The Oregon Trail

One of the greatest emigrant trails to the Northwest was the Oregon Trail which ran from Independence, Missouri to the Columbia River in Oregon. It crossed 2000 miles of rugged terrain, including some of the fiercest Indian territory in the West.

The trail was first used by fur trappers, traders and missionaries, but in the 1840s the trail became jammed with emigrants moving west - wagon trains of 12,000 settlers in 10 years during the early settlement of the West.

The first overland settlers started on the Oregon Trail in 1841 with 70 emigrants from Independence, MO, following the route west along the Platte River, through the Rocky Mountains via the South Pass in Wyoming and then northwest to the Columbia River.  From then on, it was called the Oregon Trail.


In 1842 a larger group of 100 pioneers made the 2000 mile journey and the next year the number soared to 1000. The wagon train which left from Elm Grove, MO, included 100 wagons and a herd of 5000 oxen and cattle.  Dr. Elijah White, a Presbyterian missionary who had made the trip the year before served as the guide. During that year, 1843, a severe depression was hitting the Midwest and farmers in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee hoped to find better lives in the reported paradise of Oregon.

The Oregon Trail was used the longest, even after railroads replaced much of the wagon routes in 1884, cattle and sheep drives found the trail a good path. Today there are still places that you can visit the deep ruts in the trail where wagon carried settlers west to a better life.

Next time...the Great Oregon Flood

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Oregon Territory

In 1818 a US-British agreement established the 49th parallel from Lake of the Woods and east to the Rocky Mountains as the borders of Oregon Territory.  The two nations agreed to a 10 year joint occupation of the territory which was extended another 10 years in 1827.  By 1838, the ownership of the Oregon Territory had become quite controversial with the start of the migration along the Oregon Trail.

American expansionists urged that the US take control of Oregon and in 1844 Democrat James Polk ran for president under the platform "fifty-four or fight" referring to his hope of bringing a sizable portion of present day Vancouver and Alberta into the United States. The US and British had no desire to fight another war, so on June 15, 1846, the Oregon Treaty which was a compromise, was signed extending the US and Canadian border west along the 49th parallel just short of the Pacific Ocean.

The Treaty of Oregon Territory gave the US control over the future states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.  The British retained control of Vancouver Island and navigation right to part of the Columbia River.

America's First National Park

In 1872 President Grant signs the bill creating the first national park at Yellowstone. Earlier in the year, Congress had set aside 1,221,773 acres of public land in the future states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho as America's first national park. The Yellowstone Act designated the region as a public "pleasuring-ground" which would be preserved "from injury or spoilation of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within".

Native Americans had lived and hunted in the Yellowstone region for hundreds of years before the white settler came.  Abundant game and mountain streams teaming with fish attracted the Indians to the region, along with the geysers, canyons, and gurgling mud pots that fascinated them.

The first white people to travel through this area in the early 1800s returned with fantastic stories of steaming geysers and bubbling cauldrons.  Some doubters accused these men of telling tall tales.  The first formal expedition into the area in 1869, but it in 1871 the exploration that would be the key to the founding of Yellowstone as a national park was sponsored by the US Government.

The US geologist, Ferdinand Hayden, explored the Yellowstone area in 1871 along with William Jackson, a pioneer photographer, and Thomas Moran, a landscape artist.  Making a visual record of the expedition, they provided the first visual proof of Yellowstone's wonders and caught the attention of the US Congress.

Although America was hell bent on settling and exploiting the West it seems, Yellowstone was a surprising change.  Many members of Congress supported the national park idea simply because they believed the rugged and isolated region was of little economic value.

The Yellowstone Act of 1872 set a precedent and popularized the idea of preserving sections of public domain for use as public parks.  The idea not only spread around the country, but to other nations as well.
As an American, I am so grateful that President Grant saw the magnificent  beauty of Yellowstone and preserved it for future generations.

Next time...Off to Oregon

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Ft Benton 1875

Fort Benton Record, February 5, 1875

"Our usually quiet burg was disturbed in its serenity on the night of the 12th through an attempt to murder.
Mr. Moses Soloman, in Company of Mr. Jeff Perkins, proceeded to the saloon of the later to take a drink, as all the other saloons in the area being closed at the time and most folks abed.


Perkins placed a bottle and some tumblers on the counter, reached under the counter and presented a revolver without a word and shot Soloman, the bullet striking him in the right breast. Soloman retreated and endeavored to reach the door and had his hand on the knob when Perkins again fired, the ball striking Soloman in the hand.  In Soloman's attempt to open the door, Perkins fired again but had no effect this time.

By this time, people were aroused and Judge Mills, Mr. Conroy, and Mr. Tillman knocked Perkins down and took the revolver from him.  But for the interference, Perkins would undoubtedly have completed his work. Soloman was carried to his own house and is now under treatment by Dr. W E Turner, USA"

 

The Cost of Civilization

Lewiston Democrat 1900
"Hale and hearty at the age of 72 years, Mose has been up against the real thing as evidenced by 9 separate gunshot wounds that have left their impression on his person.  One shot went through his lungs, but Mose is none the worse for it.  He figured in many Indian encounters since 1864, all the way from Fort Benton to Fort Peck and from Cypress Hill to the Missouri River.

Now where Mose used to hunt buffalo and trade with the Indians, he crosses the great Judith Basin through barbed wire lanes and growing fields.  Mose has been overtaken by civilization.  The Great Northern spans the Marias River in front of his house, the traffic of a great railway rumbles at his door"


How many of us today know family businesses and homes that have gone the way of the great interstate highways?

Close Encounters of the Glove Kind

Gold brought Isador Strassburger to Montana after its discovery of gold in 1861.  His journal relates a robbery in his writings:

" Had some experience with George Ives.  It was Sunday when he came in on horseback in front of my store and demanded a pair of gloves.  When I could not comply with his request, he drew a six-shooter, leveled it at me and me an SOB coaxed me for the gloves.  Being afraid to advance or retreat, I tried to reassure him of his waywardness and with a few more words, he took an axe that I had for sale and to my utter astonishment, left me unharmed and departed.  A few months later, he went to the happy hunting ground by way of the rope."

George Ives was a member of the infamous Plummer Gang in the time following the 1863 discovery of gold in the Black Hills. Bold and brutal, he came to a bad end with a murder, trial and hanging. They still hang him in effigy every year during "Vigilante Days" in Virginia City, MT There is also a legend that his ghost still haunts the site of his hanging!

Vigilantism Gone Bad

Local hell raiser Jack Slade stood out even among the many rabble-rousers who inhabited the frontier mining towns of Virginia City, Montana.  When he was sober, townspeople like and respected Slade through there were unconfirmed rumors he had once been a thief and a murderer.  When drunk, Slade had a habit of firing his guns in bars and making threats, although not hurting anyone, they began to disturb others and fuel the rumors that he was a dangerous man.

The Montana Vigilantes decided to hang Jack Slade in 1864 and took him into custody.  Slade who had committed no serious crime, pleaded for his life and at least a chance to say goodbye to his wife.  Before she could arrive, the vigilantes hung him. 

Not long after the questionable execution, legitimate courts and prisons began to function in Virginia City.  Though sporadic vigilante justice continued until 1867, it increasingly became the public's concern.  In March 1867, miners in one Montana mining district posted a notice in the local newspaper that they would hang 5 vigilantes for every one man they hung.  Seems they weren't so intent on serving justice in lieu of that notice and vigilantism faded out quickly.