090622 - The Oregon Trail

090622 – The Oregon Trail Museum
Baker City, Oregon

Having heard so much, and knowing so little about this famous “ROAD”, I felt obligated to increase my knowledge base. I’m not sure what the difference is between a museum and an “interpretive center” but I’m guessing it is political correctness and not worth wasting time finding out. Regardless, this place is not to be missed, and I’m glad I didn’t.

Perched on Flagstaff Hill, from the Interpretive Center, you can view almost 7 miles of the Oregon Trail ruts which still remain today. From the top of Flagstaff Hill, travelers of the Oregon Trail could see the distant Oregon land to which they were making their way. Dioramas, an amphitheater and living history programs, explain and interpret what it was like to travel the Oregon Trail to a new homeland.

This 23,000 square-foot interpretive center overlooks nearly seven miles of well-preserved Oregon Trail ruts that extend across Virtue Flat southeast of Flagstaff Hill. This arid trail segment, where emigrants fought their way through shoulder-tall sagebrush, tested weary emigrants who had endured four or five difficult days ascending Burnt River. In places, several ruts run parallel, suggesting some teams pulled alongside or ahead of others in the push to reach the Powder River.

But travelers were also greeted with their first site of the Promised Land beyond. From atop Flagstaff Hill, the Blue Mountains beckoned in the distance, assuring emigrants that their long journey from the Missouri would soon end in the long awaited Willamette Valley.

In 1800, America's western border reached only as far as the Mississippi River. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 the country nearly doubled in size, pushing the nation's western edge past the Rocky Mountains.

Yet the wilderness known as Oregon Country (which included present-day Oregon, Washington and part of Idaho) still belonged to the British, a fact that made many Americans eager to settle the region and claim it for the United States.

American Indians had traversed this country for many years, but for whites it was unknown territory. Lewis and Clark's secretly funded expedition in 1803 was part of a U.S. Government plan to open Oregon Country to settlement. However, the hazardous route blazed by this party was not feasible for families traveling by wagon. An easier trail was needed.

It wasn't until 1836 that the first wagons were used on the trek from Missouri to Oregon. A missionary party headed by Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa bravely set out to reach the Willamette Valley. Though the Whitmans were forced to abandon their wagons 200 miles short of Oregon, they proved that families could go west by wheeled travel.
Large-scale migration started in 1843, when a wagon train of over 800 people with 120 wagons and 5,000 cattle made the six-month journey. Amidst an overwhelming chorus of naysayers who doubted their success, the so-called "Great Migration" made it safely to Oregon. Crucial to their success was the use of South Pass, a 12-mile wide valley that was virtually the sole place between the plains and Oregon where wagons could cross the formidable Rocky Mountains.

At an average rate of 11 miles a day and a death toll of about 20%, the trail was littered with discarded belongings, broken wagons, carcasses of horses, oxen and cattle and graves of those who could not survive the challenge.

By 1846, thousands of emigrants who were drawn west by cheap land, patriotism or the promise of a better life found their way to Oregon Country. With so many Americans settling the region, it became obvious to the British that Oregon was no longer theirs. They ceded Oregon Country to the United States that year.

During eight decades in the 1800s the Oregon Trail served as a natural corridor as the United States moved from the eastern half of the continent toward the west coast. The Oregon Trail ran approximately 2,000 miles west from Missouri toward the Rocky Mountains to the Willamette Valley. A trail to California branched off in southern Idaho. The Mormon Trail paralleled much of the Oregon Trail, connecting Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City.

The Oregon Trail was the Interstate 80 Highway of today. We travel it at speeds exceeding 65 miles per hour. Just stop and think what it was like to make that trip in a covered wagon over the Rocky Mountains, the Blue Mountains and finally The Cascades at the rate of 11 miles a day. Of course that would also assume that your horses or oxen or mules were healthy, your wagon didn’t break a wheel and the lack of water and adequate food or disease didn’t slow you down or end your trip.

After leaving this exhibit, I felt foolish for all the times I complained about some traffic or road construction that slowed me down or detoured me from my travel plans. I am in awe of the strength and stamina and courage and determination those pioneers must have had to make such a commitment and follow their dreams against such great obstacles and hardship. These are the people that I have a newfound respect and gratitude for what they accomplished.