The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Oregon Trail (1843) - Sep. 7th, 2005

Wild West Magazine | April 2000 | Bob Brooke

[SAMWolf]

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.

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Oregon Trail:
Wagon Tracks West

For the Applegates and their fellow travelers, the Oregon Trail promised a golden ticket to the land of milk and honey. The reality, however, proved to be far grimmer.

In the spring of 1843, the first ripple of a coming tide of would-be settlers piled everything they owned into canvas-covered wagons, handcarts and any other vehicle that could move, and set out along a dim trace called "the Emigrant Road." They went by way of a route that was a broad ribbon of threads, sometimes intertwining, sometimes splitting off into frayed digressions. It ran beside waterways, stretched across tall-grass and short-grass prairies, wound through mountain passes, and then spanned the Pacific Slope to the promised lands of Oregon and California. One in 17 never made it. This road to the Far West soon became known by another name--the Oregon Trail.

Even today, ruts from the wagon wheels remain etched indelibly in the fragile topsoil of the Western landscape. The Oregon Trail opened at a time when the westward settlement and development of the trans-Mississippi West had stalled at the Missouri River; Mexico still claimed all of California, and Alaska remained Russian territory. Everything from California to Alaska and between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean was a British-held territory called Oregon. The trail pointed the way for the United States to expand westward to achieve what politicians of the day called its "Manifest Destiny" to reach "from sea to shining sea."

In 1843, the trickle of emigrants into Independence, Mo., began to swell. They came from all directions, by steamboat and over primitive roads that a day or two of heavy rain turned into quagmires. For the most part they were farmers--family men, with wives and children--who had a common goal of seeking a promised land of milk and honey in far-off Oregon, about which they knew as little as they did about how to get there. They did know that the back country of Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas had not proved to be a shining paradise. The doldrums that followed the depression of 1837 shriveled the value of land and the price of crops, and malaria ravaged the bottomlands that once had promised so much.



It was said that snow did not exist in California's golden valleys, that the black soil of Oregon was bottomless, that vast rivers afforded easy transportation, and that no forests barred the way to migrating wagons. Ignorance allowed travelers to advance where fuller knowledge might have rooted them with apprehension. But they were farm folk and had pioneered before. They were adept with wagons, livestock, rifles and axes. The women were used to walking beside the men as wilderness equals. Above all, they were restless--once a farm had been tamed, the narrow horizons of the backwoods communities closed around them. Vast and unclaimed riches far to the west, across the Great Plains, beckoned. It was as if the land itself were pulling the people westward. "As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea," wrote novelist Willa Cather in My Antonia. "And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."

Many of these restless souls had heard of the success of Joe Meek and his friend Bob Newell, who had made it to Oregon in 1840. These two mountain men rigged up some wobbly wagons and trained "squaw ponies" to pull them. Meek and Newell managed to get the first wheeled vehicles over the Blue Mountains. The wagon trip ended at Fort Walla Walla, after which they took boats down the Columbia River to the Willamette River valley. The next year, John Bidwell and John Bartleson traveled what would later be christened the Oregon Trail on the first planned overland emigration west to California. At Soda Springs (in what is now southwest Idaho) one contingent split off for Oregon. In his Journal, Bidwell described the famous landmarks that would impress almost all Oregon Trail travelers--Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff, Fort Laramie and Independence Rock. In 1842, Dr. Elijah White, the newly appointed Indian agent in Oregon, successfully led 125 men, women and children there. But the real thrust westward came the following year, when the Oregon Trail took on a new significance thanks to the so-called Great Emigration.



By May 13, 1843, more than 900 emigrants bound for Oregon were encamped on the prairie at Fitzhugh's Mill, several miles from Independence, preparing for embarkment, dividing into companies, electing wagon masters and engaging veteran and self-proclaimed frontiersmen who professed to know the country to guide them. Peter Burnett was chosen captain, and a so-called cow column for slower wagons and herds of livestock was formed with Jesse Applegate as its leader. Applegate would later provide descriptions of life on the Oregon Trail in his memoir, A Day with the Cow Column in 1843. Mountain man John Gant was to be chief guide as far as Fort Hall. They would follow the trail left by Meek and Newell.

Marcus Whitman, a Protestant missionary and physician who had established a mission in Oregon in 1836, would join the Applegate train on his return west after an eastern visit. Doctors came to be a welcome rarity along the trail. Applegate called Whitman "that good angel" of the emigrants. "It is no disparagement to others to say that to no other individual are the emigrants of 1843 so indebted for their successful conclusion of their journey as to Dr. Marcus Whitman," he added.



Among the travelers was Jesse Applegate's young nephew and namesake. The 7-year-old boy's full name was Jesse Applegate Applegate to distinquish between them; he was called Jesse A. or just Jess. Along with his uncle, Jess traveled with his parents, four brothers, one sister and numerous other relatives. Years later, when he was in his 70s, he wrote Recollections of My Boyhood, in which he largely succeeds in portraying events and personalities from the 1843 western crossing through the eyes of a young boy. As the Applegate party journeyed across the prairies and over the Rockies, the trek had mostly seemed like grand fun to the boy. At first his recollections bubble with the thrill of adventure. The "gay and savage looking" Plains Indians had awed but not scared him. He had traded nails and bits of metal with Indian children and thrown buffalo chips at other white children. Later, though, the recollections become more somber. Jesse A. Applegate had also experiened the suffering that almost no early traveler on the Oregon Trail could avoid.

