Desert History
Chronology 1812-2008
1812 - Robert Stuart, a trapper employed by a West Coast trading post owned by John Jacob Astor, is the first known white man to cross South Pass and the western part of Red Desert.
1824 - Legendary mountain man Jedediah Smith crosses South Pass from the east along with several other trappers, "opening up" the Pass to future westward bound pioneers seeking a route over the Great Divide.
1825 – The first to travel the Cherokee Trail were a group of trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Jim Bridger was among those trappers and he selected the route.
1843 – A party of Cherokee and whites traveled the Cherokee Trail by wagon and gave the trail its name. They were headed to California to seek gold.
1847 - Jim Bridger meets Latter Day Saints leader Brigham Young and a company of Mormon pioneers near the mouth of the Little Sandy area near present day Farson, advising the company of the route southward through the desert.
1857-58 - Lander Survey visited the Jack Morrow Hills.
1847-1869 – The Overland Trail was a paid stagecoach route, which meant stations were placed every 15 miles and a superintendent ready to supply coaches was placed every 250 miles. In 1865 it cost $150 per person to ride the trail one-way.
1862 - The Overland Trail moved south, following the route known as the Cherokee Trail.
1867 - South Pass Gold Rush -hundreds of mining claims staked in the Red Desert.
1868 – Wamsutter was settled as a stagecoach station for the railroad. It is now a center for oil and gas development.
1877 - Hayden Expedition passed through area, noting Steamboat Mountain's aspen grove and clear, flowing springs.
Early 1890s - Last wild bison killed by cowboys in the Red Desert.
1897 – George Ferris and Ed Haggarty found enough Copper, Silver and Gold in the Ferris Mountains to stake a mining claim. Eleven years later the Ferris-Haggarty Company collapsed when it was indicted for fraudulent stock sales.
1898 - Dr. Frank Dunham proposed in Recreation Magazine that the Red Desert be designated a winter game preserve.
1900 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid robbed the Union Pacific No. 3 train near Tipton, Wyoming of $50,000. They used the Haystack Mountains, now part of the Citizen’s Proposed Wilderness Study Area of Adobe Town, to store fresh horses so they could escape their pursuers.
1918 - Report of the Secretary of the Interior stated that the Red Desert/Great Divide Basin was so badly overgrazed that it would be lost if measures were not taken to spare it. (Tom Bell, personal article, 1988)
1935 – A mummy was found in the Pedro Mountains. At first it was thought to be evidence of the validity of Shoshone and Crow legends of the "little people." However, it was later found to be an infant with anencephaly, a congenital abnormality that warped the proportions of the mummy’s skull.
1935 - Wyoming Governor Leslie Miller unsuccessfully attempts to designate a portion of the Red Desert as part of a larger "Western Trails" national park.
1950s - Uranium boom sweeps across Wyoming, thousands of claims staked in the Red Desert.
1950 - Congress expands Grand Teton National Park by combining it with Jackson Hole National Monument. Same legislation forbids creation or extension of national parks or monuments in Wyoming without express authorization of the Congress.
1961 - The Park Service requests Congress to designate most of the Red Desert (western part of the Great Divide Basin) a National Monument. The plan centered on the Boar's Tusk, Steamboat Mountain and the Sand Dunes.
1968 - Tom Bell unsuccessfully attempts to get the Red Desert declared as a North American Antelope Range.
1960s - Unsuccessful attempt to declare the Red Desert as a Wild Horse Refuge (exact date unclear).
1992 - BLM issues draft Green River Resource Area RMP/EIS. Public comment strongly favors special protection for Red Desert.
1994 - Wyoming Wilderness Association, a coalition of Wyoming conservation organizations, including WOC, presents to BLM a "Citizen's Wilderness Proposal for Wyoming BLM Lands." The proposal recommended that seven WSAs within the Red Desert be enlarged and designated wilderness.
1997 - BLM issues Record of Decision and Green River Resource Management Plan which defers decisions on fluid mineral and locatable mineral decisions for 88,000-acre core area surrounding Steamboat Mountain pending preparation of Jack Morrow Hills Coordinated Activity Plan (JMHCAP).
