Union Pass

Union Pass
Union Pass on the plateau between the Wind River Range and the Gros Ventre Mountains
Compass direction	north	south
Pass height	2808  m
State	Wyoming
Watershed	Wind river	Green River
Valley locations	Dubois	Pinedale
expansion	Forest road
Mountains	Wind River Range
map
Coordinates	43 ° 28 '53 "  N , 109 ° 52' 35"  W Coordinates: 43 ° 28 '53 "  N , 109 ° 52' 35"  W

The Union Pass is a mountain pass with an altitude of 2808 meters in the Rocky Mountains . It is located in Fremont County of the US state Wyoming , near the border with Sublette County . The pass crosses the North American continental divide in a wide plateau . Three mountain ranges radiate from the plain in three directions: the Wind River Range with the closest summit Union Peak (3501 m) to the southeast, the Gros Ventre Mountains to the west and the Absaroka Range to the north.

The pass was a traditional route used by the native Indians of the Eastern Shoshone people to cross from the Wind River valley in the north to the Green River in the south. From here there was also a connection further west to the Snake River via the valley of Fish Creek . It thus represents a junction that linked the catchment areas of the major river systems of the Mississippi River via the Wind River, the Colorado River via the Green River and the Columbia River via the Fish Creek.

Fur traders of the Pacific Fur Company were the first whites to use the pass when they moved overland to Astoria in 1811 to establish the first American fur trading base on the Pacific Ocean . When the project failed and six of them returned in 1812/13, they chose a more southerly route out of fear of Indians and bypassed the Wind River Range . Their exact route is not known, but based on their description it is likely that they found the South Pass .

Stone pillar on the Union Pass in memory of the Astorians who crossed the pass in 1811

The Union Pass never had any significant transport significance. It was named after William F. Raynolds in 1860 when Raynolds and Jim Bridger roamed the mountains with Jim Bridger as part of the first formal exploration of the region under the direction of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden to find a way to the legendary Yellowstone area. The pass achieved a certain notoriety when General Philip Sheridan and in 1883 the President of the United States, Chester A. Arthur , crossed the mountains on it on a trip to the west and Yellowstone National Park in the 1870s .

Today the pass forms the border between the Shoshone National Forest and the Bridger-Teton National Forest and is crossed by an unpaved forest road that connects the Dubois area in the north with Pinedale in the south. The Continental Divide Trail , an approximately 5000 km long long- distance hiking trail , runs alongside it on the continental watershed . The pass has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1969 .

Web links

Commons : Union Pass, Wyoming  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Union Pass in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Union Pass in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
2. ↑ Union Peak in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
3. ↑ ^{a b} National Register of Historic Places: Union Pass (PDF; 379 kB)
4. ^ John Daugherty: A Place Called Jackson Hole - A Historic Resource Study of Grand Teton National Park . National Park Service, 1999 (also online ), Chapter 4, page 2