Food supplies would inevitably become low and water scarce. A bone-wrenching weariness would set in as the miseries mounted. Propaganda about Oregon and early accounts of travel west flourished in newspapers, pamphlets and emigrants' guidebooks, creating an Oregon fever. Oregon's image was that of a place of renewal, where everything was bigger and better and people could better themselves. The U.S. government made the new land seem even more appealing by offering Oregon settlers a square mile of land for almost nothing. But as the emigrants pushed overland, many lost sight of the vision that had set them going. That wasn't so surprising because, as Hiram Crittenden remembered, "the Trail was strewn with abandoned property, the skeletons of horses and oxen, and with freshly made mounds and headboards that told a pitiful tale."



The weight of hardship piled on hardship was enough, on occasion, to make men and women break down and cry, and perhaps even turn back. Yet most travelers summoned up reserves of courage and kept going. They endured every hardship from a mule kick in the shins to cholera. The ones who got through usually did so because of sheer determination.

The Applegate train began to assemble in late April, the best time to get rolling. The date of departure had to be selected with care. If they began the more than 2,000-mile journey too early in the spring, there would not be enough grass on the prairie to keep the livestock strong enough to travel. Animals would begin to sicken, slowing up the train. Such slowdowns would often throw off the schedule and sometimes cause major problems down the road. If they waited too long they might later be trapped in the mountains by early winter storms.



Over the years, other wagon trains used Westport, Leavenworth and St. Joseph as jumping-off points. The Applegate train used Independence, pre-eminent since 1827 as an outfitting center. Since the majority of emigrants were farmers with families, they often chose Murphy farm wagons as their chief means of transport. Conestoga wagons, which weighed 11Ž2 tons empty, were too heavy for travel where there were no roads. The heavier the wagon, the more likely it would bog down in mud or cause the team to break down. Oregon-bound travelers were advised to keep their wagons weighing less than 11 1/2 tons fully loaded. A new wagon and spare parts, which were almost always needed, would cost a family close to $100.

The wagons had 10-by-31 1/2-foot bodies, and their covers were made of canvas or a waterproofed sheeting called osnaburg. Frames of hickory bows supported the cloth tops, which protected pioneers from rain and sun. The rear wheels were 5 or 6 feet in diameter, but the front wheels were 4 feet or less so that they would not jam against the wagon body on sharp turns. Metal parts were kept to a minimum because of the weight, but the tires were made of iron to hold the wheels together and to protect the wooden rims. The rims and spokes would still sometimes crack and split, of course, and in the dry air of the Great Plains, they were also likely to shrink, which eventually caused the iron tires to slip off.



These early American mobile homes were called "prairie schooners" because they resembled a fleet of ships sailing across a sea of grass. In fact, when rivers were too deep to be forded and there was no timber to build rafts, the travelers would remove the wheels and float the wagons across.

Once he had selected a wagon or two, the pioneer next had to decide on his draft animals. Most emigrants, including Captain Burnett, swore by oxen. "The ox is the most noble animal, patient, thrifty, durable, and gentle," he said. "Unfortunately, they also had their drawbacks. Their cloven hoofs tended to splinter on mountain rocks, and oxen could only do about 15 miles a day, while mules did 20. "They don't walk," said one exasperated emigrant. "They plod."



Prosperous families usually took two or more wagons because the typical wagon did not have a large carrying capacity. After flour sacks, food, furniture, clothes and farm equipment were piled on, not much space remained. Space was so limited that, except in terrible weather, most travelers cooked, ate and slept outside. A.J. McCall wrote of his fellow travelers, "They laid in an over-supply of bacon, flour and beans, and in addition thereto every conceivable jimcrack and useless article that the wildest fancy could devise or human ingenuity could invent--pins and needles, brooms and brushes, ox shoes and horse shoes, lasts and leather, glass beads and hawk-bells, jumping jacks and jews-harps, rings and bracelets, pocket mirrors and pocket books, calico vests and boiled shirts." A passerby was reminded of birds building a nest while watching one family load its wagon. The members of the Applegate train often killed buffalo and antelope, but a more dependable supply of meat was the herd of cattle led behind the wagons.

Once the wagons were loaded, the animals gathered and the emigrants reasonably organized, Captain Peter Burnett finally gave the signal for the Applegates and the others to move out. The train included nearly 1,000 persons of both sexes, more than 200 wagons, 700 oxen and nearly 800 loose cattle. The Great Emigration of 1843 had begun. "The migration of a large body of men, women and children across the continent to Oregon was, in the year 1843, strictly an experiment," Jesse Applegate, the leader of the cow column, wrote.

[SAMWolf]

Out on the plains in the middle of May, the grass was luxuriant and the wildflowers out in force. The spring storms were often startling in their power. The thunderstorms of eastern Kansas, wrote one traveler, "rolled the whole circle of the firmament with a peculiar and awful vibration." Another diarist reported a gale that covered the ground with a foot of water, drove rain through the wagon covers "like as though they had been paper," and scattered cattle "to the ends of the earth."



The first miles were a hubbub. Ill-broken oxen and reluctant mules either bolted or sulked in harness, entangled themselves in picket ropes or escaped entirely and sped back to the starting point. When not busy rounding up livestock, the exuberant males of the party quarreled over firewood and water holes and raced for preferred positions in line.

