Dreary CASPER , halfway up Wyoming on I-25, may not seem an obvious place to visit, but at a good 150 miles from anywhere of similar size it makes a likely pit stop. Originally at the spot where the Oregon Trail crossed the North Platte River - you can visit a reconstruction of the 1860s Fort Caspar which gave it its (misspelled) name - Casper has been the center of Wyoming's oil region since 1890. Its population (and appearance) fluctuates between periods of... [More]