"The Story of the Oregon Trail" VHS

they thought marcus whitman was crazy no one could get a wagon to oregon the western terrain was too difficult the climate too dry but marcus didn't listen he had something to prove and so he pushed west on july 4th 1836 marcus and his wife narcissa and eight others crossed over this ridge and became the first emigrants to haul a covered wagon into a place called oregon they would not be the last my shift [Music] so the american west in 1800 it was still wild country no cities no railroads no cattle ranches it was quiet untouched people back east had heard stories about the mountains in the desert but no american had been there by the middle of the century the wagons started rolling west but it wasn't cowboys or gunfighters that opened the american west it was families farmers mostly from places like wisconsin indiana missouri they sold their farms packed up their wagons said their goodbyes to relatives and headed west it was a difficult journey one in ten died along the way the remainder suffered hunger disease exhaustion but most didn't complain they just trudged ahead 15 miles a day for nearly 6 months in the end these families won the west without them the united states would likely never have expanded beyond the rocky mountains america would be only two-thirds the nation it is today yet the emigrants didn't consider themselves heroes they didn't seek fame they were just ordinary americans in search of a better life in the end they found it land was so important to these europeans they couldn't own land over there and the result was that when they got here here was land land and they could own their own land and be it meant that they were they'd made it it was it was wonderful to them yet not all the immigrants were desperate for land many already owned successful farms in the fertile american midwest farms they sold off to finance the trip west if you look at the cost of supplying for wagons and you and your teams and so forth it wasn't a cheap cheap operation it was quite expensive for them to come out so most of these people were fairly well-to-do farmers so why go west the sense of adventure there seemed to be in the american spirit a uh ambition to keep moving west and the pastures always look greener farther west the pastures seemed especially green in oregon the winter was warm the soil was fertile and there was plenty of rain unlike the eastern u.s there was no malaria here and no slavery problem well i think most of them were hoping for a better life and they had heard the stories about what might be out there many of those stories came from this man senator thomas hart benton of missouri america's loudest voice in favor of westward expansion bentonville the united states had an innate right to settle the west an idea that came to be called manifest destiny soon oregon boosters were everywhere enthusiasts like hall jackson kelly promoted oregon as utopia where a farmer could grow three crops a year and every baby was healthy america listened i had glorious impressions of oregon from the publicity people and they thought they were going to get some free land some of them did i think it made our nation what it is as one nation indivisible crossing the country from atlantic to the pacific in 1803 thomas jefferson organized a secret mission he chose meriwether lewis and william clark to lead a small party overland to the pacific it had never been done before congress met covertly to approve the trip because lewis and clark would be venturing beyond the united states onto british soil on december 5th 1805 the expedition reached the pacific william clark we now discover that we have found the most practicable and navigable passage across the continent of north america he was completely wrong lewis and clark's route was much too difficult for wagon traffic no immigrant would ever follow in their footsteps stories of lewis and clark's journey were widely published but few americans seemed to care this man however paid close attention john jacob astor the richest person in america astor soon devised a bold plan to set up a fur trading settlement at the mouth of the columbia river in 1810 he set his plan into action a ship the tonquin would sail around cape horn to the columbia river a second party would go overland to the columbia things did not go well the overland party made a critical error they tried to canoe down the violent snake river expedition leader wilson price hunt after passing through several rapids we came to the entrance of a narrow gorge mr crooks canoe capsized one of his companions drowned and we lost a great deal of merchandise the river did not improve further downstream reluctantly hunt admitted the snake was unnavigable there would be no easy water route to the pacific not for hunt not for anyone with no alternative hunt and his men pushed west on foot but they were in the middle of a barren desert and out of food the men ate dogs horses even their shoes just to stay alive some were so desperate for water they drank their own urine meanwhile despite rough seas at the mouth of the columbia the tonquin arrived safely and the crew built fort astaria but the ship was later destroyed in a skirmish with the indians so by the time the overland party arrived at the fort it was clear the enterprise desperately needed help their best hope a small party would travel back across the rockies to get word to astor the journey took 10 months robert stewart led the party [Music] we reached the town of saint louis all in the most perfect health after a voyage of 10 months from astoria during which time we underwent many dangers