Independence Rock is a large granite rock, approximately high, long, and wide, which is in southwestern

Natrona County, Wyoming Natrona County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 79,955, making it the second-most populous county in Wyoming. Its county seat is Casper, Wyoming, Casper. N ...

along Wyoming Highway 220. During the middle of the 19th century, it formed a prominent and well-known landmark on the

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

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 several ...

, and

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

emigrant trails. Many of these emigrants carved their names on it, and it was described by early missionary and explorer Father

Pierre-Jean De Smet Pierre-Jean De Smet, SJ ( ; 30 January 1801 – 23 May 1873), also known as Pieter-Jan De Smet, was a Flemish Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He is known primarily for his widespread missionary work in the mid-19t ...

in 1840 as the ''Register of the Desert''. The site was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

on January 20, 1961 and is now part of Independence Rock State Historic Site, owned and operated by the state of Wyoming.

Description

The rock is a large rounded

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock. Some monolit ...

Archean The Archean ( , also spelled Archaean or Archæan), in older sources sometimes called the Archaeozoic, is the second of the four geologic eons of Earth's history of Earth, history, preceded by the Hadean Eon and followed by the Proterozoic and t ...

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

typical of the surrounding region and is an isolated peak at the southeast end of the Granite Mountains. Its appearance is somewhat like the rounded

Enchanted Rock Enchanted Rock is a pink granite mountain located in the Llano Uplift about north of Fredericksburg, Texas and south of Llano, Texas, United States. Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, which includes Enchanted Rock and surrounding land, spans ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

(formerly known as Ayers Rock), although smaller in size. It is located in the high

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

region of central Wyoming, north of the Sentinel Rocks ridge and adjacent to the Sweetwater River. It is accessible from a rest area on Wyoming Highway 220, approximately northeast of Muddy Gap and south-west of Casper.

History

The rock derives its name from the fact that it lies directly along the route of the Emigrant Trail. Pioneering wagon parties bound for

usually left the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

in the early spring and hoped to reach the rock by July 4 (

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

in the United States), in order to reach their destinations before the first mountain snowfalls. It was likely named prior to 1830.

John C. Frémont Major general (United States), Major-General John Charles Frémont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was a United States Army officer, explorer, and politician. He was a United States senator from California and was the first History of the Repub ...

camped a mile below this site on August 1, 1843 and made this entry in the journal of his 1843–1844 expedition:

Everywhere within six or eight feet of the ground, where the surface is sufficiently smooth, and in some places sixty or eighty feet above, the rock is inscribed with the names of travelers. Many a name famous in the history of this country, and some well known to science, are to be found among those of traders and travelers.

Fremont carved a large cross into the rock monolith, which was blasted off the rock on July 4, 1847 by hundreds of California and Oregon emigrants who had gathered on the site.''Wyoming: A Guide to Its History, Highways and People (American Guide Series),'' Native American Books Distributor, 2007, pp. 386-7 Some Protestants considered the cross to be a symbol of the Pope and Catholicism. John Frémont was actually a member of the United States Episcopal Church.Bigelow, John, ''Memoir Of The Life And Public Services Of John Charles Fremont,'' Kessinger Publishing, 2006, p. 465 On July 4, 1862, Independence Rock was the site of Wyoming's first

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

meeting.

Gallery

File:Independence rock names 1.jpg, Names right on Independence Rock, particularly of R. McCord in 1850 File:Independence rock names 2.jpg, Names carved on Independence Rock, particularly of W.R.R. Thompson, W. Pierce, J. Ware and J.S.O. Ward in 1861 File:Oregon Trail's Independence Rock 1870.gif, Independence Rock in 1870 File:Indepencerocksign2011.jpg, A sign in front of Independence Rock describing the history of site, taken in 2011. File:Independence Rock, Wyoming, USA, July 2015.jpg, Independence Rock in 2015

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control Rock formations of Wyoming Inscribed rocks Landforms of Natrona County, Wyoming California Trail Mormon Trail Oregon Trail Natural features on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Historic Landmarks in Wyoming Protected areas of Natrona County, Wyoming Wyoming state historic sites National Register of Historic Places in Natrona County, Wyoming IUCN Category III Graffiti in the United States