The story
South Pass City sprang up in 1867 when prospectors struck gold along Willow Creek at the Carissa lode, near the historic South Pass crossing of the Continental Divide. Within a year or two it and its neighbors held something like 2,000 people, with a main street of stores, saloons, hotels, and mills.
Its lasting fame is political. In 1869 a South Pass City saloon owner and legislator named William Bright introduced the bill that made Wyoming the first government in the world to grant women the vote, and the town later produced Esther Hobart Morris, often called the first woman to hold judicial office in the country. The gold, meanwhile, proved shallow and expensive; by 1872 the boom was essentially over.
Wyoming bought the townsite in 1966 as a birthday gift to the state, and it is now the South Pass City State Historic Site, with about 30 preserved and reconstructed buildings and the Carissa Mine above town. It is the state's premier ghost town and among the best-interpreted in the Rockies.
What remains today
About 30 preserved and reconstructed buildings — the hotel, saloon, stores, cabins, and the restored Carissa Mine and mill above town. A Wyoming State Historic Site.
Questions from the field
- Why is South Pass City important to women's suffrage?
- In 1869 South Pass City legislator William Bright introduced the bill that made Wyoming Territory the first place in the world to grant women the vote, and the town later produced Esther Hobart Morris, an early woman justice of the peace.
- Can you tour South Pass City?
- Yes — it is a Wyoming State Historic Site with about 30 buildings and the Carissa Mine, open seasonally with an admission fee off WY-28 near Lander.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at South Pass City — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of South Pass City's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Primary sources for this record
- — USGS GNIS feature 1603193
- — Wyoming State Parks — South Pass City State Historic Site
- — WyoHistory.org (Wyoming State Historical Society) — South Pass gold rush