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| Ladd Canyon |
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Charles H. Reynolds Safety Rest Area
Leaving Baker Valley, the route taken by the trail led the emigrants nearly parallel with the present route of I-80N*, over a series of hills and down a precipitous descent into the Grand Ronde Valley. The faint line of the descending trail can be seen on the steep slopes to the south.
Somehow the difficulties endured during the previous several months seemed a little less arduous when tempered with the pleasant vista and lush grass of the Grand Ronde.
*I-80N has been renamed to I-84
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| Grand Ronde Valley |
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Entering the Grand Ronde Valley
The visual delights of the Grand Ronde’s fertile plains and encircling mountains provided a pleasant respite from the bleak and treeless landscape of the Snake River country. The change in scenery was noted by many travelers.
Proceeded on again at 1 p.m. thro’ a most enchanting trace (for a few miles) where the gloomy heavy timbered mountains subside into beautiful hills, chequered with delightful pasture grounds, which, when combined with the numerous rivelets murmuring over their gravely serpentine beds towards the glade below, afford a scene truly romantic, and such as is seldom to be met with in these regions of solitude and gloom…
---Robert Stuart, 1812
We descend a very steep hill in coming into Grand Ronde, at the foot of which is a beautiful cluster of pitch and spruce pine trees…surrounded by lofty mountains and has a beautiful stream coursing through it, skirted with quite large timber. ---Narcissa Whitman, 1836
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| Trade with the Indians |
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The unfortunate myths concerning the relationships between Indians and emigrants usually depict danger, malevolence and hostility from the native inhabitants. In reality, there was occasional friction and even hostility, but the Indians more often than not proved to be friendly and helpful in many ways. This is remarkable considering that the aboriginal lands were being traversed with no reparations or compensation by the emigrants.
The Nez Perce and Cayuse tribes inhabited the Grand Ronde Valley at the time of the early migration and frequently provided fresh horses and food in exchange for clothing and small trade items.
The Indians also supplied information about the route and sometimes were hired as guides.
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Soon after we reached the village the chief came and took us into his lodge, and dried salmon, choke cherries, and water were set before us, of which we partook heartily, having had very little fruit of any sort on the journey…The Kioos chief and a brave of his tribe gave me each a horse, and I gave them a present of knives, fish hooks, and awls,…
---Jason Lee, 1834
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…To complete our satisfaction a cavalcade of Indian women now came along with horses loaded with Camas roots. We purchased some fresh roots to boil with our game; but the squaws knowing better than we how to use camas, brought out some cakes of camas bread they had left over from their lunch. These cakes were eight to ten inches broad and one and a quarter thick,…We bought all the women had, fishhooks being our money.
---John Minto, 1844
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The Appaloosa
By the early 1800’s, the Nez Perce Indians had become the greatest horse breeders among American Indians. They were especially adept with the Appaloosa, a horse which had originally been bred by the neighboring Palouse Indians. In fact, Appaloosa means, literally, "a Palouse Horse."
In 1805, Meriwether Lewis wrote in his journal that the Appaloosa he saw on the Nez Perce range "appear to be of excellent race, lofty, elegantly formed, active and durable; many of them appear like fine English coursers, some of them are pied with large spots of white irregularly mixed with dark brown bay."
Appaloosas were frequently purchased by emigrants in need of new animals.
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| Wagon Techniques |
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Wagon Techniques in the Mountains
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Having your wagons well prepared, they are as secure almost as a house…Beware of heavy wagons, as they break down your teams for no purpose, and you will not need them…
These admonitions of Peter Burnett, which appeared in a letter published in the New York Herald in 1844, exemplified the great importance which emigrants placed on a good wagon in crossing the continent.
The difficulties in keeping a wagon intact and operational on the level ground were minor when compared with the efforts needed to ascend and descent mountainous terrain without loss of life, limb of property.
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An emigrant of 1850 explained:
A chain lock fastened on the side of the wagon bed was used for ordinary breaking down hill. We would always have to stop to fasten the chain by giving in a turn around one of the spokes or felloe of the wheel. In very long steep hills we would fasten a log chain from the fore axle back to the hind wheel. A rough lock would be to let the chain wrap around the rim and tire where it rests on the ground. This manner of locking was seldom used, as it was a pretty hard strain on the wheel.
