• @bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        Absolutely. You’d be able to see Colorado from most of the country if the elevation was to the same scale as the horizonal distance.

        Run Google Earth (the app or in the browser) and you can see how relatively flat it all is.

        • @BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          28 days ago

          First, it’s not zero. Denver is 5000ft ASL and it’s in a valley (towns around it are higher). There’s a slow elevation change across the Midwest to the Rockies.

          Second, Passes are a thing.

          Still, wagons crossing the Rockies is an amazing thing.

    • @HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world
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      1428 days ago

      Many people died finding and verifying new passes. Or being scammed into being the ones to verify a new pass they thought was already verified

    • @Taco2112@lemmy.world
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      527 days ago

      Most went north to Oregon originally then south to California. The Sierras are also a bitch, see the Donner party for more info.

    • 10_0
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      126 days ago

      They didn’t aliens came down and moved them to the other side after experimenting on them.