hardships and fatigues in short i may say all the privations human nature is capable of steward didn't realize it but much of the route his party took was practical for wagons he had unwittingly discovered the oregon trail lewis and clark are better known but it was steward who first located a workable passage through the rockies a fine that would become the key to settlement of the western united states but astor stewart's boss kept the discovery a secret and so it would be 30 more years before a wagon train would make it to the pacific coast no one was brave enough or crazy enough to try taking a wagon all the way to oregon country no one except dr marcus whitman a presbyterian missionary whitman and his wife narcissa and three other missionaries traveled west with a trading caravan in 1836 but when the traders abandoned their wagons east of the rockies the whitman party pushed on with their wagon twice the wagon flipped over whitman was undeterred they righted the wagon and pushed on even a broken axle couldn't stop whitman he simply rebuilt the wagon into a two-wheeled cart with each turn of the wheel marcus whitman was proving a wagon could make the journey and narcissa whitman's encouraging letters were published nationwide quieting skeptics who thought women were too fragile to make the trip do not think i regret coming no far from it i would not go back for a world i am contented and happy notwithstanding i get very hungry and weary have six weeks steady journeying before us will the lord give me the patience to endure it here at fort boise marcus whitman finally agreed to abandon his rickety cart and the group finished the last 200 miles of the journey on horseback but whitman had made his point more wagons would follow despite enthusiasm stirred up by people like the whitman's the next six years saw only a handful make the trip to oregon one major reason was widespread fear fear of this the rocky mountains they stretch from canada to mexico many thought they would be a permanent barrier to westward migration and the rockies might have been just that except for one break in this massive mountain range a place called south pass a 12 wide gap where wagons could get through in 1843 government explorer john fremont thrilled the nation when he described how easily a wagon could make it through south pass john fremont i should compare the past to the ascent of the capitol hill from the avenue at washington the route west was now clear to everyone wagons would follow the platte river west to south pass then they'd work their way to the snake river and follow alongside it to the columbia the columbia river would take them to their final destination the willamette valley the big move west was about to begin it's the primary route for one overwhelmingly good reason at the head of the headwaters of the platte in the north platte was south pass and south pass was the only feasible crossing of the rocky mountains for the entire length width of the united states in the spring of 1843 nearly a thousand people gathered near independence missouri they intended to form the first wagon train to travel all the way to oregon's willamette valley the whole country was watching skeptics abounded perhaps the most vehement was horace greeley editor of the new york daily tribune this migration of more than a thousand persons in one body to oregon wears an aspect of insanity we do not believe nine tenths of them will ever reach the columbia alive but that 1843 wagon train dubbed the great migration did make it to oregon and over the next 30 years nearly 100 000 more men women and children would follow the ruts west the united states map looked quite different in 1800 [Music] each year in the early spring oregon bound travelers from the east converged on st louis it was the last big city most would ever see the great missouri river headed due west from here so most loaded their wagons onto steamships for the upstream journey [Music] the boats were packed full with emigrants livestock dreams francis parkman the boat struggled upward for seven or eight days against the rapid current of the missouri grating upon snags and hanging for two or three hours at a time upon sandbars in five or six days we began to see signs of the great western movement that then was taking place this was by far the easiest leg of the journey but it didn't last long 200 miles from st louis the missouri takes a cruel turn to the north the emigrants were headed west so they unloaded their wagons at any one of several small towns along the missouri river which they called jumping off places independence was the first option further upstream was westport st joseph even further north omaha and council bluffs the economies of these frontier towns depended on immigrants passing through so many hired agents to go east and bad mouth the competing cities william rothwell i have never in my life heard as many false statements as were told us in coming here we were frequently told that at least 15 to 20 cases of cholera were dying daily in saint joseph in reality no one died of cholera in st joseph that year by mid april the prairie outside independence was packed with emigrant campers often over three square miles worth it was so crowded one immigrant spent four days just trying to find his friends this entire mass of humanity was waiting waiting for the grass to grow heading west too early meant the grass wouldn't be long enough for their animals to graze along the way a mistake that could be fatal if they left too early and weren't well stuck with grain they could be in deep trouble if it was a dry year so the key was rain on the