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Frequently the steepness and difficulty of the terrain imposed additional measures to insure safe descent. Extra teams of oxen were often hitched on the rear of a wagon to aid in slowing the descent.
At other times large logs or trees would be attached to drag along the ground and help in braking during the descent. In the most treacherous and steepest locations, wagons sometimes were restrained by using ropes snubbed around trunks of stout trees. In this way, the speed of descent could be controlled by judicious tightening and loosening of the rope around the tree trunk.
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| Deadman's Pass |
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Safety Rest Area
Emigrants on the Oregon Trail crossed the route of modern-day I-80N* at this point, passing through the sites of both eastbound and westbound rest areas. The trail then descended into the Umatilla Valley, the homeland of the Cayuse nation, through a draw leading northward from this area. The name, "Deadman’s Pass", was the result of an accident during the Bannock War when a teamster driving a wagon through the pass was killed by renegade Indians from the nearby Indian agency. Several other violent deaths in the pass reinforced the name over the years.
At this point in their journey, most emigrants recognized that their major difficulties were past. Only the last hazardous stretch of The Columbia posed any further problems. With only two hundred miles remaining until they reached the longed-for Willamette Valley, most emigrants re-kindled their enthusiasm and hope for realization of their dreams.
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The sight from this mountain top is one to be remembered while life lasts. It affects me as did my first sight of the ocean, or again, my first sight of the seeming boundless treeless plains before we saw the Platte River…Looking across this grand valley westward the dark blue line of the Cascade Range of Mountains appears a forest-clad and impassable wall, out of which arise two immense white cones called, as I subsequently learned, Mount Hood and Mount Adams.
--John Minto, 1844
Wednesday, 25th: Our road today is much the same was yesterday. Came out in an ope praira. The scenery is very beautiful. Had a superb view of the Cascade Mountains. To the west, Mount Hood, the loftiest of these, was very visible and being covered with snow with the sun shining upon it, it looked like a golden cloud in the distance, being 150 miles away! To the north of Mt. Hood is seen Mt. St. Helens, which looks very imposing. We came in sighy of Umatilla Valley and river about noon. It looked very lovely, stretched out covered with green grass. The valley and praria for miles looked like grain fields ready for the sickle, as the grass was dry and yellow. I never enjoyed so rich a sight before!
---Esther G. McMillan Hanna, 1852
(Sept.) 7th. After considerable difficulty in herding and finding cattle which had wandered among the timber all were secured and we started for the Umatilla Valley. The road for some miles was rough and then good until we came to a hill which leads down to the valley and which is three miles long and perhaps descends two thousand feet in perpendicular height. We made fifteen miles and camped in good time in the valley with god grass on the left of the road…
-- ---Basil N. Longworth, 1853
*I-80N has been renamed to I-84
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| Fort Walla Walla |
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Established in the fall of 1817 at the confluence of the Walla Walla River and the Columbia, Fort Nez Perce was the North West Company’s major fur post east of the Cascades. Later it was renamed as Fort Walla Walla. The post served a necessary function for many Oregon Trail emigrants. Here they were able to acquire boats and supplies for a river voyage down the Columbia, and frequently were able to trade their trail-weary livestock for fresh animals.
The fort was built of upright timbers set in the ground. The timbers were some fifteen or eighteen feet high. A small stockade, with stations or bastions at the corners for lookouts. The Hudson Bay Company kept a fort here for the trade. There was a clerk and a half dozen men. We were received kindly, and for the first time since we left the forks of the Platte on June 1 we tasted bread. It was a very interesting and gratifying sight to look on the Columbia after our long and tedious journey.
--John Ball, 1832
September 1st, 1863. You can better imagine our feelings ths morning than we can describe them. We started while it was yet early, for all were in haste to reach the desired haven. If you us you would have been surprised, for both man and beast appeared alike propelled by the same force. The whole company galloped almost the whole way to for Fort. The first appearance of civilization we saw was to be forgotten in the excitement of being so near the close. Soon the Fort appeared in sight…They were just eating breakfast as we rode up and soon we were seated at the table and treated to fresh salmon, potatoes, tea, bread and butter. What a variety, thought I…I wish some of the feeble ones in the states could have a ride over the mountains they would say like me victual. Even the plainest kind, ne’er relished so well before.
