6.18.26--National Oregon Trail Interpretive Center (PART TWO)

 We went to the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and it was well worth our time! I'm sure we've all heard about the Oregon Trail at one time or another. I've done a little research on this during my teaching years and have always been interested. The displays in the museum were life sized and there was so much information to ready and see that we just couldn't do it all. There was a woman demonstrating weaving while we were there. We stopped to watch and chat. We enjoyed this visit! Check out the photos even if you aren't into reading some of my research.

***Note that the quotes from emigrants are written as they were found so grammar and spelling may not be correct. 

The Oregon Trail was a 2,170-mile overland wagon route connecting the Missouri River to the fertile Willamette Valley in Oregon. From the 1840s to the 1880s, hundreds of thousands of pioneers utilized it to seek new land and a fresh start, driving western expansion.

The trip typically took 4 to 6 months. Emigrants averaged only 10 to 20 miles a day, mostly walking alongside or behind their wagons.

The trail stretched from Independence, Missouri, through present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho before descending into Oregon. The path heavily relied on rivers for water (Platte, Snake, and Columbia) and crossed the Continental Divide via the relatively easy South Pass in Wyoming.

The journey was incredibly grueling. Roughly 1 in 10 travelers died along the route. The majority of these casualties were not due to conflicts, but rather outbreaks of disease, particularly cholera and typhoid fever.

The trail was originally established by fur traders and trappers. "Oregon Fever" truly took off in 1843 when the first large wagon train of nearly 1,000 pioneers successfully completed the trek. Emigration increased further after 1850 due to the Oregon Donation Land Act, which granted land to settlers. While pioneers generally traded with Native American tribes along the way, the massive influx of settlers devastated Indigenous communities. Tribes were largely pushed off their ancestral lands to make way for American expansion. The completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, which made traveling west far faster and safer. 

Who goes and what goes:

The people who traveled to Oregon were mostly young, white, American born men. They outnumbered women six to one. Not many black people crossed overland to Oregon; those that were free often lacked the money for such a long journey. Few elderly people could survive the2000 mile journey either.

The trip cost a lot of money, sometimes $500 or more per person for essentials such as food, bedding, tents, tools, wagon, livestock, tack, and clothing. Anything else was luxury.

"We had to load and unload our wagons, row the skiff and then pay $4 per wagon and 50¢ a head for swimming cattle by the side of the boat."

~Basil Longsworth, August 8, 1853.

The photo above shows where the trail is in the same photo I took below.

July 4, 1776 was a turning point in world history. In the 19^th century it was the nation’s most important holiday. Tens of thousands of Americans went on a patriotic spree every Fourth of July. Even though emigrants were hundreds of miles out on the trail, they still celebrated vigorously. Independence Rock stood tall above them, a symbol of American resistance to tyranny and commitment to democracy. Music, firing off guns, speeches, and a round of drinks often marked observances of the “Glorious Fourth.”

“The day was ushered in with the booming of small arms, the best we could do under the circumstances….”  ~E.W. Conyers, July 4, 1852

Many emigrants couldn't swim a stroke, but even strong swimmers risked drowning in the treacherous currents of the Snake. The river's deep holes, surging water, and unexpected rises were perilous.

Somehow, everything and everybody had to get across, whether by fording, floating or ferrying.

"What villainy is this!" Henry Allyn, 1853

In the picture below there was a small model wagon and different wooden "supplies" to fill it. What would you take? What would you leave behind? I had to leave behind the stove. 

Enterprising Mormons. Indians, and fur company employees offered ferry service - for a price. "This is the way to wring hard-earned money from the starving poor," lamented Basil Longsworth. At anywhere from $3 to $10 per wagon and 50¢ a head for cattle, the emigrants got soaked.

After waiting their turn at the ford for hours or even days, the travelers would take the wheels off the wagons, caulk the wagon beds, lash them together, load up hired canoes with goods, pull themselves across with a rope stretched across the river, and pray. For a small fee (perhaps "a shirt and some caps"), Indians would swim with the livestock, coaxing them across.

Cattle frequently caused trouble: "Often after swimming half way over the poor things will turn and come out again." Sometimes they wouldn't budge, delaying the crossing for hours. "And sometimes the cattle... would start swimming down stream, towing the wagon beds with them.