Still, for the most part, the travelers had it relatively easy during the first few weeks on the trail as they headed northwest toward Nebraska and the Platte River. Despite the occasional thunderstorm, the weather was usually pleasant. It was a good time to learn to handle a prairie schooner. Jesse Applegate wrote about the workings of a typical day on the trail: "Sentinels fired their rifles at four o'clock in the morning to wake the camp. Fires were lighted and the herders drove the oxen into the circle of wagons to be yoked for the day's journey. This corral of the plains was made the night before by parking the wagons in a circle. The rear wagon was connected with the wagon in front by its tongue and ox chains. It was strong enough to keep the oxen from breaking out, and also served as a barricade in case of Indian attack.


Women were responsible for cooking, cleaning, and looking after children.
Oregon Historical Society, Or

"Five to seven o'clock were busy hours, with breakfast to be eaten, teams yoked, tents folded and wagons loaded. Promptly at seven the bugle sounded, and the wagon train was on its way. Women and children often walked beside the trail, gathering wild flowers and odd-looking stones. Boys and young men on horseback kept the loose stock from straying too far, as they trailed along behind the wagons.

"At noon we stopped to eat. Oxen were turned loose with their yokes on, so they might graze and rest. Sometimes the officers of the train got together at noon to consider the case of someone who had violated the rules or had committed a crime. He was given a fair trial and, if found guilty, was sentenced according to the nature of his offense.


Chimney Rock

"At one o'clock the bugle sounded, and the wagons were once more on their way. All through the afternoon the oxen plodded, and when the wagons arrived at the spot chosen by the guide as a camping place, preparations were made to spend the night. Livestock were driven out to pasture, tents were pitched, fires built, and supper was on its way. Perhaps hunters came in with choice parts of buffalo or antelope, and everyone enjoyed a feast.

"After supper, the children played their favorite games, the elders gathered in groups and talked, perhaps making plans for the new homes to be built at the end of the Oregon Trail. Some of the young folk danced to the music of the fiddle or accordion, while those more serious minded sang their favorite songs, some religious, some sentimental. 'Old Hundredth' was a favorite, and as the music and words of the grand old hymn floated on the evening breeze, many paused to listen and ponder. But youth was not to be denied, the trek was a great adventure, and life stretched far ahead. Many a troth was plighted at the impromptu gatherings along the trail, beside a dim campfire.


Independence Rock

"Guard duty commenced at eight o'clock at night and continued until four o'clock in the morning. Various companies took turns at guard duty, one night out of three. Fires were dimmed at an early hour, and everyone retired to rest for tomorrow's march. Some slept in tents, some in wagons, some on the ground, under the stars. Usually their sleep was undisturbed save perhaps by the sharp yelp of a coyote on a nearby hill, and the challenging bark of the camp dogs."

The prairie schooners crossed the Big Blue, a tributary of the Kansas River, about two weeks out of Independence. The trail then swung up into Nebraska, where it ran along the south bank of the Platte River. The silty Platte was so flat and broad that a woman named Martha Missouri Moore commented, "The river ran near the top of the ground." It often was said that the Platte was "a mile wide and an inch deep."


Fort Laramie

The emigrants marveled at the Great Plains. Sarah Cummins described them as being "like the wild regions of Africa." They marveled, too, at the prairie wildlife--antelope, black bears, grizzlies, coyotes, buffalo and, of course, prairie dogs. Buffalo were so plentiful that one traveler wrote, "Some are grazing quietly and others are marching, moving and bellowing, and the great herds making a roaring noise as they trample along." Cows would sometimes stray off with a buffalo herd, and the buffalo could befoul a stream. Still, few travelers found reason to complain about the buffalo. The animals were a source of meat, and buffalo chips were a valuable source of fuel on the treeless plains.

Trouble with the Indians was rare, especially in the 1840s, when Indians usually provided information about the trail ahead and were sometimes even hired as guides. Indians on their pinto ponies, some of these dragging laden travois, trailed by, gazing curiously at the ox-drawn wagons. They often stopped to swap buffalo robes and buckskin moccasins, fringed shirts and leggings for tobacco, ironware and worn-out clothing. Precautions were still taken. At each stop, the wagons were drawn up into a corral. This also served as an enclosure for the livestock. Almost never did an Indian war party descend upon a circle of wagons. Such a strategy would have assured heavy casualties among the Indians.



Stragglers or small groups, however, were attacked on occasion by Indians, who were mostly interested in the horses and supplies. It is estimated that prior to the 1849 California gold rush, only 34 whites and 25 Indians were killed in fighting on the Oregon Trail. Relations between white travelers and Indians did sour in the 1850s. In September 1860, the small Utter wagon train was attacked by Bannock Indians and only 14 of 44 travelers made it to Oregon. Indian danger would be such a problem in the summer of 1867 that the U.S. Army would forbid travel by single wagons in western Kansas.

