Parting of the Ways (Wyoming)
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Parting of the Ways | |
 | |
  Location in Wyoming  Parting of the Ways (Wyoming) (the United States) | |
| Nearest city | Farson, Wyoming |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°15′27″N 109°13′42″W / 42.25750°N 109.22833°W |
| Built | 1844 |
| NRHP reference No. | 76001962 |
| Added to NRHP | January 11, 1976[1] |
The Parting of the Ways is a historic site in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States, where the Oregon and California Trails fork from the original route to Fort Bridger to an alternative route, the Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff, across the Little Colorado Desert. Many wagon trains parted company, some preferring the shorter cutoff route, which involved fifty waterless miles, to the longer but better-watered main route.[2]
The junction is marked by a small sandstone boulder about 15 inches (38 cm) high, placed by L.C. Bishop and Paul Henderson and inscribed with a left-pointing arrow with "F. Bridger" and a right-pointing arrow with "S. Cut Off." The route was not established by Sublette, but rather a mountain man named Greenwood. The error in attribution arose when Joseph E. Ware's Emigrant's Guide to California (1849) listed the alternate path as the "Sublette Cutoff."[3]
