through the Casper area on three National Historic Trails: the Oregon Trail (seeking free land in the Oregon Territory);  the Mormon Trail (seeking religious freedom in the Great Salt Lake Valley); the California Trail (seeking free gold); and the Pony Express Trail (delivering mail from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA). 

These pioneers left behind not only trails, but important stories as well -- stories that are significant to U.S. history.

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Now let's go inside the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center to explore. There were several different theater productions (aka movies) throughout the center, but I found "Footsteps to the West," an 18-minute multi-media program that uses lights, sound and images to recreate the lives of the pioneers as they traveled west very enlightening. Many of the stories in the presentation came from actual journals and diaries of the pioneers.

It all started with the Plains Indians and their connection to the land . . .

Next we move along to the Oregon Trail . . .

I actually got to sit inside a covered wagon and take a virtual ride across the North Platte River. For the pioneers, this was a perilous undertaking with the river often 300 yards across and four feet deep. I encountered many bumps and jolts on this virtual ride!

Then we moved along to the Mormon Trail . . .

And then the California Trail . . . 

And finally, the Pony Express Trail . . .

Mel is sitting inside the Wells Fargo Company Pony Express Wagon.

The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center was interesting because they had divided the exhibits into a section for each of the four trails.

The last exhibit was an actual covered wagon donated by a local person. I found it extremely awesome with authentic details added to the inside as well as the outside of the covered wagon. 

 

I would recommend that you stop in and see this fabulous museum if you are ever in the Casper, WY area. Our bike ride today was a little over 9-1/4 miles in about 1-1/2 hours. We probably spent about 2 hours in the museum. 

And, as I am writing this blog -- our beautiful weather has come to an end, with the wind blowing extremely hard bringing lots of cold rain our way. The temperature has dropped to 51 degrees.

Staying safe inside our RV,

Shirley & Mel