1. James Mason Diary INDEPENDENCE ROCK WYOMING JUNE 25, 1850

2. June 25 – Passed Indipendence Rock & cross Sweet watter this Rock is Sittuated near the first of the river it covers an eara of 5 acres & is said to be 40 feet high it is covered with names of the trappers & emigrants who pass this way the first Party which noticed this Singular Rock, in this manner, was a party of American trappers who chanced to pass that way upon the 5 th of July when wishing to be americans even in that Secluded region of Aboriginal barbarism they proceeded to celebrate that great day which gave birth to human liberty this they did by a Succession of mountain revelings festivities & liberities which having been concluded they all inscribed their names together with the word Independence upon the most prominent & conspicuous portion of the Rock Diary of James MasonJune 25, 1850 Independence Rock, Wy

3. Independence Rock barren country Diary of James Mason Continued from previous page for the completion on June 25 From Glenrock, WY to Independence Rock, WY hence its name & notoriety which are as firmly established by that act as the rock of ages itself traveled 15 M & En near the Devils Gate this is a long chain of rocks some 450 feet high & the Sweet watter bursts through them the passage for the watter is Some 50 to 60 feet

4. Diary of James MasonIndependence Rock, WY

5. Independence Rock, Wy As the emigrants approached the mid-point of their transcontinental journey following the Oregon-California Trail, they necessarily abandoned a "companion" of many, many days. In central Wyoming, the North Platte River makes a big bend, then heads south towards its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies. At Red Buttes, outside present-day Casper, Wyoming, wagon trains cut across some rather barren terrain to pick up the next river which they would then follow all the way to the Continental Divide at South Pass-the Sweetwater River. Perhaps sixty miles into the valley, emigrants encountered the first of its two most famous landmarks, Independence Rock, so named in 1830 by William Sublette when a party he was leading celebrated the Fourth of July, Independence Day, on the site. 700 feet wide, 1900 feet long and a maximum 128 feet above the Sweetwater valley floor, oriented N.W. by S.E., the granite outcrop is one of the most noted landmarks on the overland trail being mentioned in almost every emigrant's diary.

6. Independence Rock, Wy

12. Carved May 9, 1850, just six weeks before James Mason visited this site on June 25, 1850

13. Independence Rock, Wy Carved July 4, 1850, just two weeks after James Mason visited this site on June 25, 1850

14. Independence Rock, Wy

18. June 25 – Passed Indipendence Rock & cross Sweet watter

19. Independence Rock, Wy Sweet Water River, Wy

20. End of Independence Rock, Wy