South Pass

We drove across the South Pass today, a broad flat plain that straddles the continental divide and provided early travelers with the easiest route through the Rocky Mountains.

 

One of those early travelers was my grandmother's grandmother, Josephine Kolmer, who passed through here in 1845 with her family on their way to California. They were part of a wagon train bound for Oregon but later changed direction and went to California instead. There she met her future husband, Wilhelm Benitz, who happened to come from the same village in Germany. They settled at Fort Ross, on the Sonoma Coast, where my great-grandfather was born.


As we travel further through Wyoming, I hope to learn more about the Oregon Trail and the hardships these pioneers faced. It's a fascinating part of my family's early history.