But far more prevalent on the trail than Indian attacks were the everyday trail hazards of accident and disease. Little was known about health and sanitation, and no vaccines were available. The sick lay on pallets in the hot, debilitating confines of their wagons, with only the wagon cover to protect them from the direct rays of the sun. The emigrants were prone to dose themselves with great quantities of medicine at the first sign of illness--the theory being that the larger the dose, the quicker the recovery. Many died of overdoses, especially of laudanum. However, the most frequent epitaph was, "Died: Of Cholera." Because there was no wood for coffins, bodies were wrapped in cloths and buried under mounds of earth and rocks. One of the first deaths in the Applegate train was that of 6-year-old Joel Hembree. "A very bad road," wrote William Newby. "Joel Hembree sone [son] Joel fell off the waggeon tung and both wheels run over him."



After a month on the road, the emigrants arrived at the confluence of the Platte's north and south forks. They were now 460 miles west of the Missouri River. Marcus Whitman and his nephew Perrin Whitman proved to be excellent guides as the wagons crossed into more challenging terrain. Dr. Whitman's first practical counsel was: "Keep traveling! If it is only a few miles a day. Keep moving." Dr. Whitman's medical skill, freely given, was also of vital worth to the men, women and children who fell ill. Death was inevitable for some, but babies were born, bringing new courage to the travelers. The trail followed the north fork, but first the travelers had to cross the south fork. It was at least a half-mile wide and the water was high. The wagon wheels were taken off, and the wagon bodies, by then long bereft of their caulking, were covered with buffalo skins to waterproof them. The prairie schooners thus lived up to their nicknames. William Newby noted in his diary: "Hunted buffalo and killed 2. We wonted thare hides for to make bots to craws the river."

The flat Platte River valley had been left behind. After traversing a 22-mile tableland, the emigrants had to lower their wagons down a dangerously steep drop to what seemed an oasis to them--Ash Hollow, a woodsy glen that provided sweet spring water and shade. After leaving Ash Hollow, the wagon train continued on up the sandy banks of the North Platte. The snow-crested Laramie Mountains rose in the distance. Closer by, a series of strange rock formations captured the pioneers' attention. The first of these were the multi-tiered, 400-foot-high mound of volcanic ash and clay that became known as the Courthouse and its smaller rock companion, the Jail House--so dubbed because of their resemblance to municipal buildings in St. Louis.



Just 14 miles to the west came the more stunning Chimney Rock. Surrounded at its base by mounds of debris, the 500-foot-high slim stone shaft was likened not only to a chimney but also to a minaret, a church steeple and a tunnel turned upside down. It was in the emigrants' view for days, and their fascination with it was so great they even went so far as to measure its dimensions. One vigorous fellow took 10,040 steps to walk around its base.

Scotts Bluff, a weathered contortion of towers and parapets that someone called a Nebraska Gibraltar, was another 20 miles down the trail. If on schedule, a wagon train reached the bluff in late June. From there, it was another two days to Fort Laramie, a frontier outpost in present-day southeast Wyoming. Women turned to washing clothes, the men to refitting iron tires to wheels shrunken by the dry air. Sore-footed oxen were thrown onto their backs in trenches and shod while their hooves waved helplessly. Though the emigrants were 640 miles from Independence, they were only one-third of the way to Oregon.



More than a third of the emigrants' supplies was likely to have been used up by this time. The oxen and mules would be exhausted--as would the patience of their owners. Even worse, the road beyond Fort Laramie began the climb into the Rocky Mountains, which meant extra hardships for both man and beast. To keep the animals moving, it often became necessary to lighten their loads. The road beyond Fort Laramie became littered with castoffs--sheet-iron stoves, clothes trunks, tools, claw-footed tables, massive oak bureaus, cooking pots and even food. Things that had seemed like treasures in Missouri were now often impossible to keep.

[SAMWolf]

The land ahead was challenging. From a distance, the mountainsides looked like green meadows, but up close they revealed mostly dry sand and rock. By the time travelers reached the Sweetwater River--named, it was said, in relief from the bitter and occasionally poisonous springs that mocked their thirst-- alkali dust had stung their eyelids and rasped their throats, and alkali water had griped their bowels.



The most popular campsite along the Sweetwater was next to Independence Rock, so called because the schedules of many wagon trains brought them to the granite monument around the Fourth of July. Few emigrants passed by the rock without leaving their names or initials chiseled into its surface. In 1841, Father Pierre DeSmet, a Jesuit missionary, had spotted some names carved there by fur traders and called it "The Great Record of the Desert."

Even in July in this part of the country, emigrants shivered in early morning and night. At the Ice Slough, not quite 80 miles west of Independence Rock, a bed of ice lay about a foot beneath the sod even in the heat of the day. Travelers would chop out big chunks for their water casks, and some even made ice cream. The presence of ice in midsummer indicated that they had reached the highest point on the trail--the Continental Divide at South Pass.


Crossing the Snake River Ferry

The emigrants were sometimes disappointed with South Pass, for this passageway in the Wind River mountains was nothing like the deep gorge they had envisioned. Instead, the trail arched over a wide grassy meadow before dipping toward the Pacific Ocean. They celebrated their arrival in Oregon Territory with cheers and gunfire at nearby Pacific Springs, but most had no idea that hundreds of miles lay between them and their final goal.

After a night's rest at Pacific Springs the traveling parties would move on to Fort Bridger, a primitive trading post set up in 1843 by mountain man Jim Bridger, commonly known as Old Gabe. Since the fur trade was dwindling, he had built his fort to settle down and make a dollar or two selling fresh supplies and fresh oxen to emigrants. Many emigrants elected not to visit the fort, however, because it was shorter to follow a path across a grassless tableland--Sublette's Cutoff. On this barren 50-mile stretch, there was no water available until the Green River, on the far western side. Where the cutoff rejoined the main trail, the travelers headed northwest.



