The Fork in the Road

So far the wagon train has traveled 1170 miles from Missouri and has arrived at Fort Hall.  Here the wagon party separated with those going to Oregon traveling north, and those bound for California turning south. 

This was the hardest part of the westward journey.  The temptation to try a "new" shortcut was
always there.  Sometimes a simple piece of paper nailed to a tree told of a new cutoff   That was enough for parties to split off after traveling together for over 1000 miles.  History records some of these disastrous cutoffs.

About  now in the journey, tempers were short, fatigue was setting in and many arguments arose during the final part of the overland journey.  Those going to California found that the Humboldt River ended in Nevada sand, which one journal described as "with a miserable stream without a water source, without a viable reason for its existence".

Facing 50 miles of desert and the miserable heat of the desert sun, many women's journal entries recorded livestock dying off in the Nevada leg of the journey.  Elizabeth Goltra's journal in August of 1853:  "This morning our cattle are sick and we hardly know the reason.  Some have died during the night.  It is the prevailing opinion that swimming in the river as choked up with dust causes irritation of the lungs in the animals."

Once past the Nevada desert the pioneers faced another 70 miles up the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada.  Ropes and chains hoisted the wagons up and down, after which there was 100 more miles through the twisting slopes of the mountains, reaching the Sacramento Valley after 2400 total miles. 

I can't imagine how arduous that trip must have been - hoisting wagons up the side of the mountain by sheer manpower...

Next time...Meanwhile on the way to Oregon...

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This Day in Pioneer History:  On June 18, 1847,  Alexander Murray, a native of Scotland and already an experienced fur trader and wilderness expert with the American Fur Company,  leads a heavily armed party into the Yukon River region of North America.