Wind River Range: Indian Pass

Lithic Scatter, North Fork of Bull Lake Creek

“An Indian told me that the Indians used to have a trail through Indian Pass. They built it up with rocks, but snow slides wiped it out.” – Charles C. Moore, 1932

Amy McCarthy, Wind River Range

In the summer of 2010 my wife and I crossed 12,120-foot Indian Pass and Moore's words and the visible remnants of the trail fascinated me. Why would the region’s first inhabitants have gone to all this trouble to construct a trail through this high and rugged country?

Stone Trail Construction, Indian Pass

My quest for an answer has led me on a physical and temporal wilderness journey to the edge of Wyoming’s recorded history and beyond. With support from the Wyoming State Historical Society and the assistance of local Wind River Range historians Tom Turiano and David Vlcek I'm able to tell the story of this ancient high altitude route.

Arrowhead, North Fork of Bull Lake Creek

The first humans to cross the Continental Divide at the low point between Jackson Peak and Knife Point Mountain were likely bands of Mountain Shoshone known as Tukudeka or Sheepeaters. The Sheepeaters shared the high mountains with bighorn sheep — their staple food. Archeologist David Vlcek has recorded many high altitude archeological sites near high passes in the Wind River Range, including Indian Basin. Stone tools, chips, and flakes of both obsidian and chert, known as lithic scatter, can be found near timberline on both sides of Indian Pass.

Shoshone Rock Art

Photo by Dudley Gardner

In the 18^th century many Shoshone bands adopted the horse and became primarily bison hunters or Kuccuntikka. As documented by D.B. Shinkin in Wind River Shoshone Ethnogeography (1947) many of these Shoshone regularly crossed the Continental Divide between the Green River and Wind River Bassins.

Chief Washakie and family

Photo by Henry Jackson, 1870

In the 19^th century as result of declining bison populations and the encroachment of white settlers, competition for prime hunting grounds in the upper Wind River Basin became fierce. And in 1866 a deadly battle was fought between Shoshone and Crow Indians over territorial hunting rights. Crowheart Butte was so named because the victorious Chief Washakie of the Shoshones displayed a Crow Indian's heart on his lance at the war dance after the battle.

John C. Fremont on the Summit of Fremont Peak

Library of Congress

By this time the first whites had begun to explore the Wind River Range. In 1833 Captain Bonneville entered the southern end of the range and may of climbed Wind River Peak. In 1842 John C. Fremont climbed Wyoming’s 3^rd highest Peak – Fremont Peak (13,745-feet). James R. Wolf  believes Fremont entered the mountains at Boulder Lake and crossed Lester Pass. Fremont’s party was the first non-Indians known to travel along the Indian Trail.

Indian Basin from the Summit of Jackson peak

“It is not by the splendor of far off views, which have lent such glory to the Alps, that these impress the mind; but by a gigantic disorder of enormous masses, and savage sublimity of naked rock, in a wonderful contrast with innumerable green spots of a rich floral beauty, shut up in their stern recesses. Their wildness seems well suited to the character of the people who inhabit the country.” - John C. Fremont

Summit of Fremont Peak 1877

Photo by Henry Jackson

In 1877 eight members of the Hayden Survey (including Photographer Henry Jackson) made the second ascent of Fremont Peak. During their approach they would have also followed the pre-historic Indian Trail.

Increased Tree Cover, Seneca Lake

Jackson’s early photographs provide important documentation of environmental conditions of the Wind River Mountains during the Little Ice Age. In the 134 years since the Hayden survey visited the Wind River Range, tree cover around Seneca Lake has increased significantly.

Climate Change and Wyoming Glaciers

During the 20^th century Gannet Glacier lost 45% of its volume. Given the close proximity and analogous climate, it is likely Knife Point Glacier (on the east side of Indian Pass) receded at a similar rate. Pairs of historic and contemporary photos of the Knife Point Glacier support this assumption. With less exposed talus and scree, crossing the Knife Point Glacier with horses would have been significantly easier during the Little Ice Age.

An artist’s depiction of Fremont Glacier during the Little Ice Age

1878 Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey

In 1906 the USGS surveyed the area and produced a detailed topographic map (1:125,000) of the northern Wind River Range that included Fremont Peak and Indian Pass. The map includes a trail from Pole Creek to Indian Pass labeled “Indian Trail”. The 1906 USGS Map also includes another Indian Pass further east. This Indian Pass is located between the North Fork of Bull Lake Creek and Dry Creek.

