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Home arrow Working with Section 106 arrow ACHP Case Digest arrow Spring 2004 arrow Wyoming: Development of the Lander Trail, Pinedale
Wyoming: Development of the Lander Trail, Pinedale

Agency: Bureau of Land Management

During the era of Westward Expansion, American pioneers used the Lander Trail as a cutoff from the Oregon Trail to the California gold fields. As the first Government-built wagon road in the West, the trail is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and still bears wagon wheel ruts and tree carvings left by the early pioneers.

The Bureau of Land Management is considering issuing a permit to two oil and gas companies to drill wells along the Lander Trail near Pinedale, Wyoming. The proposed wells would intrude upon the visual and aural integrity of the historic trail.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering issuing a permit to two oil and gas companies to drill 36 wells near Pinedale, Wyoming. The project would be within the setting of the Lander Trail, which is a variant of the Oregon and California National Historic Trails and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Lander Trail with Oregon Trail Marker, Pinedale, Wyoming

 

 

Lander Trail with Oregon trail marker, Pinedale, Wyoming (photo courtesy of Kierson Crume, Bureau of Land Management)

 

 

The construction and existence of the proposed wells would intrude on the visual and aural integrity of the historic trail.

In June 2003, the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) requested that the ACHP become involved in the case. Under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, the ACHP notified BLM and the Secretary of the Interior the following month that it would participate in consultation on the project.

Other stakeholders in the project include the SHPO, National Park Service Long Distance Trails Office, Oregon-California Trails Association, Ultra Resources, Inc., and Shell Rocky Mountain LLC.

BLM drafted a Programmatic Agreement that addresses the effects of the proposed development on the Lander Trail. The ACHP reviewed the draft agreement and submitted comments to BLM on the draft. The ACHP is currently waiting for a revised draft agreement.

The ACHP recommends that interpretive signs be provided for the trail; that a reclamation plan be developed that ensures that the landscape is returned to its current appearance when the facility is removed in the future; and that the terrain should be used to obscure the wells from the trail.


Staff contact: Alan Stanfill

Updated June 1, 2004

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