The Lake Desmet Segment is a one-mile long set of trail ruts that are a well-preserved portion of the

Bozeman Trail The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the Western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming. Its important period was from 1863 to 1868. While the major part of the route us ...

Johnson County, Wyoming Johnson County is a county in the north central part of the U.S. state of Wyoming. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 8,447. The county seat is Buffalo. Kaycee is the only other incorporated town in the county. Johnson Cou ...

. The ruts are located about a mile west of Lake Desmet on the down slope of the hill overlooking the lake. This portion of the trail is on private property, so permission is required to visit.

Lake De Smet

Lake De Smet Lake De Smet is a lake located in Johnson County, Wyoming. It services Johnson County with water for industrial, agricultural, and municipal uses. With a maximum depth of 120 feet, and a capacity of 234,897 acre feet, Johnson County is responsibl ...

occupies a natural undrained basin on the divide between Piney Creek, and one of its tributaries, Boxelder Creek. It is one of several basins in the

Buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

area that were formed by

coal seam fire A coal-seam fire is a burning of an outcrop or underground coal seam. Most coal-seam fires exhibit smouldering combustion, particularly underground coal-seam fires, because of limited atmospheric oxygen availability. Coal-seam fire instances ...

s. After the coal deposits burned, the clinker and other sediments collapsed into the space vacated by the burned coal forming a natural basin. In the early years, Lake De Smet was a highly saline lake capable of supporting only limited types of aquatic life. However, during a period of higher precipitation from 1880 to 1915 the salinity of the lake dropped because of additional runoff from local creeks. In 1917,

Levi Leiter Levi Ziegler Leiter (November 2, 1834 – June 9, 1904) was an American businessman based in Chicago. He co-founded what later became the Marshall Field & Company retail empire. Early life Leiter was born to Anne (née Ziegler) and Joseph Thom ...

a Chicago millionaire built an irrigation ditch from Piney Creek to Lake Desmet, and impounded additional water with a small dam. In 1957, Reynolds Mining bought the lake, replaced the ditch with a tunnel and replaced the dam with a higher dam. In 1976, Texaco bought Lake De Smet from Reynolds Mining and they raised the dam again. The original natural lake was about 1500 acres in size, but the various dams have increased the size of the lake to about 3600 acres today.

History

Lake De Smet was first described by

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 ...

, a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest who was a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

Native American Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

people. He described the lake in a letter dated August 24, 1851: "On the 23rd we left Tongue River. For ten hours we marched over mountain and valley, following the course of one of its tributaries, making, however, only about twenty-five miles. On the day following we crossed a chain of lofty mountains to attain the Lower Piney Fork, nearly twenty miles distant. We arrived quite unexpectedly on the borders of a lovely little lake about six miles long, and my traveling companions gave it my name. There our hunters killed several wild ducks." In 1865, the

Powder River Expedition :''This event should not be confused with the Big Horn Expedition during the Black Hills War.'' The Powder River Expedition of 1865 also known as the Powder River War or Powder River Invasion, was a large and far-flung military operation of the ...

passed Lake Desmet during their military operations against the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

Indians. One of the officers, Captain Henry E. Palmer described the lake: "Seven miles from Clear Fork, we came to a very pretty lake about two miles long and about three-fourths of a mile wide, which Major Bridger (

Jim Bridger James Felix Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, Animal trapping, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was ...

) told us was De Smet Lake, named after Father De Smet. The Lake is strongly impregnated with alkali, in fact, so strong that an egg or potato will not sink if thrown into the water. Large, red bluffs are to be seen on both sides and underneath the lake is an immense coal vein." The

which was active from 1863 to 1868 passed about a mile west of Lake De Smet along the length of the lake. About a half dozen emigrant diaries mention the lake, and some of the travelers mistakenly called it Smith or Smith's Lake. Over the years, Lake De Smet has been alleged to be inhabited by a

sea monster Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are of ...

. These legends and recent sightings have persisted to the present day. Although Father De Smet spelled his name differently, the preferred spelling of the name of the lake is Lake Desmet.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Johnson County, Wyoming Bozeman Trail Transportation in Johnson County, Wyoming