Union Pass is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migr ...

in the

Wind River Range The Wind River Range (or "Winds" for short) is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming in the United States. The range runs roughly NW–SE for approximately . The Continental Divide follows the crest of the range and in ...

in Fremont County of western

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

in the United States. The pass is located on the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...

between the Gros Ventre mountains on the west and the Wind River Range on the east. A ''triple divide'' exists nearby, where water may flow to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia ...

, or

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

. The pass was historically used by Native Americans and early

mountain men A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

including the Astor Expedition in 1811 on its way west. On the return trip, fearing hostile Indian activity near Union Pass, the Astorians chose a southern route and discovered South Pass. The pass was named by

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

Captain William F. Raynolds in 1860. Raynolds was in charge of the

Raynolds Expedition The Raynolds Expedition was a United States Army exploring and mapping expedition intended to map the unexplored territory between Fort Pierre, Dakota Territory and the headwaters of the Yellowstone River. The expedition was led by topographical ...

which was exploring the

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellow ...

region immediately prior to the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

. After mountain man and guide

Jim Bridger James Felix "Jim" Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old ...

led the expedition over the pass, Raynolds gave the pass its current name.

Location

Union Pass is located in the mountains of northwestern

. It is at an elevation of . It is a hub from which three Wyoming Mountain Ranges radiate. The three separate directions – the

to the southeast (

Gannett Peak Gannett Peak is the highest mountain peak in the U.S. state of Wyoming at . It lies in the Wind River Range within the Bridger Wilderness of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Straddling the Continental Divide along the boundary between Fremo ...

, ), the

Gros Ventre Range The Gros Ventre Range ( ) is part of the Central Rocky Mountains and is located west of the Continental Divide in U.S. state of Wyoming. The highest summit in the range is Doubletop Peak at . The Gros Ventre Range is mostly within the Gros Ventr ...

( Doubletop Peak, ) to the west and the

Absaroka Range The Absaroka Range ( or ) is a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The range stretches about across the Montana– Wyoming border, and at its widest, forming the eastern boundary of Yellowstone National Park along Paradise ...

to the north (

Francs Peak Francs Peak, elevation , is the highest point in the Absaroka Range which extends from north-central Wyoming into south-central Montana, in the United States. It is in the Washakie Wilderness of Shoshone National Forest, and the peak is also the ...

, ). The pass is lower than mountains around it. This provides easy passage among the headwaters of three river systems, the

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, the

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

and the

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

.Union Pass; Nedward M. Frost, historian, Wyoming Recreation Commission; National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form; United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service; Washington, D.C.; April 4, 1969 An unimproved dirt road crosses the pass, connecting

U.S. Route 287 U.S. Route 287 (US 287) is a north–south (physically northwest–southeast) United States highway. At long, it is the second longest three-digit U.S. Route, behind US 281. It serves as the major truck route between Fort Worth and Ama ...

near Dubois to U.S. Route 189 in Pinedale.

Native Americans

Reports from the fur trappers who first entered the mountains and those following mention the trail through the pass as being in long term us by the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easte ...

Bannack Bannack is a ghost town in Beaverhead County, Montana, Beaverhead County, Montana, United States, located on Grasshopper Creek, approximately upstream from where Grasshopper Creek joins with the Beaverhead River south of Dillon, Montana, Dillon. ...

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

, Gros Ventre, Flat Head or

Bitterroot Salish The Bitterroot Salish (or Flathead, Salish, Selish) are a Salish-speaking group of Native Americans, and one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana. The Flathead Reservation is home to ...

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

and others. The pass provide access into three river sheds. An east-west route ran from the east up the Wind River valley and provided a western route by the Gros Ventre or Hoback Rivers to the Valley of the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

in Jackson's Hole. To go south, the traveler would follow the Green River. The Union Pass Route was an extension of a North South Route up the Valley of the Yellowstone. Coming up the Valley of the Thoroughfare, west of the

Absaroka Mountains The Absaroka Range ( or ) is a sub- range of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The range stretches about across the Montana–Wyoming border, and at its widest, forming the eastern boundary of Yellowstone National Park along Paradise Va ...

and south of

Yellowstone Lake Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of water in Yellowstone National Park. The lake is above sea level and covers with of shoreline. While the average depth of the lake is , its greatest depth is at least . Yellowstone Lake is the largest fre ...

, the trail followed the North Fork of the Yellowstone. Crossing over

Two Ocean Pass Two Ocean Pass is a mountain pass on North America's Continental Divide, in the Teton Wilderness, which is part of Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest. The pass is notable for Parting of the Waters, where one stream, North Two Ocean Creek ...

, the trail split east and west around Terrace Mountain into the Wind River Valley at DuNoir. From Union Pass south bound travelers could use the Green River Valley to connect east through South Pass or west toward the

Astorians – 1811

John Colter John Colter (c.1770–1775 – May 7, 1812 or November 22, 1813) was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). Though party to one of the more famous expeditions in history, Colter is best remembered for explorations he made ...

may have been the first easterner to visit the pass in 1807, but this is based on circumstantial evidence and is disputed by scholars. Wilson Price Hunt, the Astorians overland to the mouth of the

reported crossing Union Pass on September 15, 1811. This is the first record of the pass. The expedition guides were Edward Robinson, John Hoback and Jacob Rizner. Their previous participation in 1809 with the Henry expedition to the source of the Missouri River and back by way of the Green River it is accepted that the three had been through Union Pass, during the year 1810. File:Union Pass historic marker.jpg, Historical marker describing first crossings. File:Union_Pass.jpg, View of Union Pass File:Union Pass 2017-09- 1336.jpg, Vicinity of the Historic marker for Union Pass on U.S. 26 & U.S. 287 in DuNoir with the Wind River Mtns in the background.

References

Bibliography

*Burton Harris. John Colter, His Years in the Rockies. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1952. * Frances Fuller Victor. Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life on the Frontier. Columbian Book Company, Hartford Connecticut 1877. Published by Subscription. *Webster's Geographic Dictionary—G. & C. Merriam Co. Springfield, Massachusetts, U. S. A.--1964. *Hayden. U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories of Wyoming and Idaho 1878, Part I. Conducted under the authority of the Secretary of the Interior. Washington: Government Printing Office-1883. *Washington Irving. Astoria. Clatsop Edition, Binfords & Mort, Publishers Portland Oregon—undated. *Washington Irving. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville; edited and with introduction (and modern footnotes) by Edgeley W. Todd. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press-1961.

External links