Days 16 -20

Saturday, Oct. 12 to Tues., Oct. 15

We spent four nights in the Independence/Kansas City area but not all days by choice.  Saturday, October 12, we started off the morning at the  National Frontier Trails Museum  in Independence.  The museum was built by the State of Missouri with a portion of the Waggoner-Gages Mill incorporated into the building.  The old mill's locker room is now the national headquarters of the Oregon-California Trails Association.  The museum tells the story of the exploration, acquisition, and settlement of the American West. As usual we liked closely inspecting the wagons.  

Close to the Trails Center we walked a grassy block with swale remnants from the Santa Fe Trail. 

After driving around Independence looking at the old buildings and historic sites we drove out of town to a Civil War battlefield.

 We finished the afternoon with a visit to Fort Osage established in 1808 on the Missouri River.  It was the second U.S. outpost  built following the Louisiana Purchase.  In 1804 Lewis and Clark located the site as a likely place for a fort. A reconstruction of the fort overlooks the Missouri River just as it did originally.  

After leaving Fort Osage the engine light on our truck came on again.  This had been happening for several days.  Glen would clear it and a few miles down the road it would come on again.  There were no rental cars in the Kansas City area because of a football game so we spent all day Sunday hanging out in the RV park. 

  Early Monday morning we took the truck to the dealer in Independence and rented a car.  I had been looking forward to seeing the Steamboat Arabia Museum as the story of the Arabia has always fascinated me.  This was my favorite museum of the whole trip because everything there is from 1856.   These are items that would have been used by the emigrants, no question about it. 

The Steamboat Arabia sank in the Missouri River in 1856.  When found in 1988 it was a quarter mile from the river and 46 feet underground. When recovered the artifacts were remarkably preserved. Over 200 tons of cargo were recovered and there are still 60 tons to be cleaned, preserved  and cataloged.  

Artifacts from the Steamship Arabia

The truck was an easy fix and we picked it up later in the afternoon.  Our son in law’s sister is a student at the college in Marshall, Missouri, east of Independence, so we drove there to visit her. 

Our plans included a Passport in Time  http://www.passportintime.com/ archaeology project in Arizona on the way home.  We learned right after the government was shut down that it was cancelled unless the government reopened. After much discussion we decided to start for Arizona, visiting friends in Oklahoma on the way, and hoping that the government would reopen in time for our project to take place on time.

So we are headed home, one way or another.  This has been one of the longest trips we've taken in our little trailer.  We wondered how the three of us, including Chloe, would fair in tight quarters for an extended period of time.  We have had a great time and we still love our little trailer.  We have even been thinking about an even longer trip in the future. 

Oct. 18th-  The shut down ended and we start our PIT project on Monday. 

Day 15

October 11, 2013

Starting out from Topeka on Friday morning we once again had truck problems.  It would start and then die.  We headed to the closest gas station and filled up with hopefully good gas.  Glen added some fuel additive thinking that would help.   Worried that the truck would die on the Interstate we decided to take back roads to Independence.  It took all day! Well it felt like all day by the time we got there in the early afternoon.  Nearing the Kansas City area we had to drive on the Interstate.  We always try to avoid  cities when pulling the trailer as it is stressful but sometimes there is no option.  After settling in at the RV park we decided to wait until Saturday to visit the National Trails Museum and the Arabia Steamboat Museum.

I have actually caught up with this blog.  Today is Saturday, October 12^th.  Check in tomorrow for the last installment of West to East on the Oregon-California Trail.  

Day 14

Thursday, October 10^th

Thursday we drove from Wymore, Nebraska to Topeka, Kansas and stopped at four trail spots.

The Pony Express Barn in Marysville, Kansas is a stone barn, built in 1859, that was used as a Pony Express livery stable.  The first westbound rider left St. Joseph, Missouri early on the evening of April 3, 1860 and arrived in Marysville at Home Station No. 1 the next morning.  Historians differ as to his name, but local tradition says he was Johnny Fry.