1906 Fremont Peak Quadrangle

Starting in 1932 and culminating 1940 with the publication Wind River Mountains, Kenneth A. Henderson wrote a series of climbing guides for the Wind River Range that included a detailed history of the range. One of Henderson’s primary sources was Charles C. Moore. Born in Fort Washakie in 1880, Moore established the C-M Ranch on the Jakey’s Fork near Dubois in 1927.

An unmapped trail in the North Fork of Bull Lake Creek

“It was known as the Sheep-eaters Trail. I went over it first with an old Indian. It was a rough trail; much of it was over solid lava (sic) rock and we always found a good many big snowdrifts, even in August.” – Charles C. Moore

Stone Trail Construction, Indian Basin

Another source of information for Henderson was a Judge in Lander named Edger H. Fourt who wrote about Indian Pass; “That [where the trail crosses the divide] was the only tricky part….but by working on the trail a little, piling up and moving rock, they were able to drag their teepee poles and travois over it.”

Old Horse Shoes, North Fork of Bull Lake Creek

Henderson also reports more contemporary horse crossings; “…. a party in 1937 explored the possibilities of connecting the two sides of the range by a trail, and during the course of their explorations crossed the range with horses through Indian Pass from east to west. A similar crossing from west to east had been made with horses several years earlier, a somewhat harder trip owing to the difficulty of getting horses down the Bull Lake Creek Glacier on the eastern slope which is quite steep in its lower reaches.”

Fryxell and Forrest on the Indian Pass Trail

In August of 2012 I retraced this ancient route. Like Fremont, I chose to start my trek into the Wind River Range at Boulder Lake.  According to David Vlcek, Boulder Lake “...may contain the densest prehistoric occupations.” Eight days later I finished my trek near Scenic Pass on the border of the Wind River Reservation. From Scenic Pass there exist several established routes to known archeological sites including the pictographs at both Torrey and Dinwoody Lakes.

Evidence of Glacier Recession, Indian Pass and the Knife Point Glacier

During the trek I documented the remaining stone trail work and multiple high altitude archeological sites, replicated historic photographs, and attempted to locate missing or unknown sections of this ancient trail.

Possible Route Across Knife Point Glacier

One of the more interesting findings involves a possible route across the Knife Point Glacier on the east side of Indian Pass. As previously discussed the glacier has receded significantly since the Little Ice Age when the Indian Trail was used by horse mounted Shoshone and was the most difficult section for the horse traverses in the 1930s.

Unmapped Trail leading to Knife Point Glacier

Instead of heading directly up or down the center of the glacier the 11,600-foor contour can be followed eastward to a broad shelf and point 11,329 where a grassy slope leads down to a tributary of the North Fork of Bull Lake Creek. This route has the benefit of avoiding any steep snow and ice as well as the treacherous terminal moraine. A well-defined track was visible east of point 11,329.

Bull Elk, Little Milky Lake

I also explored several possible routes within the North Fork of Bull Lake Creek Drainage. Many of these routes included well-defined game trails that could be easily traveled by horses.

Indian Pass between North Fork of Bull Lake Creek and Dry Creek

By what route horse parties accessed the North Fork of Bull Lake Creek from the east remains a mystery. Current USGS Maps identify two Indian Passes east of Bull Lake Creek that would avoid the improbable ascent/descent through the steep and rocky Bull Lake Creek Canyon. Accessing the North Fork of Bull Lake Creek from either of these passes involves negotiating 1,500-feet of steep scree, talus and/or boulders.

Indian Pass Trail

Horses can easily travel the terrain east of the North Fork of Bull Lake Creek. Multiple established horse trails (mapped and un-mapped) exist on Indian Ridge, Dry Creek ridge, Dry Creek, Bob Creek and Horse Ridge providing direct access to the upper Wind River Basin.

A Large Cairn on the Indian Pass between Little Milky Lake and Bob Creek

Today the North Fork of Bull Creek is one of the wildest and inaccessible places in the continuous forty-eight states — true wilderness by any definition. During pre-historic times, however, the basin’s abundant wildlife including large herds of elk and bighorn sheep, created a bountiful hunting ground for the regions first inhabitants.

Indian Pass Trail, Google Earth