February, 1998 - BLM issues Notice of Intent to Prepare a Coordinated Activity Plan for the Jack Morrow Hills Area.
June, 1998 - BLM offers oil and gas leases in Jack Morrow Hills CAP area; WOC protests.
July, 1998 - BLM halts all oil and gas leasing in JMHCAP.
September, 2000 - Over 12,000 comments - the largest number ever received by Wyoming BLM for one planning project - are submitted in response to the BLM's draft EIS on the JMHCAP. About 93% of the comments advocated adoption of the Citizens' Red Desert Protection Alternative endorsed by over one hundred conservation groups, businesses and ranches that would prohibit any additional oil and gas leasing and development in the Jack Morrow Hills. An additional number advocated more protection for the Jack Morrow Hills than provided by any of the BLM proposed alternatives.
November, 15, 2000 - Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt visits the Red Desert and in a meeting in Lander directs the BLM to engage in a supplemental EIS process wherein they will propose, and choose as the preferred alternative a conservation alternative, while honoring oil and gas leases in the area.
June 23, 2001 - The Wilderness Society, WOC, the Wyoming Chapter of the Sierra Club and Biodiversity Associates announce plans to win National Conservation Area designation for the Red Desert. Such designation would be made by Congress and would ideally provide for the protection of the Jack Morrow Hills Area in addition to other treasures throughout the greater Red Desert.
September, 2001 - The Bush Administration partially overturns Babbitt's conservation directive, indicating that a conservation alternative will not necessarily be chosen in the supplemental plan as a preferred action. However, the administration does agree that a supplemental draft plan should be crafted with a wide range of alternatives, including a conservation alternative and a preservation alternative.
February, 2003 - Supplemental Draft Plan for Jack Morrow Hills study area released. BLM calls for expanding oil and gas development in Red Desert. Agency fails to provide a range of alternatives in the plan as required by law.
May 23, 2003 - Public comment period closes on Jack Morrow Hills' supplemental plan. BLM receives nearly 70,000 comments, most in favor of greater protections. 80% of the citizens at public hearings testify in support of the Citizens’ Wildlife and Wildlands Alternative or increased conservation measures.
July 2004 – BLM final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Jack Morrow Hills emphasizes oil, gas and coalbed methane development and fails to adequately protect wildlife habitat, cultural sites and the open spaces that Wyoming citizens hold dear in one of the wildest corners of the Red Desert. Approximately 1,000 protests were sent into the BLM, demonstrating the public’s continued desire to protect portions of the Red Desert and keep large areas of land undeveloped.
July 2005 – We are awaiting the Final Record of Decision or ROD to be released; this is the FINAL plan that will dictate how the Jack Morrow Hills is managed. This plan was supposed to be released in the spring of 2005; however, it has been delayed until some time this fall. FRD hopes that the deluge of comments has caused the Bureau of Land Management to make changes to their plan that will reflect the public’s concerns, protect this essential area, and manage for multiple uses.
July 2006 - On July 20, 2006, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rock Springs field office released the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Jack Morrow Hills (JMH). The ROD calls for a minimum of 255 wells (205 natural gas and 55 coalbed methane wells) to be drilled. The public asked for no new oil and gas development; therefore, the BLM didn’t adequately respond to the public’s desire to protect the Jack Morrow Hills. Friends of the Red Desert wants long term protection for this area, which is a hub of all our special values and interests, and to accomplish our goal we are pushing for a National Conservation Area (NCA) designation.
You can help this campaign by writing to U.S. Senator Craig Thomas, who said a NCA is a possibility in the future but would like to see the BLM plan work before making a final decision. Let him know that a National Conservation Area designation is the solution to safeguarding Wyoming’s Legacy and the time to sponsor such a bill is now before the leases are sold and wells are drilled. Send letters via email or mail to 2632 Foothill Boulevard, Suite 101, Rock Springs, WY 82901.