Mile 1390- Independence Rock and Devil’s Gate

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Inde­pen­dence Rock and Devil’s gate are two more land­marks, both locat­ed in mod­ern day Wyoming, that Robert’s par­ty would have encoun­tered dur­ing their jour­ney west. Inde­pen­dence rock is a large rock for­ma­tion that stands about 1900 feet long, 850 feet wide and 130 feet high. This rock was signed by many west­ern pio­neers who would carve their names into the side of the for­ma­tion. It was said that Inde­pen­dence Rock was a land­mark that had to be reached by July 4th in order to ensure enough time to make it to Cal­i­for­nia or Ore­gon before the first moun­tain snowfall.

Devil’s Gate, also in mod­ern day Wyoming was anoth­er land­mark for moun­tain men and lat­er pio­neers of the West. The Sweet­wa­ter Riv­er carved a gorge in this gran­ite rock for­ma­tion that is only 30 feet wide at its base. It was too nar­row to allow for wag­ons to pass through how­ev­er, because it was regard­ed as a nat­ur­al won­der by many who saw it, it was also a pop­u­lar loca­tion for many trav­el­ing west to carve their names.