This would have to be stopped or we would be in danger of going over the falls -" ladies, goods, and all.” ~Basil Longsworth

There was a round up of different styles of wagons. The front wheels were smaller on all of them because they have a better turning radius and the back wheels were larger because they can travel farther and better over rough terrain.

We went to walk o the actual wagon ruts that are over 180 years old.

We had a visitor on our walk! A coyote!

 

“As far as the eye can reach either way lay handsome rolling prairies. Not a stone, a tree, not a bush even nothing but grass and flowers meet the eye until you reach the valley…which is as level as the house floor.”  Lydia Rudd, May 11, 1852

Walking on the Oregon Trail. I can not imagine walking 15-20 miles in these conditions with a heavy long dress and small boots on every day...and then cooking and doing laundry. I would have given up at the next town...or before.

After reading pioneer journal entries and walking on parts of the Oregon Trail, we understand why our ancestors stopped in Wisconsin!

CLICK on my video below:

A few short videos of the area:

Hidden Scars of the Oregon Trail in Eastern Oregon

The Complete Oregon Trail: Present Day

An Oregon Trail Documentary

If you're interested in the diary entries, read on...if not, this is the end of today's blog. I had fun seeing and researching!

Don't forget...Do something every day that makes you smile! 

A few Diary entries I found interesting below:

From the Diary of Henry Allyn

July 25: John W. finds a human skull. Soon after we discover a grave... that had been dug open and a number of human bones scattered around it.

July 26: We collected all the bones we could find... and whatever fragments of grave clothes were scattered around and the pillow which was under the head of the corpse and put them into the grave and covered them up as well as we could. We had nothing but a small fire shovel to work with. There was a board at the head of the grave on which was carved, "In memory of Ann Kiser..." After this we start on over a rocky road.

 "There'll be apples on each branch in Oregon, There'll be valleys filled with golden grain;

There'll be cattle on each ranch in Oregon, For there'll be plenty of sun and rain.

"Down the Oregon Trail"

The Final Test

Emigrants camping in the Powder River Valley often met traders from Willamette who walked through offering food and good news. They told of the bountiful harvests, the fertile soil, and the gentle winters in Oregon. The promised land seemed so close, but several enemies still barred the way: weather, mountains, rivers, and lack of supplies.

Hailstorms and iced-over water buckets reminded the travelers that winters come early in the mountains. Axing their way through thick timber and hauling wagons up seemingly vertical inclines drained their small stores of energy, patience and supplies.

Beyond the Blues, travelers heading for Willamette had to decide between two unappealing routes: the Columbia River or the Barlow Road.

Whether they chose the river or the road, they risked losing everything. Fortunately, moments of joy and relief flickered brightly as they neared their goal; friendly Indians still provided fresh foods, and the land itself more than fulfilled their hopes.

 

 "We arrived at Grand Ronde. We had a feast from the Cayuse Indians. We had some nice elk meat and boiled it with dried huckleberries and plenty of flour. We had a royal meal as we thought."

John Burch McClane, 1843

 

 "Rainy day. Making rafts. Women cooking and washing. Children crying.

Elizabeth Dixon Smith, 1847.

The Dalles Decision

Arriving at The Dalles during the rainy fall season with jaded livestock and crippled wagons did litle to raise the emigrants' spirits. They were weary, hungry, footsore and sorely reduced financially. Ahead lay the final challenges of the way west: should they take the river or the road or just stay put?

Joel Palmer had this experience in 1845: "This day we intended to make arrangements for our passage down the river, but we found... that the two boats ...were engaged for at least ten days, and their charges were exorbitant, and would probably absorb what little we had left to pay our way to Oregon City. We then determined to make a trip over the mountains ..."

The Columbia River swirled ominously, hinting at the rapids in the Gorge. The Barlow Road meant forests, snow, cold nights, and mud on Mt. Hood.

Some emigrants decided to "winter over" at The Dalles, but had to live with the nagging thought of others getting the best lands west of the mountains.

All the options were costly - physically, emotionally, and financially.

