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.  

Day 8

Friday, Oct. 4^th

We stopped at Minden, Nebraska  so we could go through the Harold Warp Pioneer Village Museum on Friday. 

  This museum is incredible.  There are several huge buildings filled with all kinds of things and many smaller historic buildings filled with collections.  The place  was opened in 1953 and is sort of an artifact in itself.   The collection of wagons, buggies, and old cars is one of the best we have ever seen.

 As you walk through the large building above you are all kinds of old planes.  There are large collections of anything you can think of from all eras;  telephones, guns, machinery, dishes, televisions, radios, musical instruments, appliances, clothing, toys and others I don’t remember.    The Hobby Building had glass cases filled with literally thousands of ball point pens from different businesses and countless salt and pepper shakers.  Another large building had an example of a kitchen, living room and bedroom from the 1830s to the 1980s.  Smaller buildings included a soddy, a church, a log cabin, a school, a firehouse and others filled with varied collections.  I can’t think of anything they didn't have a collection of at this museum.  We spent the whole morning there.  

Not far from Minden is Fort Kearney.   This was an important stop on the emigrant trail. It was established in 1848 along the Platte River to protect travelers on the trail and served as a way station, sentinel post, supply depot and message center for the emigrants bound for California and the Pacific Northwest. 

It was a home station for the Pony Express, an outfitting depot for Indian campaigns and home of the Pawnee Scouts.  The grounds are extensive but only the stockade, parade grounds and blacksmith shop have been rebuilt. The small museum has interesting displays of artifacts found during archaeological excavations at the site.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer at Grand Island, Nebraska.  

The beautiful main building has exhibits of period rooms, tools, household articles and furnishings depicting Nebraska’s history from 1860 to 1920.  There is another large building focusing on Native American and western artifacts.  The grounds are the size of a small town and contain all the buildings you would find in a late 19th century Nebraska town.  Again the season prevented us from going through the smaller buildings.  We were there 27 years ago with our two six year olds and I remembered much of the little town as we drove through it.

Comparing the three museums we visited is interesting.

 The Pioneer Village was started as a private collection and is now run by a foundation.  It is a collection of thousands and thousands of things, some in display cases and some just lined up in buildings. There is a lot to look at, mostly without any description or dates.   Things are right next to each other with no  empty space.  The large buildings were built to be functional rather than beautiful. 

The Fort Kearney Museum is there to explain the historical site and to display the artifacts found there. It is government run, well maintained and minimal. 

The Stuhr Museum main building is beautiful.  It looks like an art gallery.  In fact the first floor is entirely an art gallery with all the paintings and pieces for sale.  You cross a bridge over a huge circular moat to go into the main building. Inside the displays are well spaced with descriptions of all objects and large story boards with photographs describing the artifacts and era.  There is a life size  exhibit of a typical emigrant camp on the prairie with covered wagon, campfire, buffalo chips, etc. 

So which was our favorite?  We liked the Pioneer Village.  There was so much to see it was almost overwhelming.  Everything wasn't pretty.  It looked old and used because it was.   I suppose you need to think about the audience the museum is attracting.  Children wouldn't be happy spending an entire morning at the Pioneer Village looking at old things.  The displays at the Stuhr Museum would be of more interest to children.  It even had a special corner where children could play.  Minden, Kearney and Grand Island, Nebraska should be stops for anyone traveling through Nebraska.  These were great museums to visit.   

Day 7

Thursday, Oct. 3rd

We woke to a cloudy, windy day and got a very late start.   Instead of traveling east on Interstate 80 we took 30, a two lane highway with very little traffic.  It goes through small towns every few miles and has many pull offs with historic markers.  I could still use Franzwa’s Map book to follow our proximity to the trail as we traveled.  The trail, Highway 30 and the Interstate all pretty much parallel each other across this part of Nebraska.   The NPS Guide for Nebraska mentioned the 1864 Indian Wars that occurred along the trail and that the Dawson County Historical Museum  in Lexington had more information about the wars.  This was exciting because my family traveled across the trail in 1864 and their wagon train was attacked. We stopped at the museum.

Dawson County Historical Museum

My grandmother told me about her father’s trip across the Oregon Trail riding the big white horse as a young boy but she never mentioned their train was attacked by Indians.  I discovered this at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City several years ago. 

The paragraph below is about William Summers, a neighbor of my family in Iowa.