After traveling 70 miles in seven days, they would arrive at Soda Springs, where the naturally carbonated water was a treat for the travelers. Some said it tasted like beer. Others mixed it with sugar and citrus syrup to make lemonade. It was at Soda Springs in 1843 that young Jesse A. Applegate and the others met a group led by famed western explorer and cartographer John Charles Fremont. "There was a soda spring or pool between the camps, and Fremont's men were having a high time drinking soda water," recalled Jess. "They were so noisy that I suspected they had liquor mixed with the water."

Fifty-five miles beyond Soda Springs, at Fort Hall, another supply depot operated by the Hudson's Bay Company, the wagon trains split up, one part going to California and the other to Oregon. Those who took the California Trail veered southwest through an arid, rocky landscape and eventually, after 525 miles and a month's travel time, reached the Sierra Nevada. But first they had to get through the Great Basin around the Great Salt Lake. In the stark, arid land west of the Humboldt River, more than one traveler was "obliged to swallow dust all day in place of water," as one woman put it.



The Hudson's Bay Company agents at Fort Hall encouraged the emigrants to take the California route. Being of British descent and still trying to protect the fur business, they wanted to forestall the influx of settlers into Oregon country for as many more years as possible. Even so, their warnings about the road to Oregon--described as a deplorable succession of dangerous rivers, hostile Indians, famine and winter storms--were not far from reality.

The trail stretched out loosely for 300 miles along the south rims of the black lava canyons of the Snake River. The wagons struggled along paths strewn with boulders and knotted sage. Twice they risked deep crossings of the Snake River, fatal to some. The more dangerous of the two was the Three Island ford near the present-day town of Glenns Ferry, Idaho. William Newby wrote: "First we drove over a part of the river one hundred yards wide on to a island, then over a northern branch 75 yards wide on a second island; then we tide a string of waggons to gether by a chance in the ring of the lead carrles yoak and made fast to the waggon of all a horse & before & himn led. We carried as many as fifteen waggeons at one time. We had to up stream. The water was ten inches up the waggeon beds in the deep plaices. It was about 900 yards acraws."



Eventually, the wagons would be dragged up Burnt Canyon into present-day Oregon, skirt the treacherous swamps of the lovely Grande Ronde River valley, and finally climb slowly among the cold evergreens of the Blue Mountains. Far ahead, glinting in the sunlight, the weary travelers saw the curving sweep of the Columbia River, breaking a gateway through the tawny mesas that guarded the approach to the Cascade Range. Once past the Blue Mountains, the emigrants still faced a tough haul either by land (250 miles over the Cascades to the Willamette Valley) or by water (230 miles down the Columbia River).

Crossing the Blue Mountains in 1843 was particularly slow-going for the Oregon emigrants because of the forests and poor weather. Jesse A. Applegate recalled: "The timber had to be cut and removed to make way for the wagons. The trees were cut just near enough to the ground to allow the wagons to pass over the stumps, and the road through the forest was only cleared out wide enough for a wagon to pass along....We were overtaken by a snowstorm which made the passage very dismal. I remember wading through mud and snow and suffering from the cold and wet." Once out of the Blue Mountains, Jesse's spirits picked up briefly when he reached a stream lined with black hawthorns. "They were black and near the size of buckshot with a single seed, very sweet and otherwise pleasant to the taste...," he later wrote. "Our party ate large quantities of this fruit. It was told for a fact in camp that a woman died during the night we stayed there from the effects of a gorge of black haws. I ate about all I could get my hands on but experienced no bad results--they were ripe and mellow."



In late October, the Applegate train finally reached Fort Walla Walla. The Cascades still lay between the emigrants and their destination, the Willamette Valley. For the most part, the range rose a mile above sea level, with its most prominent peak, the white-capped Mount Hood, standing nearly a mile higher. Since they were unable to drive wagons through the Columbia's steep-walled, heavily timbered gorge, the men in the Applegate party spent aboout two weeks at Fort Walla Walla sawing lumber and building skiffs. Wagons, cattle and horses had to be left behind. By early November, a small fleet of boats was heading down the Columbia River toward the Willamette Valley. "I well remember our start down the river, and how I enjoyed riding in the boat, the movement of which was like a grapevine swing," recalled Jesse.

But the Columbia could be turbulent, and this final leg of the journey proved to be the worst ordeal of all. By the time the 1843 party started the river run they had been on the trail nearly five months. Four more weeks of travel, no less challenging for being on water, still remained. After they had been floating downstream for several days, the Applegates encountered approached the first set of rapids. Jesse rode in one boat with his parents, his Uncle Jesse, Aunt Cynthia and an Indian pilot. Another boat held Jesse's brothers Elisha and Warren and a cousin, Edward Applegate, all under 12, as well as two men in their early 20s, and 70-year-old Alexander McClellan. As the two boats approached a river bend, young Jesse heard "the sound of rapids, and presently the boat began to rise and fall and rock from side to side....I could see breakers ahead extending in broken lines across the river, and the boat began to sweep along at a rapid rate."



