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McKinstry Ridge
This is located on private land in Converse County
On June 26, 1850, portions of two emigrant companies, the Upper Mississippi Ox Company and the Wisconsin Blues, passed this way enroute to the gold fields of California. They are believed to be the first wagon trains to follow a route beyond Fort Laramie that remained north of the N. Platte River. This trail segment, ending at the ferries of the Platte at present-day Glenrock and Casper, is known as Child’s Cutoff, named for Andrew Childs of Waukeshaw, Wisconsin, whose emigrant guidebook was published in 1852.

School teacher Byron N. McKinstry of McHenry County, Illinois, was, like Andrew Childs, a member of the Upper Mississippi Ox Company. His diary entry for June 26 describes this stretch of trail:

“After following the river for 5 or 6 m. we crossed some very rough ground. Following a kind of divide first rising in a Northerly direction to the summit, then turning SW. and descending to the Platte—the crookedest road possible. These hills are bare and have a wild savage appearance, but little vegetation on them. Camped on the Platte. Poor grass. 20 m.”

McKinstry’s diary, published in 1975 and edited by his grandson, Bruce L. McKinstry, has become a classic trail account. This stretch of Childs Cutoff, described so vividly by Byron, is named McKinstry Ridge in his honor and also for grandson Bruce, who, by tracing his grandfather’s journey across the country, has made an invaluable contribution to trail scholarship.

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