1850 Child’s Cutoff
Contributed by Steve F. Russell
Wyoming History starts an article about Emigrant Hill on the Child’s Cutoff with:
The Child’s Cutoff of the Oregon Trail was opened in 1850. This new route allowed emigrants who had been following the Council Bluffs Road along the north bank of the Platte River to remain on the north side and so avoid having to cross the North Platte at Fort Laramie and then again in the area near what’s now Casper, Wyoming.1“Emigrant Hill and the Grave of Elva Ingram”, Wyoming History, https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/emigrant-hill-and-grave-elva-ingram accessed 7 Feb 2026.
Static Map
Source: McAllister, John. Diary of Rev. John McAllister, A Pioneer of 1852 In Transactions of the Fiftieth Annual Reunion of the Oregon Pioneer Association. Portland, Ore.: Chausse-Prudhomme Co. Printers, 1922, also available at https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p16003coll15/id/43394/.
Notes
- 1“Emigrant Hill and the Grave of Elva Ingram”, Wyoming History, https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/emigrant-hill-and-grave-elva-ingram accessed 7 Feb 2026.