planes while they waited the immigrants stocked up on supplies landsward hastings in procuring supplies for the journey the immigrant should provide himself with at least 200 pounds of flour 150 pounds of bacon 10 pounds of coffee 20 pounds of sugar and 10 pounds of salt that's over 400 pounds per person a family of four would need over a thousand pounds of food to sustain them on the 2000 mile journey the only practical way to haul that much food was a wagon huge conestoga wagons were never used by the pioneers they were just too unwieldy instead the immigrants used small farm wagons although they may seem simplistic these were technologically advanced vehicles building a covered wagon from scratch was beyond the ability of most immigrants so they purchased their vehicles from one of several wagon manufacturers this man's wagon company was so successful it went on to manufacture automobiles his name john studebaker what animal would pull these massive wagons that question was hotly debated in the jumping off towns horses were quickly rejected they could not live off prairie grasses along the way as a result most of the immigrants decided on oxen they were strong could live off grass or sage and best of all they were less expensive peter burnett the ox is a most noble animal patient thrifty durable gentle and does not run off those who come to this country will be in love with their oxen the ox will plunge through mud swim over streams dive into thickets and he will eat almost anything just one problem oxen were slow very slow about two miles per hour there was an alternative for those in a hurry mules mules were faster and they too could live off prairie grasses but many believe they didn't have quite the staying power of oxen so uh a number of immigrants in their diet was diaries would write about how the mule team would pass them early in the the journey but about halfway through a lot of times the old ox and wagons would catch up to him but perhaps the biggest problem with mules was their cantankerous disposition immigrant john clark purchased several just before departing we had to risk our lives in roping them after being kicked across the pen some half dozen times and run over as often we at last succeeded in leading them out it was laughable by late april or early may the grass was long enough and the journey began trouble was everyone wanted to get started at the same time and the result was often a huge traffic jam wagons bumping wagons cutting each other off even worse were green horns from cities back east who had never before yoked an oxen or driven a mule team they tipped their wagons bumped into trees and couldn't even get their animals to go in the right direction these farmers from illinois and indiana if you if you start following their diaries they had no trouble with their oxen or their cattle or their horses or their mules but the people that came out of new york earth the east the city people they were constantly having trouble with their animals only a few miles outside of independence nearly all the immigrants realized they had grossly overloaded their wagons their only choice start throwing things out if you were traveling with a family which many of them did you would have to try and pack everything that you could into it and i think people had the tendency to to pack more than maybe what was needed and certainly what their animals could haul and many of them found out in fairly short time that uh they had too much the animals or the wagons would fall behind and so about the only thing you could do was to start lightening your load and that was by throwing things out the trail was so littered with this debris that scavengers from the jumping off towns would collect wagon loads of flour bacon even cast iron stoves of course overloaded wagons meant few of the emigrants could ride inside instead most walked many made the entire two thousand mile journey on foot able-bodied children of any age were walked and some of them walked across the united states and frequently without shoes what i marvel at is the things that that we take for granted and the speed at which we can do things [Music] it's just impossible it was impossible for them just the idea of spending most of your day walking um and i think they did that without complaint basically speaking i don't think most of us could do that i think they just saw a lot of things that would we would see as as hardships as just an ordinary part of their day and they didn't think about it but the hardships were just beginning the difficult trail lay ahead after a few days on the trail the immigrants would settle into a well-defined daily routine awake before sunup yoked the oxen cook the breakfast and hit the trail there was an hour break for lunch and at about 6 p.m they set up camp the emigrants did circle their wagons but it wasn't for protection against the indians the circle provided a convenient corral for loose animals almost immediately the campfire started burning and dinner was begun cooking bread over a campfire was something of a challenge the result was usually burnt on the outside and doughy on the inside even worse keeping bugs and dirt out of the mix was nearly impossible the biggest problem was finding fuel for the campfire for the first few weeks there was plenty of wood along the way but soon trees were scarce and there was only one alternative buffalo dung one account indicates about three and a half bushels to make one get half fire they and the women and usually in with their aprons would go around collecting this stuff and uh and bring it to the common stock and then the common fuel