Jesse saw the other boat across the river and "presently there was a wail of anguish, a shriek, and scene of confusion in our boat that no language can describe. The boat we were watching disappeared and we saw the men and boys struggling in the water." Jesse's father and uncle wanted to leap into the water and try to save their drowning children, but they went back to manning the oars at the urging of Jesse's mother and aunt. "The men returned to the oars just in time to avoid, by great exertion, a rock against which the current dashed with such fury that the foam and froth upon its apex was as white as milk," Jesse later wrote.

The other boat was swept to the bottom by a whirlpool. Jesse's brother Elisha and the two men in their 20s made it safely to shore. Old McClellan had placed 9-year-old Edward on a pair of oars and tried to swim the boy to shore. But McClellan's strength soon gave out, and they both disappeared under the water. "The brave old soldier could have saved himself by abandoning the boy," wrote Jesse, "but this he would not do." The other person who had been on the skiff that capsized, Jesse's brother Warren, also drowned.



Jesse, who would turn 8 on November 14, and the other battered survivors regrouped and continued downriver. They were able to negotiate the other rapids without mishap. In late November 1843, they reached trail's end, Fort Vancouver, which had been built by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1825. The food and rest they found there was welcome, but soon it was time to face new tasks and challenges--building homes and dreams in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

The Applegates spent their first winter in log cabins at the "Old Mission" (where the small town of Gervais, Ore., now stands). Jesse A. Applegate, who would die at age 88 in 1919, wrote: "Oh, how we could have enjoyed our hospitable shelter if we could have looked around the family circle and beheld all the bright faces that had accompanied us on our toilsome journey almost to the end. Alas, they were not there!"



In 1844, there were 1,475 Oregon-bound emigrants; in 1845, 2,500 emigrants. Starting with the gold rush in 1849, more of the overland travelers chose California as their final destination, but Oregon still got its share. Between 1841 and 1866 about 350,000 people used what had become the most famous wagon route across America. It was no wonder that, in places, ruts along the Oregon Trail are still visible today.

Additional Sources:

www.isu.edu
www.univie.ac.at
www.thefurtrapper.com
www.artistnina.com
www.shebbyleetours.com
www.aspencountry.com
www.exploretheoldwest.org
hex.oucs.ox.ac.uk
www.beavton.k12.or.us
www.sam.math.ethz.ch
home.att.net/ ~carlsfriends
www.superkids.com
www.bobbrooke.com
www.ci.tumwater.wa.us
gladstone.uoregon.edu
darkwing.uoregon.edu

[SAMWolf]

Oregon via Antarctica

Not everyone who went to Oregon used the Oregon Trail. There were other routes, including one that went perilously close to Antarctica!



Those who did not want to endure a four-month walk across the West traveled to Oregon by ship. However, there was no direct water route to the West Coast. So a ship leaving New York had to travel all the way to the tip of South America--skirting the edge of the Antarctic continent--before heading north to Oregon. It was a difficult trip that sometimes took a complete year.

So, primarily for gold-crazed 49ers who were in a hurry to get West, several shortcuts were developed. The most popular cutoff involved taking a ship to the Isthmus of Panama, then trekking overland to the Pacific side (remember, there was no Panama Canal then) where another ship would, with any luck, pick them up.

When the 49ers got to the Pacific side they waited and waited--for weeks, sometimes even months. When a ship finally arrived, passage would cost between $500 to $1,000, and sometimes there was no space at any price.

Worse yet, many of the Pacific-side ships were unseaworthy and sank en route. In the end, many regretted not taking the overland route.

[SAMWolf]

Showcasing America's finest, and those who betray them!

Please click on the banner above and check out this newly created (and still under construction) website created by FReeper Coop!

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Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

Blue Stars for a Safe Return

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

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LINK TO FOXHOLE THREADS INDEXED by PAR35

[snippy_about_it]

"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Wednesday Morning Everyone.

If you want to be added to our ping list, let us know.

[snippy_about_it]

I took the overland route. Of course it's much easier now. :-)

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper foxhole.

Today is Norton Update Day. Be sure to update your anti-virus software.

[GailA]

Good morning Snippy, Sam and every one.

[texianyankee]

Good Wednesday morning to each & everyone.

BTW, I'm glad my ancestors made their way to Texas.

[alfa6]

It's a Hump day bump for the Freeper Foxhole

I took the overland route. Of course it's much easier now. :-)

I would prefer this method myself...

Y'all have a great day

Regrads

alfa6 ;>}

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

[The Mayor]

September 7, 2005

My Sin

Read:
Genesis 3:1-6

When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. —James 1:15

Bible In One Year: 2 Chronicles 23-25

Eve explained the rules to the tempter. She and Adam could eat the fruit of any tree in the Garden of Eden, except for the special one in the middle. Just touching it, she said, would bring death.

I can imagine Satan throwing back his head and with mocking laughter saying, "You will not surely die" (Genesis 3:4). He then suggested that God was holding back something good from her (v.5).

For thousands of years the enemy has repeated that strategy. He doesn't care if you believe in the authority of the Bible, as long as he can get you to disbelieve that the one thing standing between you and God is sin.

"You will not surely die," we are told. That is the theme of so many modern novels. The hero and heroine live in disobedience to God but suffer no consequences. In TV shows and movies the characters rebel against the moral laws of God but live happily ever after.

There is even a perfume called "My Sin." It's a fragrance "so alluring, so charming, so exciting," the ads tell us, "we could only call it 'My Sin.'" You would never guess that sin is a stench in the nostrils of God.