 

 Trails End

For those who had risked all - life, limb, health, and wealth - the banks of the Willamette symbolized the completion of a dream. They had not truly arrived at the end of the trail; they still had lands to claim and homes to build. But the river and the fragrant smell of cottonwoods confirmed that the transit of the American West was complete. It was the greatest mass migration in North American history.

The pioneers crossed nearly 2,000 miles of wilderness to chart a new destiny on the Pacific Slope. The experience marked their lives forever. Their journey became a badge they wore until death. They knew they had made history.

 "Friday, October 27, Arrived at Oregon City at the falls of the Willamette.

Saturday, October 28: Went to work." ~James Nesmith, 1843

"Four miles brought us to the city of Oregon....

Its population is about fourteen hundred, nine stores, two churches, two saw-mills, two grist mills, two groceries, and two boarding houses."

William J. Watson, September 13, 1849

 

 We landed this morning at our destined place..." Henry Allyn, 1853.

 

From the Diary of CECELIA MCMILLEN ADAMS, 1852

Twin sisters Cecelia and Parthenia McMillen were born in New York in 1829. Cecelia married a doctor, William Adams in Illinois in 1849, and her sister Parthenia married Stephen Blank, a carpenter, in Illinois in 1850.

In 1852, when the sisters were 23 years old, they traveled with their husbands and father Joseph McMillen to Oregon, where their older brother James had already established himself.

excerpted from:

"Twin Sisters on the Oregon Trail"

in Best of Covered Wagon Women, ed. Kenneth Holmes (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008), 149-194.

 

July 2 Friday

Had a very hard wind last night The sick man is dead this morning We stop to see him burried They wraped him in bed clothes and layed him in the ground without any coffin We sung a hymn a had prayer O! it is so hard to leave friends in this wilderness

Some of the bluffs look like old castles.

Are in sight of chimney rock, can see it fifty miles off. Passed 8 graves. Follow on the Platte, very poor grass, quite warm, travel slowly. Made 16 miles.

 

In 1856 the twins' father Joseph returned to Illinois via Panama to retrieve his wife Ruth and three other children, crossing the Oregon Trail a second time with them.

Cecelia and her husband settled in Hillsboro, Oregon while Parthenia and Stephen settled in neighboring Forest Grove.

Neither sister bore any children, but Parthenia and her husband adopted and raised ten orphans. Cecelia passed away at her sister's home in 1867, at age 38. Parthenia lived on to age 86, passing away in 1915.

 

“I do not think I ever shall forget the sight of so many dead animals see along the trail. It is like something out of Dante’s Inferno, this barren waste of lava peopled with the skeletons of animals.” ~Esther McMillan Hanna, August 6, 1852

“Traveled fifteen miles today over the most treacherous road I ever could have imagined! Nothing but rock after rock…. nothing but sage…” ~Esther McMillan Hanna, 1852

The emigrants traded primarily with the Shoshone and Bannock tribes, “we could hear nothing in camp but the Indians in broken English say, “How swap! How swap! Salmon! Shirt!” noted Loren Hastings in 1847. The emigrants wanted fresh fish; the Indians wanted needles, thread, tools and clothing. “We bought enough salmon for a fish hook to make us wish never to see any more.” ~Harriet Talcott Buckingham, 1851.

Rough roads and wagons without springs made for a very bumpy ride, and wagons were filled with supplies which left little room for passengers. Travelers only rode in the wagons when they were too ill or tired to walk, and slept  most nights in tents or bedrolls outside the wagon.

“People from the Deep South had deep roots and took little interest in trading their established lives for the great Western unknown. By 1850, only 37 people in Oregon claimed a Gulf state as their home.”

“When John and Cordelia Sharp gave up their farm in Ohio, they couldn’t even afford steamboat fare. They built a flatboat and traveled 900 miles down the Ohio Rover with seven children. They made it to Independence, but had to work four years there before they had enough money to travel to Oregon.”

“Yesterday a number of our cattle and one wagon loaded with provisions and several women aboard escaped going over the falls just by the skin of their teeth.” ~E.W. Conyers, August 10, 1852.

"We arrived at Grand Ronde. We had a feast from the Cayuse Indians. We had some nice elk meat and boiled wit with huckleberries and plenty of flour. We had a royal meal as we thought."  ~John Burch McClane, 1843