center and they'd have one big bonfire for a big train or they could have individual fires if they were lucky the emigrants would have quail or buffalo with their bread but most often they ate bacon day after day week after week reverend samuel parker dry bread and bacon consisted our breakfast dinner and supper the bacon we cooked when we could obtain wood for fire but when nothing but green grass could be seen we ate our bacon without cooking a lot of these people were farmers and they weren't hunters and there's instance in after instance that people go out trying to hunt to find something and they have no luck you know or they're shooting at a buffalo over the hill and can't hit it so a lot of them had to rely on what they had there was a lot of beans and bacon and that sort of thing by 9 pm they would bed down for the night some families had tents but most just slept right on the ground pure exhaustion helped them get to sleep but it wasn't comfortable niles searles we rose this morning from our bed upon the ground with sensations similar to that i imagine must pervade the frame of the inebriate after a week's spree at 5 00 a.m the whole process started again 15 miles a day for nearly six months by now several feeder trails had combined and the trail was getting crowded the emigrants reported sighting as many as 700 wagons at a time the wagon trains looked like a series of beads all the way across the prairie because it just went almost as far as you could see and it was just wagon after wagon after wagon the most severe congestion began in 1849 thanks to the california gold rush for 1200 miles the gold hungry 49ers used the same trail as the oregon bound pioneers to the northwest a week away was the plot it was unlike any river they had seen before miles wide and only a few inches deep james evans the water is so completely filled with glittering particles of mica that its shining waves look to be rich with floating gold [Music] the river wasn't filled with gold but it was filled with wriggling bugs the immigrants routinely skimmed the insects off their drinking water as best they could but it was the unseen bacteria in the water that caused the emigrants the most trouble giving them prolonged bouts of diarrhea [Music] then in the distance a flag it was fort carney the first semblance of civilization for weeks but the immigrants excitement quickly turned to disappointment fort carney was not the grand walled fortification they expected it was instead a collection of ram shackled buildings most made of sod fort carney was the first military post built to protect the oregon trail emigrants yet the cannons here were mostly just for show native tribes in the area were friendly [Applause] still fort connie was important as a wayside throughout the immigration period many immigrants purchased food at the fort and nearly everyone took advantage of the fort's reliable mail service in late may as many as 2 000 immigrants and ten thousand oxen might pass through in a single day after fort carney the landscape began to change grasses gave way to sagebrush songbirds were replaced by rattlesnakes it became dry dusty hot the immigrants had learned about this region in grammar school a place maps labeled the great american desert but the desert myth was greatly exaggerated easterners like writer w j snelling conjured up images of sand dunes and wastelands from lake winnipeg to mexico nine tenths of the area is as bare of vegetation as the desert of sahara the sahara of course is nothing like nebraska snelling and the other doomsayers had never been west there was one grain of truth in the desert myth however the climate did get drier as the emigrants moved west without the plat waters nearby the trip would not have been feasible as the emigrants pushed west along the plat they would likely encounter another great western legend but this one was true william kilgorn buffalo extended the whole length of our afternoon's travel not in hundreds but in solid phalanx i estimated two million these immense herds sometimes blocked the way of the immigrants one wagon train had to wait two hours for stampeding buffalo to pass by the immigrant's first reaction was to temporarily abandon the journey and rush off on a buffalo hunt not for food for sport you all enjoyed the buffalo hunt a lot of them just shot and shot and shot i don't know how successful they were most of them it doesn't seem to me have been very successful unlike the indians who use nearly every part of the buffalo the emigrants often left the carcasses to rot contributing to near extinction of the species the trail along the platte bisected two major indian tribes the cheyenne to the north and the pawnee to the south the emigrants worried about both but the expected indian attacks did not come that's hollywood most of the accounts in the first few years are friendly indians being quite sociable in fact there were many instances of indian kindness helping pull out stuck wagons rescuing drowning immigrants even rounding up lost cattle stories of indian goodwill have not become widely known but they showed up in many immigrant diaries i have a very interesting diary of this woman who headed west and her husband was out there and and she finally decided she was going out and she wrapped up her three or four kids and sold the farm back in illinois and she got into the canesville area the council bluffs area and she hired a man to go with him to take care of the cattle but when they got there and crossed the mississ the missouri river suddenly he says i'm not going i'm going back and this kid is telling the story and he says my mom put