---Narcissa Whitman, 1836
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| Whitman Mission |
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First Civilization
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Many emigrants turned north from the foot of Emigrant Hill to reach the Mission. Those taking this alternate route were rewarded with a pastoral scene that stirred recollections of the places they had left behind. At the Mission, emigrants were usually able to obtain food-stuffs, medical assistance, and sometimes they left orphaned children. In later years, only those who were in great need of assistance took the route to the mission, since more southerly routes were shorter.
Thirty miles from the Umatila, we came to Whitman’s Mission, situated on the Walawala River, twenty-five miles from its junction with the Columbia. The buildings are of unburned brick, and are neatly and comfortable finished. The Missionaries have a Mill, and cultivate a small piece of ground…
--Johnson, 1843
Friday, October 6. This morning I joined with Otey and Haggard and went on with the carriages to Dr. Whitman’s, where we arrived about two o’clock. We purchased one bushel of potatoes and a peck of corn, they having no flour. Traveled on four miles toward Walla Walla. Encamped before the night close to the creek, making twenty miles to-day. Weather rainy and misty until evening, when the sun came out.
--James Nesmith, 1843
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| Road Conditions |
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...have had pretty good roads....
A popular, but erroneous, misconception is that the Oregon Trail consisted of a single set of ruts with no deviations from Missouri to the Willamette Valley. In reality, a rather wide variance of routes and quality occurred in many locations.
The general outline of the trail and directions it took resulted from original Indian footpaths, which were used by the first fur trappers and explorers. Some of these routes, especially through the mountain passes, were very well marked and easily followed by the emigrants. However, in the plains areas, wagon trains would often spread out abreast to avoid the choking dust, sometimes widening the trail to a mile or more.
The trail route was frequently adjusted to take advantage of newly-discovered shortcuts and easier grades, or to accommodate needs created by weather or other conditions.
Since no one really "owned" the road or took care of it, each individual wagon train had to make its own repairs, remove fallen trees and boulders, and make other improvements. Each group was the beneficiary of those who had improved the trail before it, and the benefactors of those who followed.
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…we descend, sometimes in a deeply worn horse trail and sometimes in sight of the dim wagon tracks made the previous year…
---John Minto, 1844
we this day traveled over a fine Road Excepting some loos Rock in the Road there Was also some short turns in the Road around Stumps & trees..
---Cleaver, 1848
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| Stanfield Safety Rest Area |
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Through this area the route of the main Oregon Trail is several miles south and runs approximately parallel at this point with I-80N*. The southerly route avoided the rougher terrain closer to the Columbia, which flows in its gorge only fifteen miles north. Within a few days travel of this spot, the Oregon Trail emigrants enjoyed their first contact with the awesome river.
Up to this point, the emigrant caravans had followed a simple route quite closely with little divergence except in the level unobstructed areas. From the foot of the Blue Mountains, 20 miles east of here, three different travel routes developed on the west-ward trail.
In 1843, Peter Burnett had gone to Fort Walla Walla to leave his cattle in exchange for others at Fort Vancouver. He and his companions constructed rafts from driftwood to float the river. Others who could afford it leased Hudson’s Bay Company boats to make the river voyage, which took between five and ten days, depending on the weather and Indian assistance at the Portages.
The most heavily-used route followed the Umatilla River from Emigrant Hill in a westerly direction for several miles. This trail followed along the bend and to the north, but in the evenings the emigrants descended to the river’s edge for water, fuel and hunting areas. After crossing the Umatilla River, the emigrants traversed the plateau lands west-ward to the John Day River. Here they crossed wither by ferry or by fording. This route reached the Columbia at present day Biggs, approximately 80 miles west of here.
The third route of travel at this point was to follow the Columbia on the south bank. The emigrants opting for this trail were confronted with a variety of harassments: sand, ravines, steep ascents, short but precipitous descents, boulders , lack of fuel, and the fear that the Indians would force tribute from them for trespassing on their lands.
*I-80N has been renamed to I-84
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| Freight to the Gold Mines |
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| In the 1860’s, during the height of the boom in mining and before the railroad network was complete enough to give competition, teamsters and packers used the Oregon Trail, particularly between the Umatilla River and Deadman’s Pass. They hauled freight and supplies between the gold mines and settlements in the interior of Oregon, Idaho, Montana and into Canada. |
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| Scarcity |
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While the terrain was easier than the Columbia River trail, the overland route on the plateau between the Umatilla River and the John Day crossing continued to tax the emigrants’ ability to locate sufficient water and firewood. Usually, they had to be satisfied with willows or sage. Water was scarce. Benjamin Cleavor noted in 1848:
"here is a Small weak Spring which will do for camp purposes. South of this Spring 400 yards is a hole of water called the well spring. Here we have to water Everything with a Bucket. Had no grass but Dry bunch grass & Scarce at that."
