Come Quickly, Leave Quickly

The thing is, people didn't move to the West, the pioneers moved "in" the West.  The Westward movement was made of people who were often vague and unsure of their purpose, sometimes ambitious, but more uncertain of where that ambition should be rooted.  Americans were a new kind of migrants.  They didn't have a set destination. They valued the freedom to move, always looking to discover their purpose, to seek something new.  Going West wasn't a destination, it was a journey.

Communities moved for many reasons - the lack of rain, lost opportunities,  Indian attacks, railroad tracks that never came, restlessness and exhausted mines.  Many of the ghost towns were just played out resources.  The farming towns moved on more gradually.  When the soil was too dry, or too wet, when they had to struggle too hard to grow crops, they moved on.  These towns were quickly settled and quickly abandoned like the mining towns.  The difference is the miners left everything behind to find a rich new resource.  The farming communities took it with them.  Both left the shell of a community behind them and took the spirit with them.

Ghost towns like those encountered in the Great Plains were of another sort entirely.  They gradually declined until they completely disappeared.  Sometimes they would remain partially inhabited as crossroad settlements or small villages for a period of time before disappearing entirely.  The abandoned buildings would be dismantled for the lumber which was scarce and worth too much money and labor to leave behind, 

When the town of Nininger, Minnesota went into decline, much of the town was physically dismantled and moved to another location.  The machinery of the sawmill itself was sold in pieces in 1860.  The Handyside Home, a hotel for 50 guests, was taken to the neighboring town of Hastings.  The Masonic Lodge purchased Tremont Hill and moved it to Cottage Grove.   Then the town of Cottage Grove, which had went from a population of 500 in 1837 to 1000 in 1858, would decline in just eight years to 469 by the 1860s.  By  1869 none of the original buildings remained,  the entire village had disappeared.  

Many towns like Newport, Wisconsin on the banks of the Wisconsin River began to decline for nothing more than the railroad was built on the other side of the river. The town had expected to be a railroad hub but a change in location meant that the last log house was taken down the river in 1880 long after the town itself lay abandoned.  

These "Bedouins of America" survived any number of trans-plantings.  Could they have survived if they had stayed in the exhausted mining towns, on the drought-ridden farms, the towns the railroad forgot?  We don't know,  but we do know they didn't want to just survive, they wanted to prosper.  It wasn't enough to move if they didn't see it being prosperous.  The West had a pattern - come quickly, and if it wasn't what was expected - to leave just as quickly.

Next time...Getting around the West

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Today in Pioneer History: "On August 24,  1873, William Henry Jackson became the first person to photograph Colorado's Mount of the Holy Cross, providing proof that it existed. It had been rumored that a natural cross of snow lay hidden in the mountains of Colorado.  Jackson had photographed Yellowstone and many wagon trains earlier in his career.  His photo, with the early morning sun shining over it became one of his most famous photos.  

This Land in My Land

Traveling back in time to a wide open West.  Before the Gold Rush.  A nearly empty continent west of the Allegheny Mountains.  The Great Land Rush of the 19th century in America.  When there was no government rule, just land for the taking.  Or was there?

The western public lands were technically under the control of the Federal government headquartered in the East.  The belief was that you could not deal with land at a distance without an accurate definition of what you were dealing with.  This led to surveying the lands into rectangle townships - each six miles square with 36 sections, each a mile square of 640 acres.  The sale of these large tracts of land to those in the East with money seemed the simplest and most orderly way of settling the West.  Beginning with Ohio in 1803 (the first public land state) the government kept the title to all ungranted land with the exception of that for education.  Nice and orderly...

That's not how it actually happened though...the first settlers, called "squatters" were those that got there first and they didn't wait for any laws or deeds to tell them they owned the land.  They cared less and knew even less what the government said.  To have waited for protection by law would have been to lose all the advantages of being there first.  So they made their own laws.

These settlers came without proper documentation, nor the intention of adhering to any program or surveys.  They stopped here, they stopped there, according to how the land looked, how the wagon was faring, if the oxen were tired.  More times than not they didn't stay put and moved on - not really knowing where their final destination was, but hoping for the best land.  However orderly and neat might the Federal plan be, the settlement of the West was anything but that - nearly all westward movement in America in the 19th century was a land rush.

Next time...building a system of laws.

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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 15, 1846, the Oregon Treaty is signed between the US and Great Britain, establishing the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia as the boundary between the United States and British Canada.  The United States gained control of the Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana while the British retained Vancouver Island and navigation rights to part of the Columbia River. 

Fremont Finally Gets His

The Bear Flag Rebellion followed after a formal declaration of war between the USA and Mexico on May 1846.  Fremont returned from Oregon to march south at the head of the so-called California Battalion, made up of the remaining men of his "survey expedition" party.

In 1847 the general arrested Fremont, charging him with "disobeying orders, military and conduct prejudical to military interests".  He was ordered back to Washington to stand court martial.  the court was lenient because of his popularity and permitted him to retain his commission.  Fremont rejected the offer, resigned from the army, and convinced himself he was a martyr of the Manifest Destiny.  Unbelievable...

Next time...Goodbye to Missouri and the Rockies
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 This Day in History:  On November 20, 1843, the Blacksnake Hills, the growing community along the banks of the Missouri River adopts the more impressive St. Joseph as its name.

Oil and Water = Horse Thief?

John Charles Fremont's third expedition was westward from Montana to Pueblo Colorado which at that time was a collection of huts where the undesirables of the Southwest hung out - among them Crazy Bill Williams.  Fremont appointed Williams to pilot the rest of his expedition along with his Ute wife.  By this time Crazy Bill's drinking and temper had worsened to the point of causing real problems on the trail.

The group caught up with Walker on the White River in Utah where Fremont finally convinced Walker to pilot his remaining expedition.  Walker was headed to California with furs and horses, and probably Fremont was headed that same course.  Remember that Fremont had been hired to survey the Southwest, not California!

Shortly after joining up with Fremont, Captain Walker and Crazy Bill Williams got into it with Williams claiming that Walker had taken over his job (which he had).  Sometime in the night Williams left, taking two of Walker's best horses with him.  A horse thief is never well liked...

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This Day in History: On November 10, 1808, in a decision that would eventually make them one of the wealthiest surviving Indian nations, the Osage Indians agree to abandon their lands in Missouri and Arkansas in exchange for a reservation in Oklahoma.The Osage were the largest tribe of the Southern Sioux Indians occupying what would later become the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Next Time...Trouble in California

Wagon Train Captains and Pilots

Wagon Trains had 2  principal officers - the captain and the pilot.  Captains were men who organized the caravan initially, or were elected once the train was formed.  He was the administrator and also the judge.  He established the order, drew up the roster for duty and settled quarrels which were many and bitter.

Pilots,  or guides like Walker, actually led the train once it started westward and made the day to day
tactical decisions.  Pilots were responsible for where they traveled, how they traveled, where they made camp, as well as how they guarded livestock, forded creeks, made and mended equipment, dealt with the Indians, and survived the trip in general.  Pilots were usually veterans and the ones to soothe fears and boost morales.

A perfect role for Captain Walker...

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This Day in History:  On October 16,  1815, the sadistic and murderous western gunman,  William Preston Longley, later known as Wild Bill,  is born in Austin County, Texas.

Next time...Inexperienced and Packin' Heat

Missing Walker Changes Careers?

Between 1842- 1843, nothing is known about the whereabouts of Captain Joseph Walker was - it is assumed he returned to his wife's people in Snake country.  Maybe they started their family during this period?

Walker emerged driving a pack train in 1843, loaded with furs and sold them at Fort Laramie where he found his first party of settlers headed west.  For the next several years, Walker led wagon trains west.  Most of the trains were settlers from Missouri who no doubt knew Captain Walker from his days of Sheriff and landowner. 

Walker's rate for piloting settlers to California was $300 - there was such a thing as the Oregon Trail in California.  California was a foreign land and travel was unknown and extremely difficult. At that time Oregon was thought to be a more suitable, respectable place to live whereas California was thought to be wild country, full of Mexicans, cowboys, sailors and Catholics :)
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This Day in Wild West History:   On October 13, 1845,  a majority of the citizens of the independent Republic of  Texas approved a proposed constitution, that when accepted by the Congress, made Texas the 28th American state.
Next time...Walker the Pilot

The Year of Indian Violence

Captain Joe Walker no doubt knew about his brother, Joel's plans and travels.  He had many friends and contacts who would have updated him about his brother.  During this time Joe returned from California, stopped to pick up his wife, rest his horses and then set off for Missouri.  Stopping on the present day Wyoming-Colorado-Nebraska border to make buffalo jerky.

The summer of 1841 was a violent one where Indians were concerned. The Cheyenne attacked a wagon train.  The Sioux harassed a party of traders and attacked a settlement in Iowa where they took 14 Delaware scalps.  A band of Osage returning to Missouri from a hunting and fishing trip in Texas, brought back 2 white women as captives that they have purchased from the Comanche.

The white man and Indian relationship was changing - and next time we look at the two eras of their relationship.

Through the Valley of the Shadow...

By the third day in the desert, the men were mortally thirsty, frightened and rebellious.  They demanded that Walker turn back and continue the longer route where there was at least water. 

Captain Walker was not one to change his course based on what his men said, but this time, by midnight he yieldedto the wishes of his men, and as it was cooler at night, they started back towards the Sierra mountains.

Two bad days and nights followed which reduced the party to drinking the blood of some of the cattle.  No one died, however, and once they found the route again, they reached Humboldt Sink by June 18 without further ado.

Time to reunite with old friends and enemies...next time.

Meanwhile Back at the Fort

Meanwhile as the rendezvous disaster was going on in 1832 between the Blackfoot and the trappers,  Captain Walker and Bonneville were in the Plains and ignorant of the happenings out West.  Somewhere along the way a member the American Fur Trading Company had lured all the Delaware Indians away from their expedition by offering them $400 for a single trapping season - more than double the normal pay scale.

Bonneville had a new plan - to build a fort on the Green River at Horse Creek and use that as the expedition's base for the year.  Apparently no one had asked Walker what he thought and he had his objections to Bonneville's plan. 

First the site was a terrible choice for winter camp as  the Green River was wide and exposed to the wind - it was a "damn cold place" as Walker said.  In 3 months it could be buried in 4 feet of snow, making it impossible for the horses and mules to eat  The hunting and trapping were poor as well.

In the end Walker lost to Bonneville and Cerre and the building began...15 foot cottonwood posts were built.  This fort had to accommodate 110 men, most of their horses and two block houses inside the walls.

Was it a wise choice?  Next time "Fort Nonsense"...

White Plume

In 1832 the expedition left Fort Osage with more supplies than needed for 5 expeditions - 110 men, extra horses and mules for each man, 20 freight wagons...traveling west through Kansas and north along the Platte River Valley, they met the first Indians in Kansas.

White Plume was a long winded chief, a begger and a scalawag.  Bonneville thought him a fine fellow nevertheless and wanted to discuss "white bee hunters" who conduct was disrespecting Indian territory, but Walker was not impressed

Walker had known White Plume back at Council Grove in 1825 at the Santa Fe Trail Treaty.  Those "white bee hunters" were also most likely Walkers relatives!

Next time...to the Rockies