us back into the tent and he says i was awake because she was sitting out there by the fire and she kept awake and sitting there and he said i was wondering whether we were going on or not and finally he says the next morning she says get up children says you've got to help get the oxen and get some wood and so on because we're going to have to have breakfast before we leave and you have to be the man in this crowd and he said they went on and well they kept going but they kept being late with wagon trains they'd drag in at eight nine maybe ten o'clock at night and they couldn't keep up so they catch on with the next wagon train and try to go on with it by the time they got into wyoming uh suddenly a sioux party apparently a war party came down and these men all all men indian men and they looked at this woman with her kids and she was brave as could be and they traveled with her because they said they were in a place where they might have trouble with the cheyenne through this area and they stayed with her for four days traveling all through this area of wyoming until they felt she was safe and then they waved her goodbye killed an antelope or something and left it there for and drove off but most of the encounters with the indians were simple business transactions the immigrants offered clothes tobacco or rifles in exchange for indian horses or food indians looked on the immigrants as just another means for their trade but once they started seeing more and more of them come they start becoming alarmed the indians were alarmed for good reason within a few years the emigrants had over grazed the prairie grasses burned all the available firewood and depleted the buffalo soon many tribes along the platte were impoverished starving immigrants worried a great deal about possible indian attacks but very few were ever actually killed by the native tribes a more likely cause of death for the typical pioneer was an accident the immigrant wagons didn't have any safety features if someone fell under the massive wagon wheels death was instant many lost their lives that way most often the victims were children edward lennox a little boy fell over the front end of the wagon during our journey in his case the great wheels rolled over the child's head crushing it to pieces even more common than crushings were accidental shootings they would have boring knives and pistols and as well as rifles shotguns and yet safety devices for these guns were very primitive and any number of immigrants died or were seriously injured by accidental gunshot either somebody else was fiddling with them or it would be half cocked and go off in the wagon but it's surprising how many people died from that cause great thunderstorms also took their toll a half dozen immigrants were killed by lightning strikes many others were injured by hail the size of apples pounding rains were especially difficult for the immigrants because there was no shelter on the open plains and the covered wagons eventually leaked the trip for most people was it was an ordeal that they had more than any bargain for i'm sure but most of them had the guests to stick it out and either get there or die in the effort those who did die were buried in a hurry there was often no time for an elaborate funeral no time to mourn making matters worse were animals that regularly dug up the dead and scattered the trail with human bones and body parts agnes stewart he camped at a place where a woman had been buried and the wolves dug her up her hair was there with a comb still in it she had been buried too shallow it seems a dreadful fate but what is the difference one cannot feel after the spirit is flown courthouse rock and its companion jail rock to an emigrant who had never seen a mountain or even a bluff this was indeed stunning they were so enraptured by this bizarre geologic feature most took a side trip of several miles on foot just to get a closer look a lot of them really did a lot of sightseeing on the way it's uh kind of amazing to think that some of them would walk two or three or four or five miles off the trail just to go see a site like they did at the courthouse run but courthouse was just the beginning in a chain of bizarre geologic wonders just a few miles further on was the strangest of all chimney rock today the spire stands 325 feet above the plane but during the time of the migration chimney rock was nearly 100 feet higher it was the most spectacular landmark on the entire trail to many the eighth wonder of the world in their enthusiasm some tried to climb the massive rock but none got higher than the base the last in this series of geologic wonders was a group of formations known as scots bluffs unlike chimney rock and courthouse rock scots bluffs were something of an obstacle for the emigrants in the early years the trail veered south avoiding the bluffs but after 1850 a shorter route through the bluffs at mitchell pass gained favor in some places the ruts at mitchell pass cut eight feet deep thanks to heavy traffic and soft stone it was a treacherous and difficult cutoff and in the end it was about the same distance as the old route 50 miles further along the immigrants would face a much more dangerous obstacle the laramie river the water here was only four feet deep but deceptively fast in 1850 alone 19 people drowned here trying to cross but those who made it were rewarded handsomely just across the river was fort laramie it was a welcome sight the first sign of civilization in six weeks a unique respite from the endless wilderness during the migration period fort laramie was of the greatest importance as a shelter as a place