WYOMING — While the Fourth of July dates back to the 13 colonies on the East Coast in 1776, Wyoming is the site of one of the most iconic celebration monuments, Independence Rock.
Independence Rock, located in southwestern Natrona County, is also known as the Register of the Desert, a place with more than 5,000 pioneer names carved into it dating back to around 1824, Wyoming State Parks says.
The National Park Service (NPS) calls Independence Rock a landmark of the wagon trails west of Fort Laramie, deriving its name from a party of fur trappers who camped and celebrated Independence Day near the rock on July 4, 1830. William Sublette, who allegedly was responsible for naming Jackson’s Hole after starting a fur trading company with Davey Jackson and Jedediah Smith in the 1820s, was part of that Independence Day celebration at the rock.
Independence Rock was later marked by pioneers on the Oregon Trail.
“Reached Independence Rock…at a distance looks like a huge whale,” wrote J. Goldsborough Bruff on July 26, 1849, according to the NPS. “It is being painted and marked every way, all over, with names, dates, initials…so that it was with difficulty I could find a place to inscribe it.”
The Wyoming Historical Society says in addition to the carved names, names were painted or smeared on the landmark in buffalo grease and gunpowder.