In the spring of 1864 he assisted in organizing a party for a trip to California.  His father, brothers John and George, and sister Mary A. were of the party.  They had an outfit, a pair of horses, two cows, and several loose horses.  On reaching Omaha the elder Summers went to visit a neighbor, Thomas Johnson, who was with a large party camped not far off.  He stopped with them all night, and the next morning his own train started without him, and he did not find it again until they all arrived at Boise City, Idaho.  The Summers party escaped collision with the Indians, while the larger train with which his father was then traveling, was attacked, their stock stampeded, and one man killed.
From Portrait and Biographical Album of Henry Co., Iowa

Thomas Johnson, mentioned above, is my great-great-grandfather.  I wanted to find out more about the 1864 Indian Wars along the Oregon Trail. 

Thomas Johnson

The Southern Cheyenne, the Arapahoes and the Sioux gathered in the summer of 1864 and planned and executed an attack on the trail between Julesburg, on the South Platte in the west and Kiowa Station on the Little Blue River in the east.  Attacks had become more common than usual during the summer and  on August 7^th they attacked stage coaches, emigrant trains, freight wagon trains, stations and ranches all along the route.  At Plum Creek, in Dawson County, Nebraska,  men were killed and women and children taken as captives. 

The museum at Lexington has a research room and a small museum.  While Glen and I walked around the museum a very nice docent looked up information about the 1864 Indian Wars for me.  I had an article copied and bought a book.   I didn’t find any reference to my family and the Indian Wars specifically but the attack on their train was certainly related.  

The Johnson Boys

The Johnson family, one of the first families to settle in Iowa after the Black Hawk War, had a prosperous farm in New London, Iowa.  In 1864 it was sold and they left for Walla Walla. There was no family story that I know of about why this occurred.  I have recently found all the older boy's names on an 1864 Civil War draft list online.  They all returned to Iowa in 1866, after the war.  My conclusion is that they were avoiding the draft.  

We stopped at Minden, Nebraska planning to spend the next day at several museums that turned out to be very different.

Day 6

Oct. 2, 2013

We drove towards Fort Laramie knowing it would be closed and sure enough it was. 

We stopped at  the Fort Laramie Bridge  and walked across it.

From the Story Board

Glen on the Bridge

Once again feeling discouraged by the closures we continued east.  The Western History Center is on Highway 26 at Lingle, Wyoming.   It is a small museum,  looked interesting and it was open so we stopped.  It was great. The guide, Will, was so friendly and could tell us about every exhibit.   The exhibits display artifacts found in archaeological excavations done by the local college.  There are also displays of dinosaur, mammoth and other prehistoric fossils.  More fossil exhibits are downstairs as well as a very cool mineral display you can see under ultra violet light.

We moved on towards Scotts Bluff knowing what we would find – more closures.  After looking at the locked gate at Scotts Bluff we drove east towards Nebraska.

 Ash Hollow is a State Park and I thought it would be open at least for us to walk around.  This time it wasn't the Government Shutdown that kept us out but the season.  They closed after Labor Day. 

Traveling in October we don’t have the oppressive heat of the mid-west in summer.  We have had a few days of clouds and some rain but it isn't cold.  We have the campgrounds almost to ourselves.  But these benefits don’t outweigh the disappointment of not seeing places we planned on visiting. 

Ogallala, Nebraska was our stop for the night.  Will anything be open tomorrow?  Check back to find out.

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Day 5

October 1, 2013

Fort Caspar closed the day before we got there.  We could go into the museum and walk around the grounds but the actual fort buildings were locked.  The museum is nice and it has a great book store.

At this site was the Platte Bridge built in 1858-59 by Louis Guinard.  It was used by the emigrants.  There were  28 rock filled log cribs on 30 ft. centers spanning 1,000 feet across the river.  

Crib bridges were built for crossing rivers in the Sierras on the trails we work on but they would typically have two or three cribs.  This bridge wasn’t long lived as it burned in 1867. 

River today at Fort Caspar

Buildings at Fort Caspar

At this point in our trip the Government Shutdown hit us.  We drove up the hill to the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper and the gate was LOCKED!  We had driven all that way and probably wouldn't be back again for a long time, if ever, and it was closed!  

As an alternative we headed east to Douglas, Wyoming and the Wyoming Pioneer Memorial Museum.  It doesn't look like a big museum from the outside but there are six large galleries filled with interesting exhibits.   Glen spent a lot of time looking at the display of guns.  They have a wide selection of early cap and ball rifles and shotguns.  He carefully checks out every wagon we see.  He is always looking for a “real” emigrant wagon.  Here he saw a civil war era military wagon that had lynch pins held in by cotter pins.  Although this wasn't an emigrant wagon he was excited to see the lynch pins. A lynch pin is a tapered pin with a head that secured the wheel onto the axle.  Generally on civilian wagons they were only used up to the early 1850’s.  