to camp safely within the protection of the soldiers and as a place to get supplies as place to to reorganize your outfit or reduce your wagon down to two wheels or just rest a while so fort laramie was a great morale builder but there was only one building here that warranted a visit by the oregon bound immigrants the post-traders store this was the only reliable post office within 300 miles supplies could be purchased here too although prices were outrageously high tobacco for instance that could be had for a nickel in st louis cost a dollar here frances parkman in one bargain concluded in my presence i calculated the profits that accrued to the fort and found that at the lowest estimate they exceeded eighteen hundred percent luckily only a few of the immigrants needed to purchase supplies at fort laramie most wanted to sell their excess their overloaded wagons had become a greater and greater burden but most held on until fort laramie in hopes they could earn some money for their extra supplies but the fort trader wasn't buying but the biggest problem in the fort laramie vicinity was not overloaded wagons or even hostile indians the real worry here was a mysterious and deadly disease called cholera that was the greatest single uh problem and there was nothing they could do about it they they got it they were dead the doctors that were along the trail were mainly quacks there wasn't much they could do and it it had one blessing they died in a hurry that didn't it was not a lingering death cholera killed more emigrants than anything else in a bad year some wagon trains lost two-thirds of their people only one word could properly describe the trail west of fort laramie crowded that's because immigrant traffic from both sides of the platte river merged at the fort to form a single trail going west the congestion was sometimes unbearable there were many arguments about who was going to be the lead wagon and there would be races to beat other trains to get in front of them so they wouldn't have to eat the dust because there's some diary expert or excerpts where you can read that they could there was so much dust they couldn't even see their what their animals some donned goggles just so they could see through the stifling clouds of dust evidence of the heavy wagon traffic is still clear here at deep rut hill west of fort laramie thousands of wagons would pass through on a busy day each digging deeper into the rock james wilkins find a great many companies continually in sight in fact it is one continued stream as far as we can see both in front and near the horizon is dotted with white wagon covers nearby at register cliff the emigrants could scarcely find a place to carve their names the rock face soon became as crowded as the trail in the early evening the congestion caused another problem there was no room to camp some immigrants had to venture over a mile off the trail just to find an open spot to graze their cattle and start a campfire you could see campfires as far as you could see both east and west and people rinding around these campfires and horses and wagons and all as far as you could see just a regular continent would have been impossible and oregon and california would probably not be part of the united states today we wouldn't have uh tied quote the western part and the eastern part of the country together we wouldn't have populated the western part and whether this is good or bad i guess it depends on your point of view it may have remained british or it may have remained mexican south past crossed the continental divide and hence marked the boundary between the united states and oregon country even though the immigrants were now in oregon there was no reason to celebrate they were still only halfway to their destination there was a thousand miles yet to travel ahead in the endless desert came fort bridger many immigrants were hoping to find a civilized outpost perhaps something similar to fort laramie but they were in for quite a surprise joel palmer it is built of poles and dabbed with mud it is a shabby concern here are about 25 lodges of indians or rather white trappers lodges occupied by their indian wives they have a good supply of skins coats moccasins which they trade for flour coffee sugar etc the fort was built in specifically to serve the immigrant traffic unlike fort carney and fort laramie this fort was privately owned and operated by the legendary jim bridger i have established a small fort with blacksmith shop and iron in the road of the immigrants they in coming out are generally well supplied with money by the time they get there are in want of all kinds of supplies to the west soda springs hot water shot into the air strange sights were everywhere william scott the saudi springs is quite a curiosity there is a great many of them just boiling right up out of the ground i drink a whole gallon of it [Music] sixty miles further on was fort hall an important stop for the immigrants in the trail's early years yet few who passed through this fort knew the strange reason it was built by a man named nathaniel wyeth wyatt began with a grand money-making scheme he and 70 men would haul supplies to the 1832 fur trapper's rendezvous reap huge profits then push west to the columbia where they would set up a fishery and export salmon to hawaii and new england from the beginning almost nothing went right after months of travel wyeth arrived at the rendezvous but no one would buy his goods frustrated disillusioned his last ditch plan was to build a fort nearby its purpose to serve as a base of operations to get rid of wyeth's excess supplies by selling them to