which mountain man rediscovered south pass and brought back important information about this trail
Jedediah Smith Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831), was a clerk, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the North American West, and the Southwest during the early 19th century. After 75 years of obscurity following his death, Smith was rediscovered as the American whose explorations led to the use of the 20-mile (32 km)-wide South Pass as the dominant point of crossing the Continental Divide for pioneers on the Oregon Trail.
Great Western Cattle Trail The Great Western Cattle Trail was first traveled by Captain John T. Lytle in 1874 when he was transporting 3,500 longhorn cattle up from Southern Texas into Nebraska. In five short years, it became one of the most traveled and famous Cattle Trails in U.S. history. Despite its popularity, traffic along the trail began to decline in 1885 due to the spreading use of barbed wire fences and the legislation calling for a quarantine of Texas cattle due to the "Texas Fever" - a disease spread by a parasitic tick. The last major Cattle drive up the trail was on its way to Deadwood, South Dakota in 1893. By that time there had been an estimated six to seven million cattle and one million horses that had traversed the trail. Later, in order to commemorate the significance of the Cattle Drive era, two markers were erected in the 1930s at Doan's. Doan's was seen as the last "stepping-off point" before entering Indian Territory that sold supplies, ammo, tobacco, provisions, Stetson hats & guns, and anything else that would be required on the long trek. C.E. Doan had kept a meticulous record of the companies and Trail Bosses along with the number of cattle that crossed his path each year, allowing for numbers and history to be preserved, so a marker was fitting. In 2003 a new project was launched in order to place cement markers every six to ten miles along the trail, from the Rio Grande to Ogallala, Nebraska. Oklahoma set the first post south of the city at Altus.