The museum consists of the original stable, now the oldest building in Marshall County, and an annex with the museum displays.  The displays include information about trails, railroads, and life in 19th century Marysville, Kansas.

We read about the black squirrels found  in the town park at Marysville so we stopped there for lunch.  We watched four or five chasing each other around and running up and down the trees. It was strange to see totally dark,  solid black squirrels.  Chloe liked watching them through the screen door in the trailer.  The town protects the black squirrels and I could just see Chloe pushing open the screen door and managing to catch her first squirrel, a rare black one.  At home chasing squirrels is one of her favorite pastimes. 

Marshall’s Ferry, established in 1852, was one of three major river crossings on the St. Joseph Road to California.  It was on the west side of Marysville, Kansas.  You have to drive a couple of miles on a dusty dirt road to the park at the site of the ferry.  The site is no longer on the river as it was on an oxbow  that was eliminated when the highway was constructed.  There is a full sized replica of the rope ferry used to carry emigrants, soldiers and stagecoach travelers across the Blue River.

Eight trails crossed the river here: the Oregon, Pike’s Peak and Mormon Trails, the St. Joe Road, the stagecoach, military and Pony Express routes, and the trail followed by Otoe Indians being sent to the reservation in Oklahoma.

Alcove Spring is between Marysville and Blue Rapids.  It is off the highway about six miles on a good dirt road.  Emigrants typically arrived at Alcove Spring in late spring and often had to camp for several days waiting for the Big Blue River to go down so they could ford at Independence Crossing a quarter mile away.  

Emigrant diaries mentioned the cold, clear rushing water, the tall grass and the wildflowers.  The Donner Party camped here in the spring of 1846 and Sarah Keyes, the Reed family grandmother who was seventy years old , blind and deaf died and was buried here.  When Patty Reed was rescued in the Sierras the following winter she was found holding a lock of her grandmother’s hair.   A memorial to Sarah Keyes is just above the meadow across the road from the Alcove Spring parking area.

Sarah Keyes Memorial

Chloe and I walked the short distance to the spring.  This being early October there was no water flowing over the top but a small pool was below the overhang. 

Chloe above the spring.

As I stood there some movement in the water caught my eye and looking down I saw a fairly large snake.

Is this a banded water snake?

 Names carved into the large slabs of limestone surrounding the spring are still visible.

We were almost stuck at Alcove Spring as our truck began dying as soon as we started out.  Glen would get it going and it would die again.  We think we got some bad gasoline.  We got back to the paved road and headed towards Topeka for the night.  The truck seemed to run fine the rest of the day.  

We stopped for a short time at Scott Spring another favorite emigrant camping site. It is a roadside pullout with storyboards and a metal sculpture of a wagon.

 Whenever we see a wagon we always look for lynch pins.  This "sculpture" had lynch pins.

On to Independence tomorrow!

Days 12 and 13

Tuesday, October 8th and Wednesday, October 9th

^{We spent the next two days in towns our grandparents were born and grew up in.  My grandparents were from Washington County, Kansas and Glen’s were from Wymore and Blue Springs, Nebraska.}

 I spent most of Tuesday in the Washington County Historical and Genealogical Society in Washington, Kansas.   Glen and I toured the museum in the afternoon.  There is a room dedicated to the emigrant trail and the Pony Express.

Wednesday we stopped at Hollenberg Station, a stop on the trail and the Pony Express.

In 1854 Gerat Hollenberg settled near the trail crossing on the Black Vermillion River in Marshall County, Kansas Territory. In his small log cabin he kept a stock of goods to be sold to travelers on the trail. In 1857 Hollenberg moved his business to the present site of Hollenberg Station in Washington County. He realized that there he could capture the growing trade from the St. Joseph branch of the Oregon-California Trail as well as from the older southern branch. He began with a one-room log cabin that soon evolved into a long, narrow five-room building. 