nearby indians and trappers when wyatt's men finished fort hall in 1834 it stood as the only american outpost in the entire oregon country osborne russell on the 4th of august the fort was completed and on the 5th the stars and stripes were unfurled at sunrise in the center of a savage and uncivilized country over an american trading post from fort hall the trail headed west along the snake river if an indian attack was going to occur on the oregon trail this was the most likely region for years the hudson's bay company had been a calming force on the indians but when the british fur trading company pulled out in the early 1850s attacks on immigrants increased substantially the best known incident happened near here a place now known as massacre rocks it was saturday august 9 1862 suddenly without warning an indian attack [Music] within minutes five immigrants were dead the next morning the survivors regrouped and fought back in the resulting battle four more emigrants were killed the emigrants were now facing one of the most difficult stretches of the snake river plane it was now late august and the flat land was hot dry no shade for the weary no escape from the sun for many this is where scurvy began to set in anemia caused fatigue their gums bled some nearly went mad well there was one instance over by mountain home where the lady actually sat down and says i'm not going any farther. so the husband left her and then she caught up with the husband and in the meantime the husband had sent the son out to attend some horses or something and she told her husband that she'd baste her son over the head with a rock and so the husband rushes back there to see the sun and while the husband was rushing back she set fire to his wagon thankfully there was relief ahead at fort boise this outpost was originally built by the british hudson's bay company to compete with american fort hall for fur but by the 1840s the fur trade was declining and the emigrants were increasing the forts served the wagon trains throughout the 40s but floods plagued the area and by 1855 fort boise was gone eight years later a new fort boise was built 50 miles to the east and the city of boise grew up alongside except for the start and finish this was the largest city on the oregon trail over a century later it still is by the time the immigrants struck west from fort boise it was mid-september what if the snows came early they worried would they be stranded in the mountains would they end up like the donner party freezing to death or worse yet resorting to cannibalism it was on the mind of nearly everyone as they hurried through these mountain passes and they still had 400 miles to travel agnes stewart came 20 miles today hard on man and beast very warm nothing but hills and hollows and rocks oh dear if only we were in the willamette valley or wherever we are going for i am tired of this a week or two after fort boise the immigrants reached grand round this circular valley was surrounded by something the emigrants had never seen before western pine forests narcissa whitman grand round is indeed a beautiful place it is a circular plane surrounded by lofty mountains and has a beautiful stream coursing through it skirted with quite large timber the scenery while passing through it is delightful and the soil rich as the emigrants snaked their way through dead man's past they now had only one thing on their minds snow it could fall at any time threatening their expedition and their lives this was the last stretch of trail in the notorious blue mountains the entire trip had been scheduled to avoid snow here some were lucky others were not a hundred miles to the west a place called the dalles where the columbia rumbled through a narrow chasm it was here that jason lee set up a methodist mission in 1838 history does not tell us how many indians were converted at lee's tiny outpost but the dalles did become a critical stop for the emigrants that's because here the trail ruts came to a complete stop blocked by the cascade mountains but the willamette valley the immigrants destination was still 100 miles further on in the trails first years there was only one solution float the wagons down the columbia because of the swirling rapids the trip down the columbia was especially treacherous lindsey applegate one of our boats containing six persons was caught in one of those terrible whirlpools and upset my son 10 years old my brother jesse's son edward same age were lost it was a painful scene beyond description we dared not to go to their assistance without exposing the occupants of the other boat to certain destruction but the bodies of the ground were never recovered many immigrants soon realized they could not navigate the hazardous river themselves so they hired experts indians overton johnson it requires the most dexterous management which these wild navigators are masters of to pass the dreadful chasm in safety a single stroke of miss would be inevitable destruction even with indian help floating the columbia was risky commercial ferryman also set up shop but their prices were outlandishly high even if an immigrant was willing to pay the steep fee there were not enough ferry boats available to handle the flood of wagons rolling in so here at the dalles they waited for days or weeks as a result a city was born one man particularly angry about the high ferry boat prices was sam barlow and so he devised a plan to build a road from the dalles to the willamette valley avoiding the colombia altogether just one thing stood in his way mount hood but barlow was determined and in 1845 he and a few men began hacking and cutting