The AHC will host a talk and book signing by AHC Associate Archivist John Waggener on Friday, March 9, 2018, from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Stock Growers room (room 219) at the American Heritage Center.
A 77-mile stretch of Interstate 80 between Laramie and Walcott Junction has been dubbed the “Snow Chi Minh Trail.”
Long-haul truck drivers named it after a notorious mountainous roadway used by North Vietnamese soldiers to reach South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Residents warned highway officials of the adverse weather conditions around Elk Mountain and advised them not to build a road there.
In fact, the Union Pacific Railroad almost built in that area 100 years earlier and decided not to, even though it was more direct.
Despite the warnings, on October 3, 1970 the newly constructed stretch of Interstate 80 was dedicated.
It wasn’t but four days later that a winter storm wreaked havoc on travelers of the new road.
Some Wyomingites have since referred to the road as a “monument to human error.”
Come hear the fascinating history of this notorious stretch of interstate highway.
