TORRINGTON – The Goshen County Historical Society gathered for their final meeting of the season on Tuesday at Eastern Wyoming College. The meeting featured a presentation on the Snow Chi Minh Trail – the 77-mile stretch of Interstate 80 between Laramie and Walcott Junction.
Mary Houser, president of the Goshen County Historical Society, welcomed the group of attendees. Houser encouraged people to attend the Wyoming State Historical Society on their annual trek, which will be in Sundance this year. She also announced the group will have a booth at the county fair this summer and encouraged members to sign up for a time to work the booth.
The meetings, according to Treasurer Ross Burmaster, usually feature a speaker selected by one of the board members. Speakers typically present on a historic event in Wyoming.
Burmaster said Board Member Dan McClain invited John Waggener to speak.
Waggener has written a book titled Snow Chi Minh Trail: The History of Interstate 80 between Laramie and Walcott Junction. Waggener said he became interested in the topic when he was doing research in graduate school. He had been curious to have some of his own questions answered.
“Everyone in Wyoming knows about this road,” he said.
U.S. 30 turns north when it reaches Laramie to avoid the mountains. It goes through Rock River and Medicine Bow and back over to Rawlins.
Waggener said in 1956, the federal government surveyed and found a way to make the route from Laramie to Rawlins 19 miles shorter. That same year, the government conducted origin and destination studies by pulling people over and asking them a series of questions. Waggener said 90% of respondents said they would prefer a shorter route.
“They didn’t ask anything about bad roads,” Waggener laughed. “That might have changed their answer.”
Adding that stretch of I-80 was proposed in 1956, but debated until 1959, for a number of reasons, including the bypassing of communities. Waggener said the debate eventually landed on the floor of the United States Senate.
“Basically, Wyoming loses to the federal government,” he said. The route was approved in 1959. However, construction did not start until 1966. Waggener said the state promised towns (that would be bypassed) they would delay the project to allow time for them to try to adjust their economies.
The road took four years until it opened. Even when it did open, it took two more years to finish.
On October 3, 1970, Governor Stan Hathaway held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Arlington exit.
Nationally, this was a big deal, according to Waggener, because it was the longest piece of interstate in the nation to open at one time.
“Everybody who was somebody was there,” Waggener said.
Four days later, that stretch of I-80 closed.
“Wyoming was not prepared for anything like this,” Waggener said.
Having no snow fences, no road closure gates, low visibility and considerable drifting made it impossible for plows to keep up with the snowy and windy conditions.
In 1972, Charles Kuralt featured I-80 in his “On the Road” CBS segment. He dubbed it the worst stretch of highway in America.
Waggener believes the name “Snow Chi Minh Trail” originated with truckers, who compared it to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a treacherous roadway used by soldiers in the Vietnam War. Waggener said the name quickly caught on and was used in newspaper articles by the end of the first year of the road being open.
Two Wyoming icons were created because of this stretch of road – the Wyoming Fence and the Wyoming Gate.
After testing out dozens snow fence designs, Waggener said the Wyoming Department of Transportation set up fences in 24 major problem areas. Currently, according to Waggener, I-80 (in Wyoming alone) has over 1,500 snow fences, stretching 724,310 linear feet. For the sake of comparison, I-25 and I-85 have a little more than 200 fences each.
When conditions were dangerous enough to close the road, people would stand on the roadway, waving flags and telling people to turn around.
In 1973, a swinging gate was installed. This style of gate, however, caused drifting on the road.
Waggener said the Wyoming Gate – the recognizable red and white striped railroad style gate – was first used in 1991.
I-80 also became the first road in the state to use variable information signs (introduced in 1976) and variable speed limit signs (introduced in 2008).
Waggener said even today, work is being done to add efficiency to the road. This summer, two rest stops will be added because of the high volume of truck traffic. At certain times, trucks account for 70% of traffic, according to Waggener.
“This is the weak link,” he said. When this stretch of I-80 shuts down, the ripple effect can go as far as California.
Waggener concluded his presentation by answering several audience questions and showing Charles Kuralt’s segment on the road.
