“I would not take $10,000 for what I have learned…. It is the journey to learn human nature.”

-49er Lucius Fairchild, Autumn 1849

You leap into the frigid water and help push the wagon back to shore, where you empty all its contents to the riverbed.

The wagon takes its passengers across, then doubles back for the gear. You reload the provisions, soaked to the bone, shivering.

Once across the river, the driver addresses the soaked, exhausted passengers.

SOUTH PASS TODAY, IN SOUTHWESTERN WYOMING

“Gentlemen and ladies, may I have your attention?” he hollers.

“What now?” asks John in a whisper. “After all this, what could it possibly be?”

The driver explains: “We have reached the Continental Divide.    Any rain that should fall, or rivers we might cross, all flow into the mighty Pacific.”

The news hits you like a blast of fresh sea air. California, here you come!

“As we approach the South Pass and cross into unorganized territory,” he continues, “remember that what lies before us, here to the sea, has only been seen by a fortunate few.”

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