Last updated: January 15, 2023
Place
Lander Road Cutoff- Lane's Grave
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Lane's Grave, Caribou County, Idaho (17 miles west of Freedom, Wyoming)
Significance:
It is rare to find a marked grave along the emigrant trails, including the California Trail, especially one with a carved marble headstone and a prepared marble footstone. However, rarest of all is those items being placed during an all day funeral held in the midst of a trail journey. John Lane is possibly the only documented account of this.
Amenities
2 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto
In the mid-1800s, over 250,000 people followed the California Trail to California's gold mines and croplands. Most had to walk the entire 2,000-mile trip. Would you do this? More than once? Travelers in the 1800s said “yes” to both! The California Trail was their version of today's interstate highway -- a route that could be traveled repeatedly and in both directions.
Similar to interstate highways, new parts of the California Trail were created to help travelers. The first US government sponsored section was the Lander Road in 1858. John Lane used this road for the first time in 1859, during his fifth(!) trip on the Oregon and the California Trails. He was the captain of a wagon train that departed Iowa for Oregon. Sadly, he did not complete the trip. On July 18, on a nearby ridge off of the Lander Road, Lane died from a cholera-like illness.
With limited supplies, and limited time before winter's arrival, most trailside burials were quick- simply prayers said over a hastily dug grave. However, the beloved Lane received a unique honor -- a funeral! There was a customary viewing of the body, hymns, prayers, and a funeral procession. Finally, a headstone made by a wagon train member was placed at the grave. After the day-long event was over, the wagon train returned to the Trail and its journey to Oregon.
Site Information
Location (Lane's Grave, Caribou County, Idaho, 17 miles west of Freedom, Wyoming)
Today, little has changed at the grave of John Lane since he was buried. The headstone and footstone still remain, it is only accessible by a dirt and gravel road, there are no public services, and very few structures or homes are visible from the grave. The site is a rare opportunity to experience, as close a possible, what traveling the California Trail in the 1850s was like.
NOTE: if you go, it is important to know that, currently, there are no directional signs to the site, nor are there any signs marking/ identifying the parking area for the site.
The grave itself is on private land. Visitors are welcome to view it; however, it does require calling the land owner when you arrive as there is a locked gate across the road to Lane's Grave.