their way through the forests of mount hood the thick pine and steep hills proved to be difficult obstacles but barlow was determined by 1846 the barlow road was finished complete with toll gates the charge five dollars per wagon it was an immediate success emigrants willingly endured the steep inclines and sheer descents this certainly was better than the ruinous rapids of the columbia river or was it sarah cummins the traveling was slow and toilsome slopes were almost impassable for man and beast as night was coming on it seemed we all must perish but weak faint and starving we went on i could scarcely put one foot before the another i weighed less than 80 pounds at the time my own party had been 14 days with only nine biscuits and four small slices of bacon there was a real wicked route that at least you get went by dry land you didn't have to drown in the columbia river finally by land or by water the final stop on the trail for many of the immigrants it was fort vancouver the massive british outpost on the north bank of the columbia most of the immigrants were now very low on supplies and completely exhausted without help here many would not live through the winter george curry a large proportion of the outfit has been consumed by the disastrous journey and a well-to-do thrifty looking citizen in his family have been worn to a tattered band of hungry petitioners begging his brothers of the earth but there is one thing that was not diminished our appetites here they found help from a most unlikely source a man named john mclaughlin mclaughlin was head of vancouver his orders were to discourage the american immigrants but he did just the opposite mclaughlin offered the weary travelers food medicine even organized rescue parties for immigrants in trouble along the way they affectionately dubbed him the father of oregon a few immigrants had the opportunity to visit mclaughlin's house at the fort a rare dose of civility for the weary travelers james nesmith dr john mclaughlin from his own private resources rendered the new settlers much valuable aid by furnishing the destitute with food clothing and seed waiting for his pay until they had a surplus to dispose of of course most of them finally wound up meeting dr mclaughlin and he seemed to help everybody that came out they were all more or less helpless when they got theirs it seems to me across the river from fort vancouver the final stop in the 2 000 mile long trail overton johnson we were happy after a long and tedious tour to witness the home of civilization to see mills storehouses shops to hear the noise of the workman's hammer to enjoy the warm welcome of countrymen and friends from oregon city the immigrants fanned out in all directions to stake their claims begin their new lives they had reached the promised land the the trail was over it made it they had made it well i think they have more than what they expected on the way i don't think they expected some of the hardships that they had and that they had to face and i think once they got there a lot of them were quite satisfied because you still have a lot of their ancestors that are still there and they take a lot of pride in the fact that you know their great grandparents came over the trail and they stayed there so all of them wanted land the first thing they wanted they'd some of them would work in town and lumber yards and various things until they had enough money that they could buy themselves some food and stuff to go out and hunt for a piece of land but it seemed to me all land land land and it was land that they got the provisional government allotted 640 acres of this fertile willamette valley farmland to every male citizen they soon learned that the legend of oregon was true the land was fertile the weather mild it didn't take long for word to spread across the nation and the trickle of emigrants became a flood 25 years after the first wagon train they were still coming all told over 100 000 people came to this valley in covered wagons nothing in american history compares to this and the masses that come out is very unique i'd say the oregon california migrations combined are one of the 10 most important events in in american history ranking right up there with the revolution the civil war and and anything else you can name that's because when the wagons rolled west they took america with them its values its ideals and eventually its government and so the west was not won by cowboys or gunslingers it was farmers ordinary men and women were willing to risk everything in search of a better life i think it made our nation what it is as one nation uh indivisible crossing the country from atlantic to the pacific if they had known what they were in for they might never have begun the journey but in the end they survived and prospered an anonymous emigrant put it this way to enjoy such a trip along with such a crowd of immigration a man must be able to endure heat like a salamander mud and water like a muskrat thus like a toad and labor like a jackass he must learn to eat with his unwashed fingers drink out of the same vessel with his jewels sleep on the ground when it rains share his blanket with vermin and have patience with mosquitoes who don't know no difference between the face of a man in the face of the mule but to dash without ceremony from one to the other he must cease to think except as to where he may find grass and water and a good campus it is hardship without glory yet it wasn't glory they were after [Music] you

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Length: 64min 52sec (3892 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020