Here he sold supplies, meals, and lodging. Over the years he added barns and sheds to house his other trail-related activities such as selling draft animals and repairing wagons. His wife was responsible for the care and feeding of the travelers who stopped at the station. Hollenberg's road ranch became involved with the Pony Express. The route went by the station, and the ranch offered all of the necessary services, such as food and shelter for both riders and horses.

On Wednesday we went to the Gage County Historical Museum in Beatrice, Nebraska and the Wymore Library in Wymore, Nebraska looking for information on Glen’s family. 

Day 11

Monday, October 7^th

Rock Creek Station is a state historical park southeast of Fairbury, Nebraska.  Deep ruts carved by wagons on the Oregon Trail are visible here.  This was a stop where everything was open for us to look at. 

Rock Creek was a popular camping spot for trappers, traders and emigrants even before the station was established.  It had good spring water, grazing, and fuel.  The creek crossing was difficult as the banks are very steep and deep. 

  John Fremont and Kit Carson camped in the area in 1842.  In front of the visitor’s center is a rock Fremont and Carson supposedly carved their names on.  The actual inscriptions aren't visible but a recreation is nearby.

 

The first settlers built Rock Creek Station in 1856.  David McCanles bought the station in 1859 and  built a toll bridge. He charged 10 to 50 cents to cross.

 

 McCanles is one of the central figures in the incident that made Rock Creek Station famous.  James Butler, later known as “Wild Bill Hickock”, worked at Rock Creek Station as a hand.  McCanles nicknamed him “Duckbill” because of his prominent nose and upper lip.  McCanles  sold the eastern station to the Pony Express and moved across the creek.  On July 12, 1861 he attempted to collect a long overdue payment from Horace Wellman, manager of the Pony Express Station.   McCanles threatened to drag Wellman from his cabin when he refused to come out to speak with him.  After some heated discussion with Hickock who was also in the cabin, Hickock  shot McCanles through the heart.  This altercation launched the gunfighting career of “Wild Bill Hickock”.

Wild Bill Hickock

There are deep swales here.  The prairie grass has recovered in most making them less visible but through the Rock Creek Station site the ruts are clearly seen.    

In 1866 Rock Creek Station became a station on the Wells Fargo Stage Line.  By 1867 traffic tapered off as the railroad pushed west.  

Day 10

Sunday, October 6^th

Glen’s mother was born in Platte Center, Nebraska.  It is a few miles north of Columbus.  We were there twenty-seven years ago on the trip with his mom and our six year olds.  In 1986 the general store Grandma grew up with was still in business.  It had a butcher shop, groceries, hardware, clothing – sort of a mini Wal-Mart.  The bank was the same as during her childhood, run by the same family.  They let our kids go into the vault.  Grandma had friends still living there.  Now it is a bedroom community for Columbus.  There is a new bank and the General Store is empty and for sale.  

We couldn’t find an RV park in the area we liked so we headed south towards Kansas and found beautiful Rock Creek Station on near Fairbury, Nebraska for our next stop.  It is on the trail and has a wonderful campground where we stayed.  More tomorrow on Rock Creek Station. 

Swale at Rock Creek Station, Nebraska

Day 9

Saturday, Oct. 5^th.

At Kearney, Nebraska we left the main trail to do some family research.   All of Glen’s grandparents were born in southeastern Nebraska and my paternal grandparents were born in northeastern Kansas.  Glen’s maternal grandmother was born in Aurora, Nebraska and it has a  museum. The Plainsman Museum  is an amazing museum for a small town and has a small local research room. 

After looking through the museum we spent the morning looking for his family names.  We were told one of the docents had lived in Aurora all his life so we asked him if he knew anything about Glen’s family.  We were all amazed to discover he and Glen are second cousins.   We spent a while talking about relatives we all know. 

We finished the day driving through the pretty town finding the houses his grandparents and great grandparents lived in and where the farm was a couple of miles northwest of town. 

Finding an RV park with wifi is a challenge in rural, southern Nebraska but we found one along Interstate 80 and hunkered down while the wind shook the trailer and a light rain tapped on the roof.  

Back on the trail tomorrow.