Our next stop was the Guernsey Ruts or Deep Rut hill, near Guernsey, Wyoming.  These are really impressive.  There is a paved walkway and signboards leading uphill to the ruts. 

Chloe in the Ruts

Some ruts here are six feet deep in solid sandstone, carved by thousands of wagons going over the hill.  Nearby is the grave of Lucindy Rollins, an emigrant who died in 1849.

Register Cliff is also nearby.  The trail runs right under the cliff. Emigrants carved their names in the soft sandstone.  Unfortunately most have been vandalized and the only dates you can really make out
are from the 20^th century. 

Realizing that Fort Laramie, a place we have always wanted to visit, would be closed due to the shutdown we spent the night at the town of Fort Laramie anyway.  We figured we could at least get a glimpse of the place the next day.  For details on our travels from Fort Laramie to Ogallala, Nebraska return tomorrow.  

Day 4

Monday, Sept. 30^th, was fun.  Taking our own “cutoff”,  we didn't meet up with the trail until the Lombard Ferry on the Green River near Farson, Wyoming. I prepared for this trip by accumulating a collection of books I thought would be helpful while traveling near the trail. 

The following are the books I have with me:

Traveling the Oregon Trail by Julie Fanselow -  This book hits the high spots to see but has little detail and no diary quotes

National Historic Trails – Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guides – National Park Service – There is a different booklet for each state.  They are also a good guide for points to stop along the trail but with little detail. 

California Trail Yesterday and Today, Mormon Trail Yesterday and Today , and Oregon Trail Yesterday and Today, three books by William E. Hill   - These have pictures of spots along the trail comparing an historic photo or drawing to the present day view.  There are diary quotes but they aren’t organized to easily find a quote for the place you are stopping at.   There is a list of stopping points and museums with a short description.   I haven’t used these as much as I probably should.

AAA Guide Books – I haven’t found them very helpful.  I liked the old format better.

The Oregon Trail Revisited by Gregory Franzwa   - This is my favorite!  The detail is incredible.  I can’t imagine how long it took him to research and write this 400 page book.  Included are detailed descriptions of how to get to trail segments off the beaten path.  We aren't doing that as we are pulling the trailer and haven’t stopped long enough to unhook and explore.  It was originally published in 1972.  My edition was revised in 1988 but that was still before GPS.   Coordinates for stops would really be helpful.  There are great diary quotes and descriptions – lots of detail. 

Maps of he California Trail   by Gregory Franzwa -    This is a book of detailed trail maps. I have both Franzwa’s  books open on my lap  to the area we are traveling in. 

As Glen drives I tell him which side of the road the trail is on or how far off the road it is and I read him the diary quotes and area descriptions.  On Monday this kept me busy all the time as the route from Farson to Casper has lots of great trail stops.  My biggest problem using all these books is working backwards.  They are organized from east to west and we are traveling west to east so I have to work from the back of the book towards the front.   I lose my place all the time.  

Wyoming has great historical marker signs along the highway and we stop at every one, read it, take pictures and sometimes walk around.  The wind was fierce on Monday and there were flashing advisories against traveling the road with light trailers.  Glen didn't think ours qualified as light.  If a Casita isn’t light I don’t know what is.  Anyway we made it. 

Some of the favorite stops were:

Big Hill – This was the biggest hill the emigrants had to cross so far.  You can see the trail from the highway on the hill in the distance.

From the Storyboard at the Stop

South Pass Overlook – This is one everyone stops at.  I could just see wagons coming over that hill as I stood looking at it.

Split Rock -  A landmark the emigrants looked for.

Devil’s Gate – Another landmark for the emigrants.

Independence Rock -  We stopped here in 1986 on a trip with our two six year olds and Grandma across the country.  We traveled in a cabover camper .  What a trip!  When I taught 4^th grade the kids played the “Oregon Trail” computer game at school.  Independence Rock was in the game and “Johnson” was a name carved by emigrants on the rock.  I always imagined it was my great grandfather who did it.  Yesterday I looked at a book listing all the names found on the rock and it wasn't him.  Oh well. 

This is probably more than anyone wants to read.  But if you want to follow the trail from Casper to Fort Laramie with us check in tomorrow. 

Dee