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South Pass

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“South Pass is a route across the Continental Divide, in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Wyoming. It lies in a broad high region, 35 miles (56 km) wide, between the nearly 14,000 ft (4,300 m) Wind River Range to the north and the over 8,500 ft (2,600 m) Oregon Buttes and arid, saline near-impassable Great Divide Basin to the south.”

Wikipedia article South Pass (Wyoming), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 31 National Register listings published here for Fremont County · listed in 1966 · category: Site · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 site as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. About 10 mi. SW of South Pass City on WY 28, South Pass City
  • When was it listed? October 1966
  • Category. site
  • Census division. Lander
  • National Register reference number. 66000754 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

5 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of South Pass between 1996 and 2008, burning about 153 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Natural1
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
27 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresRock Springs Field OfficeSOUTH PASS
23 August 2002Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRock Springs Field OfficePACIFIC
25 July 1996Missing data/not specified/undetermined150 acresWyoming State Forestrynot named
11 July 2000Naturalunder an acreRock Springs Field OfficeASPEN 2
7 January 1999Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreRock Springs Field OfficePACIFIC

Every fire recorded in Fremont County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of South Pass: 4 prospects, 3 unknowns, 2 occurrences, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Uranium, Pumice, Manganese. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
UnknownManganeseProspect
UnknownCopperPast Producer
Unknown Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Pacific Butte AreaPumiceUnknown
Sand CreekUraniumUnknown
UnknownUraniumOccurrence
UnknownPumiceOccurrence
Dickie Springs-Oregon BasinGoldProspect
Dickie Springs-Oregon Gulch # 1GoldProspect
Dickie Springs-Oregon Gulch # 2GoldProspect

Every working recorded in Fremont County

Storms near this property

3 since 2012

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South Pass City, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 2012 and 2024: 3 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2023Thunderstorm WindSouth Pass City-Very strong wind occurred as thunderstorms moved across the Wind River Mountains. Where winds tend to channel near Red Canyon, a maximum 96 mph wind gust occurred. A 60 mph wind gust occurred to the west of South Pass City.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindSouth Pass City-An automated station on South Pass recorded a 61 mph wind gust as a result of outflow wind from a thunderstorm moving from Sweetwater County into Fremont County.
August 2024Thunderstorm WindSouth Pass City-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Fremont County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 66000754 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Fremont CountyAll 31 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.