In the temptations you face, will you believe Satan's lie? Or will you obey God's warning? —Haddon Robinson

Personal Reflection
How has sin damaged the lives of people I know?
How has disobedience to God harmed me?
Have I experienced God's forgiveness? (1 John 1:9-10).

One bite of sin leaves a bitter aftertaste.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Knowing God Through Genesis

[Tax-chick]

bttt

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on September 07:
1533 Queen Elizabeth I England, (1558-1603) daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
1829 August Kekule von Stradonitz discovered structure of benzene ring
1829 Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden US, geologist (Geograph Survey 1859-86)
1860 Grandma (Anna Maria) Moses NY, primitive painter (Old Oaken Bucket)
1908 Dr Michael E DeBakey artificial heart pioneer
1908 Paul Brown Norwalk Ohio, NFL hall of famer (Browns, Bengals)
1909 Elia Kazan Canstaninople Turkey, director (Streetcar Named Desire)
1913 Anthony Quayle England, actor (Anne of 1000 Days, Lawrence of Arabia)
1914 James Van Allen discovered Van Allen radiation belts
1922 Art Ferrante pianist (Ferrante & Tachere-Exodus)
1923 Peter Lawford London England, actor/rat pack member (Mrs Miniver, The Thin Man)
1924 Daniel Inouye (Sen-D-Hi), chair of Iran-Contra hearings
1924 Leonard Rosenman Bkln NY, TV composer (Marcus Welby MD)
1930 Sonny Rollins NYC, jazz saxophonist (Blue Room)
1934 Bill Giles Rochester NY, baseball owner (Phila Phillies)
1936 Buddy Holly singer (Peggy Sue, That'll Be the Day)
1939 S David Griggs Portland Oregon, astronaut (STS 51D, STS 33)
1942 Garrison Keillor humorist(or so it's said) (Praire Home Companion)
1942 Richard Roundtree actor (Shaft, Earthquake)
1949 Gloria Gaynor Newark NJ, disco singer (I Will Survive)
1950 Peggy Noonan author (What I Saw at the Revolution)
1954 Corbin Bernsen North Hollywood Calif, actor (Arnie Becker-LA Law)
1957 Melvin Edward Mays one of FBI's most wanted
1985 Tatia Jayne Starkey Ringo's 1st grandchild

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Deaths which occurred on September 07:
1151 Geoffrey Plantagenet conquered Normandy, dies at 38
1909 Eugene Lefebvre dies test piloting a Wright A aircraft
1966 Al Kelly double talk comedian (Ernie Kovacs Show), dies at 67
1969 Everett McKinley Dirksen ("The Wizard of Ooze")(Sen-IL.R), dies at 73
1971 Spring Byington actress (Lily Ruskin-December Bride), dies at 84
1978 Keith Moon, rock drummer (Who), dies of drug OD at 31
1990 Alan J.P. Taylor, British historian (Origins of WW II), died.
1997 Mobuto Sese Seko (66), former dictator of Zaire dies in exile (Born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu changed it to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, which means “The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”).
2003 Warren Zevon (56), singer/songwriter, dies ("Werewolves of London.", "Lawyers, Guns and Money"

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Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties

Iraq
07-Sep-2003 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Jarrett B. Thompson Walter Reed Medical Ctr. Non-hostile - vehicle accident

07-Sep-2004 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Chad H. Drake Baghdad (eastern part) Hostile - hostile fire
US 1st Lieutenant Timothy E. Price Baghdad (western part) Hostile - hostile fire
US Specialist Yoe M. Aneiros Baghdad (Sadr City) Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
US Specialist Clarence Adams III Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack


Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY


http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php

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On this day...
3114 BC Presumed origin of Mayan "long count" calendar system
0070 Roman army under Titus occupies & plunders Jerusalem

1571 At the Battle of Lepanto in the Mediterranean Sea, the Christian galley fleet destroys the Turkish galley fleet.

1630 The town of Trimontaine, in Massachusetts, is renamed Boston, and becomes the state capital.
1664 Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Amsterdam to English fleet
1714 Treaty of Baden-French retain Alsace, Austria gets right bank of Rhine
1800 Zion AME Church dedicated (NYC)
1812 Battle of Borodino. Napoleon defeast Russians under Kutuzov. Greatest mass slaughter in the history of warfare until the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Casualties
French: 28,000 to 58,000, including 12 (or 43) generals and 110 colonels; Russians: 44,000 to 60,000, including Prince Bagration.
1813 "Uncle Sam" 1st used to refer to US (Troy Post of NY)
1822 Brazil declares independence from Portugal (National Day)
1825 The Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, bade farewell to President John Quincy Adams at the White House.
1864 Union General Phil Sheridan's troops skirmish with the Confederates under Jubal Early outside Winchester, Virginia
1876 The James-Younger gang botches an attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota.
1880 Geo Ligowsky patents device to throw clay pigeons for trapshooters
1892 James J Corbett kayos John L Sullivan in round 21 at New Orleans
1896 1st closed-circuit auto race, at Cranston, RI
1896 A. H. Whiting won 1st closed-circuit auto race held
1903 Federation of American Motorcyclists organized in NY
1914 New York Post Office Building opens to the public
1916 Workmen's Compensation Act passed by Congress
1923 Boston Red Sox Howard Ehmke no-hits Phila A's, 4-0
1927 Philo Farnsworth demonstrates 1st use of TV in SF
1934 Luxury liner "Morro Castle" burns off NJ, killing 134
1936 Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) begins operation
1940 German Air Force blitz London for 1st of 57 consecutive nights
1947 Hindus and Muslims battle in New Delhi
1948 1st use of synthetic rubber in asphaltic concrete, Akron Oh
1952 Outfielder Don Grate throws a baseball a record 434'1" (Tenn)
1954 Integration begins in Wash DC & Balt MD public schools
1956 Bell X-2 sets Unofficial manned aircraft altitude record 126,000'+
1963 1st US TV appearance of the Beatles (Big Night Out-ABC)
1963 Pro Football Hall of Fame dedicated in Canton Ohio
1970 Donald Boyles sets record for highest paracute jump from a bridge, by leaping off of the 1,053' Royal George Bridge in Colorado
1976 US courts find George Harrison guilty of plagarism (He's So Fine/My Sweet Lord)
1977 Convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy was released from prison after more than four years.
1978 1st game of the Boston Massacre, Yanks beat Red Sox 15-3
1979 The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) made its cable television debut.
1980 Earnest Gray becomes 2nd NY Giant to score 4 TDs (vs St Louis)
1981 Judge Wapner & the People's Court premier on TV
1983 Drury Gallagher sets fastest swim around Manhattan (6h41m35s)
1986 Desmond Tutu installed to lead south African Anglican Church
1988 Guy Lafleur, Tony Esposito & Brad Park inducted in NHL Hall of Fame
1988 Security & Exchange Comm accuses Drexel of violating security laws
1993 President Clinton and VP Gore announced a broad program to streamline the government.(ROTFLMAO)
1995 Sen Bob Packwoord (R-Ore) resigns rather than face expulsion.
2000 A jury in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, awarded $6.3 million to a woman and her son who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards outside the white supremacist group's north Idaho headquarters.
2001 The final “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” TV show aired as Fred Rogers (72) retired.

2001 US State Dept. issues a memo that warned Americans “may be the target of a terrorist threat.”

2001 UN Conference on Racism meeting in South Africa goes into overtime and agreed on a deal. The conference acknowledged that slavery and the salve trade were crimes against humanity, expressed an apology and offered a package of economic assistance to Africa.
2003 President Bush spoke on national TV and said he would ask Congress for $87 billion to fight terrorism. He cautioned that the struggle "will take time and require sacrifice."
2003 The top American commander in Afghanistan said Taliban fighters, paid and trained by al-Qaida, were pouring into Afghanistan from Pakistan....to die
2004 Cairn Energy, finds oil in India, Mangala field is estimated to reach one billion barrels, with recoverable reserves of 100-320 million barrels.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Brazil : Independence Day (1822)
Andorra : National Day
US : National Grandparents' Day (Sunday)
Wall-to-Wall Sports Television Day
Kiss a Bald Head Week (Day 4)
Fall Hat Week Begins
Neither Rain Nor Snow Day
National Bourbon Month

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Religious Observances
Feast of St. Regina, virgin and martyr.

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Religious History
1724 The first American congregation of Dunkards (German Baptists) gathered in Philadelphia, PA.
1785 The Sunday School Society was formed in London, under the leadership of Robert Raikes. It provided weekly Christian tutoring for the poor. Eventually 3,730 schools were formed, and their success ultimately inspired the founding in 1824 of the American Sunday School Union.
1807 Protestant Christianity first came to China when English missionary Robert Morrison, 25, arrived on this date. (Catholic missions had first penetrated China in the 16th century with the arrival of Jesuit Matteo Ricci in 1582.)
1845 St. Louis, Missouri, became the site of the first Hebrew synagogue to be built in the Mississippi Valley.
1958 The first cathedral of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the U.S. and Canada was dedicated in Hackensack, NJ. The American archdiocese for this branch of Orthodoxy was created the previous year by Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Yacoub III.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Almost 100 and Still Driving, Bowling


Associated Press

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Rolla Zuck still drives a car and bowls in the 150s. Not bad for a 99-year-old.
The Waterford resident turns 100 on Sept. 20 and will celebrate at three parties - one given by his family, one given by neighbors and another at Century Bowl, a local bowling alley.

Zuck bowls in a senior league there each week, averaging around 155. In May, he bowled two 200s, followed by a 170.
He says he also eats right and rides a stationary bike in his apartment.
The Missouri native still drives his own car. He bought his first, a 1918 Model T, for $80.

As for reaching the 100 mark, Zuck says it isn't such a novelty.
"When I was young, there was a man who was 112, and we had a neighbor who was 104," he says. "I guess they just raise them like that in Missouri."

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Thought for the day :
"A billion here, a billion there—pretty soon it adds up to real money."
Everett Dirksen

[Valin]

Oregon's image was that of a place of renewal, where everything was bigger and better and people could better themselves.

Well is is?
/softball question

[U S Army EOD]

Allen welcome to the Freeper Foxhole, Sam thanks for taking in another stray.

[Wneighbor]

Howdy!

Fascinating stuff there 'about the Oregon Trail. Kinda makes me think that might be a nice motorcycle road trip!

[Wneighbor]

Afternoon to ya PE!

[PsyOp]

is that an airstream trailer?