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| At the nooning place, the teams are not unyoked, but simply turned loose from the wagons…. |
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| The evening is far less animated than the morning march a drowsiness has fallen apparently on man and beast; teamsters fall asleep on their perches and even when walking by their teams. |
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| Everyone is busy preparing fires of buffalo chips to cook the evening meal, pitching tents and otherwise preparing for the night… |
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| It is not yet eight o’clock when the first watch is to be set’ the evening meal is just over. Near the river a violin makes lively music, and some youths improvise a dance; in another quarter a flute whispers its lament to the deepening night |
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| Will it Ever End? |
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Months of hardship had been endured by conjuring visions of the beauty and fertility of the Willamette Valley and the imagined rewards awaiting the exhausted and weary travelers. By the time the emigrants reached the Umatilla Valley, many wondered if their dreams would ever be realized. They new they were in "the Oregon Country", but the daily confrontation with sand, the endless cycle of dust, disease, and the occasional loss of livestock caused that vision of lush fields and plentiful water to seem even more elusive.
The reactions of the emigrants to this portion of the trail were varied. A few remarked in their journals and reminiscences about the beauties of the terrain, but most were dismal and discouraged. Both the plateau trail and river route provided continuing challenges and threats to life.
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…Here we disposed of our animals, procured canoes from the Indians, and having obtained a pilot from them, we cast our frail barks, on the waters of the Columbia. The River, up and down from the Fort (Walla Walla), as far as we could see, was broad and smooth, and we promised ourselves an agreeable passage; but we soon found that it was full of rocks, whirlpools, and dangerous rapids; to follow through which, in safety, required the greatest exertion, watchfulness, and care.
---Johnson, 1843
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…after crossing the Umatilla & traveling at 2 miles over a Road that was hilly & not very good we came onto good Road & traveled 11 miles further & came to the Dry Willow Branch only Runs about one mile & then sinks. This is poor grazing here at this camp the old Road Intersects the new Road after having gone by the way of Columbia River the face of the Country is thin land. No very high Mountains in view…Our Road this day had Several Small dry hollows on it & the soil very loose with some Sand, but upon the whole the road is tolerable good. The face of the Country is tolerable level but the soil is not very good.
--Benjamin Cleaver, 1848
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…From the spring to John Day’s river over rolling land but good roads and decent a very steep hill down to the river is 5 miles not very good crass on the bottom but good bunch brass over the hills but bad getting to it. I watered the stock and went on about 5 miles and made a dry camp…
---George Belshaw, 1853
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…We passed some rocky rapids to-day in several places, but at out camp the river is beautiful, broad, clear, and placid, but the barreness of the surrounding country affords but a dreary prospect to a man from the Western States. Were the banks of this noble river studded with fine timber and bordered with anything like good soil, its beauty would be unsurpassed…
---James Nesmith, 1843
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| Memaloose |
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Safety Rest Area
From The Dalles, the Oregon Trail offered two variants to emigrants making their way the last 100 miles to the Willamette Valley. The Barlow Road offered a land route for those who preferred the rigors of crossing the Cascade Range to the dangers of the Columbia River. Other emigrants chose the river route, despite the hazards of water travel in the earlier years.
Emigrants following the Columbia generally traversed the south shore terrain as far as present-day Chenoweth Creek, about eight miles east of here. Chenoweth Creek marked the end of the Oregon Trail wagon route. In a protected harbor at the mouth of the creek, emigrants constructed rafts or hired boats to make the remainder of the journey.
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| With Indian Assistance... |
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The popular image of Indian belligerence and hostility was in reality over-shadowed by the assistance and helpfulness rendered to the emigrants. There were indeed problems and occasional violence, but such negative experiences usually were related to stolen livestock or personal belongings. To many Indians this was a small price for whites to pay for trespassing on and usurping ancestral homelands.
To the emigrants making the difficult descent of this portion of the river, the Indians were invaluable. They served as guides, bearers at the portages, oarsmen, and suppliers of foodstuffs and renters of canoes.
