NHT is a designation for areas in the United States that contain historic trails in the immediately surrounding areas. In 1968, the National Trails System Act (Public Law 90-543) provided for the development of a national system of trails in urban, rural, and wilderness settings. Originally, the Act specified three categories of National Trails  scenic trails, recreation trails, and connecting or side trails. In 1978, historic trails were added as another category. Today, only Congress can designate NHTs.

The BLM has developed guidelines specifically for NHTs that allow more precise management planning than is possible for other broad categories of historic or prehistoric cultural resources. The Oregon/Mormon NHTs Management Plan (Trails Management Plan) (BLM 1986b) provides specific guidelines for the evaluation and protection of historic wagon trails that apply to all historic trails of either national, regional, or local significance (whether or not the trail is a wagon trail). The BLM manages and protects trails in the Planning Area using these guidelines. The guidelines specifically focus on (1) historical significance and use, (2) the integrity of the setting of the trail segment, and (3) the physical integrity of the trail, including ruts and swales.

As a result of these guidelines, the BLM developed the concept of a protective corridor “at the discretion of individual districts,” and defined this buffer as “a width of ¼ mile either side of the trail or the visual horizon, whichever is less...” (BLM 1986b). At that time, the BLM considered the 0.25-mile buffer sufficient to identify and protect physical remnants and associated sites. The overall trail setting or viewshed was of secondary importance to preserving the physical evidence. Although developed for the primary routes and important ancillaries to the Oregon/Mormon Pioneer NHTs, in the current RMPs for the Planning Area, the BLM also applied the corridor concept to other historic trails. Subsequent project-specific consultation has indicated that development activity beyond the 0.25-mile buffer can adversely affect the qualities that contribute to a trail’s eligibility. In recent years, the BLM has employed viewshed analysis techniques from VRM guidance to determine the extent of the effects of development activities on nearby trails and other important historic properties.

Trails and Routes in the Planning Area

There is one NHT in the Planning Area  the Nez Perce (Nee-me-poo or Nimi’ipuu) Historic Trail (Map 73) (USFS 2009). Congressionally designated in 1986, this trail was the general path taken by some members of the Nez Perce Tribe when they fled their homeland in Oregon in 1877 due to an ultimatum to relocate onto designated reservations. These bands of the Nez Perce Tribe, known as “nontreaty”, recognized that because of acts of vengeance by several young warriors they would not be able to relocate peacefully. They attempted to reach Canada, following the example set by Sitting Bull in 1876. The route they followed is circuitous through the mountains of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The portion of the Nez Perce Trail that passes through the Planning Area is one of the few segments where the “nontreaty” bands were successful in concealing their route of travel from the Army and its scouts. The Nez Perce separated into small groups and used a variety of routes, most of which remain unknown today. Warriors created false trails in hopes of gaining time for the main body of the tribe to travel north toward Canada. As a result of this history, there are no “High Potential Route Segments” or “high potential trail historic sites” identified in the Nez Perce (Nee-me-poo or Nimi’ipuu) National Historic Trail Comprehensive Plan within the Planning Area (USFS 2009). As a Congressionally designated historic trail, land management considerations include applying constraints such as no surface disturbance within 0.25 mile of the trail, or the visual horizon, whichever is closer. This results in a 0.5-mile-wide buffer zone centered on the trail. Specific segments also have a no surface occupancy (NSO) stipulation.

A number of other trails and historic routes traverse the Planning Area. Trails dating to before contact between Native Americans and European Americans include the Bad Pass, or Sioux Trail. This foot trail is marked by a line of stone cairns of unknown age and might date from many thousands of years ago. Although the date of its earliest use is not known, records do establish that the trail was much traveled by peoples from pre-Columbian times up to the middle 1830s. Mountain men used the trail through Bighorn Canyon to bring furs from the Bighorn Basin east to the Missouri River. Portions of the Sioux Trail underlie a scenic byway in the eastern Bighorn Basin. Another such prehistoric trail network, the Bannock Trail, is thought to exist on the East Slope of the Absaroka Mountains, but its exact route is not known.

Routes from the historic period include the Bridger Trail, which Jim Bridger created in 1864 to connect with the Oregon Trail to the south (Map 73). The route was an important alternative to the Bozeman Trail, which crossed the Powder River Country. Before the railroad was constructed, the Bridger Trail was an important freight route for wagons carrying supplies during the early settlement of the Bighorn Basin in the 1880s and 1890s. The trail connected the Bighorn Basin with Billings, Montana, to the north and Casper, Wyoming, to the southeast. Portions of the Bridger Trail along Kirby Creek were used on the later stage route connecting Thermopolis and Lost Cabin with Casper (Woods 1997). The BLM has installed interpretive signage along the Bridger Trail.

In 1881, Meeteetse became a terminus of the old Meeteetse Trail, which the military built as a stage and freight road. The Fort Washakie to Meeteetse to Red Lodge trail originally ran north from Fort Washakie to Meeteetse. Freight was shipped north from the Union Pacific Railroad to Fort Washakie and then on to Meeteetse; when the railroad reached Red Lodge the traffic pattern reversed, from north to south. The trail was the first road built in the Bighorn Basin. Red Lodge Road was later extended to Lander and Rawlins.

Although eclipsed in importance by railroads and other routes, the Bridger Trail was the predecessor to the increased system of roads connecting ranches and towns with expanding railheads in the Bighorn Basin. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad completed its line from Toluca, Montana, to Cody, Wyoming, in 1901, and continued it south along the Bighorn River to Kirby by 1905. The rail line was completed through the Wind River Canyon to Casper in October 1914. The Chicago & North Western Railroad built into Casper by 1888 and expanded west to Shoshone, Riverton, and Lander by 1906 (Larson 1978).

Early automobile routes still in use today include the Yellowstone Highway (U.S. Highway 20) (part of the Park to Park Highway) and the Black and Yellow Trail (Highway 16), both examples of some of the earliest modern-era highways traversing the diverse geographical regions of Wyoming.

Management Challenges

Historic trails are among the most difficult resources to manage because of “their varying degrees of preservation and diverse range of environmental settings” (BLM 1986b). Trails in the region in general are under increased pressure as a result of the cumulative effects of energy development and large‐scale projects. The area with the highest potential for wind farm development in the Bighorn Basin is close to the Nez Perce Trail. Current BLM management practices for NHTs include the following: