If this were a Wyoming geography class, we would have to note what geologists like to term, "The Gangplank" (El Tablon, or "The Plank"). It literally put Wyoming on the map.

As the easiest route from the Great Plains into the mountains, it is seen from Interstate 25Interstate 80 and the Union Pacific Railroad cross the plains from Cheyenne to Laramie, on a rising plateau, to an escalating ramp that narrows into a "gangplank".

We still travel on a strip only 100 yards wide in some stretches. It's between the Laramie range and the Bighorn Mountains, and while "The Gangplank" made modern Wyoming, a case could even be made that without it, there would be no Wyoming.

There was no better latitude for coast to coast passing - for the Union Pacific, and the later Lincoln Highway. There certainly would have been no boom in the boomtown of Cheyenne. Maybe the plains city would never have been on the map.

It was the same historical route of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the Pony Express.

Just about the whole populace of Denver was furious at the news of how far south of the nation's tracks they would be. Well, Colorado just didn't have a "Gangplank."

Class dismissed.

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