…in making short turn to the south, the river forms the cascades in breaking over a point of agglomerated masses of rocks leaving a handsome bay t the right, with several rocky pine-covered islands…halted on the left bank, about five minutes’ walk above the cascades, where there were several Indian huts, and where our guides signified it was customary to hire Indians to assist in making the portage…the canoe, instruments, and baggage, were carried through (a distance of about half a mile) to the bank of the main cascade, where we again embarked, the water being white with foam among ugly rocks, and boiling into a thousand whirlpools. The boat passed with great rapidity… through 2 miles of broken water, we ran some wild looking raids, which are called the Lower Rapids, being the last on the river, which below is tranquil and smooth…a broad, magnificent stream.
---John C. Fremont, 1843
Came last night quite to the Chute, a fall in the river not navigable. All were obligated to land, unload, carry our baggage, and even the boat, for half a mile. I had frequently seen the picture of the Indians carrying the canoe, but now I saw the reality. We found plenty of Indians here to assist in making the portage. After loading several with our baggage and sending them on, the boat was capsized and placed on the heads of about twenty of them, who marched off with it, with perfect ease.
---Narcissa Whitman, 1836
At the falls, where the whole Columbia tumbles down a perpendicular ledge of rocks from a height of ten feet, we were obligated to draw our boat from te stream and make a portage of about three-quarters of a mile, and then launch here anew. This was down with the help of a party of Indians, thirty-five in number, whom we found at the place of our landing, and whom we employed to shoulder our baggage for the service, five loads of powder and ball, and to their chief, a shirt and some tobacco. These fellows appeared to understand their interests very well, and subserved them often with as much acuteness as thorough Yankees. Employ all, or none, was the word…
---Peter Burnett, 1843
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| Island of the Dead |
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A profound, moving and frequently melancholy sight to the emigrant traveling down the river was the numerous burial islands of the Indians. Revering and paying honor to their dead, they had for centuries placed the deceased in burial grounds on the river islands.
…at the foot of the Dalles is an island called the Isle of the Dead on which there are many sepulchers these Indians usually inter their dead on the Islands in the most romantic situations where the souls of the dead can feast themselves with the roar of the mighty and eternal waters which in life tie afforded them sustenance and will to all eternity to their posterity.
--Nathaniel J. Wyeth, 1832
After six months of challenges, the emigrants found in the river descent perhaps the single most difficult portion of the journey. Yet, the unsurpassed beauty and grandeur of the Columbia River gorge and the river itself awed even the most exhausted traveler and caused many to record impressions of geographic and natural details. An 1843 emigrant records:
Here, the River, compressed into two thirds of its usual width, descends over huge rocks, several hundred yards, with an inclination of about five degrees; and from the head to the foot of the Rapids, the great agitation of the water, caused by its rushing with such velocity down its rocky channel, the surface of the River, for several hundred yards, as a white as a field of snow. On the South, the dark basaltic walls, rising perpendicularly four or five hundred feet, are covered with Pines.
Robert Stuart, traveling each way along the trail in 1812, was fascinated by the ingenious and successful fishing techniques of the Indians:
Here is one of the first rate salmon fisheries on the River; they erect stages on scaffolds, to project some distance from the bank, by binding two long but slender trees together with strong withes, next tying a stout piece of wood across the two former, from 4 to 6 feet below where they are bound together. Thus arranged, this preparation is set erect in the water, when the ends of two slabs, several inches thick and from 20 to 40 feet long, are laid on the cross piece of the two uprights, so as to reach 6 to 8 feet beyond them, with the other ends resting on the rocks along the waters edge; at the farther extremity are a few of their boards from slab to slab, on which the Fisherman stands plying his scoop net… the places chosen are always a point where the water is strongest, and if possible a mass of rock a little outside the project, between which the salmon are sure to pass, to avoid the greater body of the current. The net in use here is made fast in a large hoop, to which a very long handle is attached…
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| The Odyssey Ended? |
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| For most emigrants, the Oregon Trail had been 1,900 miles of pain hunger, joy, birth and death, satisfaction, excitement and adventure. Regardless of the difficulties encountered and the hardships endured, no one would say that the experiences were unmemorable. Hundreds recorded their impressions and experiences in diaries and journals, something many had never done before and would not do again. They had been knowing participants in a powerful national drama unfolding and expanding "from sea to shining sea." |
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