Jumping Off Points

Captain Walker and his wife arrived
in Missouri and spent the winter of 1841-42 in Jackson County.  Much of his extended family still lived there, some so young he had never seen them before.  The migration fever had reached epidemic proportions by then in Missouri where supplies had even made Independence and St. Joseph "jumping off points" - places where wagon trains would make final preparations, dispose of unnecessary item, and buy supplies they had forgotten.  Local merchants bought at rock bottom prices from travelers to sell again at high profit.

Outfitters, invested trader, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, life insurance salesmen, and guidebook salesmen - it was a bustling and hustling time for Missouri!

Next time - California or Bust!

Due to Technical Issues with Blogger - I can not update "On this Day in History"...so I will add one to each day a post is made.  Sorry :(

On October 7  1816 in Old West History:  
A steamboat with a design that will soon prove ideal for western rivers arrives at the docks in New Orleans. The Washington was the work of a shipbuilder named Henry M. Shreve, who had launched the steamboat earlier that year on the Monongahela River just above Pittsburgh