Dubois, WY was a treasure trove. First, there was a giant fishing reel with a fish.

Then a building with a giant cattle skull entrance.

But the best thing of all was the giant jackalope that you could sit on for $1!!!

"D" on the mountain.

Some of the mountains had such pretty colors!

Ice Slough is a small stream that flows into the Sweetwater River five miles east of here. In front of this point is a slough (i.e. a marsh or shallow un-drained depression). The Slough gave the name to the stream east of here. In the "Ice Slough" the marshes soils and plants insulated the previous winters ice and it melted slowly throughout the summer. Under the marshes a thick mat of ice could be found late into June or early July. Westward bound immigrants would stop their wagons here for the purpose of breaking out chunks of ice to use in their drinks and to preserve meat.

William Clayton's 1848 "Latter-Day Saints' Emigrants' Guide" called this the "ice spring" and wrote "This is in a low, swampy spot of land on the right side of the road". Ice may generally be found by  digging down about two feet." In 1854 Alonzo Delano traveled up the valley of the Sweetwater. While not giving the exact  location of where he stopped, he wrote on June 26th "...about four o'clock in the afternoon, on the borders of a morass, perhaps a mile in length by a half a mile in breadth. Some of the boys, thinking that water could be easily obtained, took a spade, and going out on the wild grass, commenced digging. About a foot from the surface, instead of water, they struck a beautiful layer of ice, five or six inches in thickness." By late summer the ice had disappeared. Today, due to a number of factors, the slough has nearly dried up and thus little ice forms here in the winter.

A famous natural landmark, used by Indians, trappers and emigrants on the Oregon Trail. Site of Split Rock Pony Express 1860-1861, stage and telegraph station is on the South side of Sweetwater.
Split Rock can be seen as a cleft on the top of the Rattlesnake Ridge.

Split Rock.

That night we made it to Limon, CO. We went to several hotels and there were no vacancies. At least 3 other cars were going from hotel to hotel, just like we were. We got lucky and found a room! Not the prettiest bedspreads though.

We crossed in to 9 states, including our own and went 3,543 miles.