Devil's Gate or Devils GateGNIS
/ref>''Independence Rock, Wyoming,'' 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1981 is a natural rock formation, a

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...

on the Sweetwater River in

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 ...

, United States, southwest of Independence Rock. Although the actual route of travel did not pass through the narrow cleft, the site was a major landmark on the

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into se ...

trails, and is particularly significant in the history of the latter. Once the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

was extended to Benton, six miles east of present-day

Sinclair, Wyoming Sinclair is a town in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. History The town was originally called Parco, after the Producers & Refiners Corporation (or PARCO) which founded the refinery and the company town. It was renamed Sinclair after PA ...

, the Mormon Trail was rerouted through Whiskey Gap in Carbon County, to a point 10 miles west of Devil's Gate to rejoin the original trail. Devil's Gate is a remarkable example of superposed or an

antecedent drainage stream An antecedent stream is a stream that maintains its original course and pattern despite the changes in underlying rock topography. A stream with a dendritic drainage pattern, for example, can be subject to slow tectonic uplift. However, as the upli ...

. The Sweetwater River cuts a narrow 100-meter deep slot through a granite ridge, yet had it flowed less than a kilometer to the south, it could have bypassed the ridge completely. The gorge was cut because the landscape was originally buried by valley fill sediments. The river eroded downward and when it hit granite, it kept on cutting. The site is accessible via semi-improved hiking trails from the Mormon Handcart Historical Center at the Sun Ranch and from the old paved alignment of Wyoming Highway 220, approximately 60 miles from Casper and 12 miles northeast of Muddy Gap. It is on public land. File:DevilsGate1858.jpg, Devil's Gate. By Samuel C. Mills, August 1858. File:Devil's Gate, on the Sweetwater, Fremont County, Wyoming - NARA - 516896.jpg, Devil's Gate. By

William Henry Jackson William Henry Jackson (April 4, 1843 – June 30, 1942) was an American photographer, Civil War veteran, painter, and an explorer famous for his images of the American West. He was a great-great nephew of Samuel Wilson, the progenitor of Am ...

, 1870. File:MormonHandcartHistoricalSite 1.JPG, Mormon Handcart Historical Center

References

External links

* Mormon Trail Landforms of Natrona County, Wyoming Oregon Trail Canyons and gorges of Wyoming {{Wyoming-geo-stub