Railroad Consultant

The biggest news of the 1850s was of course the railroad.  The technology existed for laying a railroad, but there was little information about where it could be easily and economically built.
Joe Walker, being one of the last and most respected trappers and traders who knew the West country beyond familiar trails, found himself in great demand as a geographical consultant.

In late 1853, a group of politicians invited Walker to speak about rail routes in Sacramento.  Walker's four page report offered two routes he thought reliable for rail due to grades, water and wood supplies.

Both of Walker's routes left California through Walker's Pass,  one across the 25th parallel across Arizona and New Mexico to Santa Fe and from there across the plains.  The second ran from Walker's Pass north along the eastern Sierra to Humboldt Sink to Salt Lake along well traveled wagon trails.

None of the rails were ever laid through Walker Pass.  Both of the trails blazed in the first half of 19th century lie beneath beds of slate and national highways.

Next Time...One Man Out of Many

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This Day in History: On December 18. 1888,  Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law stumble upon the magnificent ancient Indians ruins of Mesa Verde while searching for stray cattle in the isolated canyons of southwest Colorado.

Traitor!!

In March of 1849 when the snows subsided, Crazy Bill Williams and Dr. Kern, two survivors of the relief party went back into the mountains to salvage the notes and equipment Fremont had deserted.  The two were never seen again, but stories came down that they were captured by the Ute's (whom Williams had betrayed). Kern was killed in the skirmish and Williams was taken captive and executed as a traitor to his people and his wife's people.  Thus ends the life of one Crazy Bill Williams who had traveled with the best of the western mountain men, including Captain Joe Walker, Kit Carson, and Jim Bridger.  

Next time...Rancher in California
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This Day in History:  On December 4, 1867,  former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Grange, which became a powerful political force among western farmers. Although the Grange, like the Masons, began primarily as a social organization designed to provide educational and recreational opportunities for farmers, it evolved into a major political force.  The Grange also played a key role in creating the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which called for the first federal regulation of railroads to control unfair shipping rates.

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

19th Century Pharisees

September 13, 1840  Joel Walker arrives in Willamette Valley where they intended to set up land.  With all safely
through the mountains, they were in good spirits.  The first settlement was a Methodist mission where they were denied dinner because it was the Sabbath, but they were invited to evening prayer for a "spiritual meal".

I am going to get personal here for a moment...this makes me,  a Methodist, wonder if they had read the story of healing on the Sabbath, let alone feeding the hungry.  What good is religion if we refuse to practice it by helping others - Pharisees alive in the 19th century Oregon indeed!

Joel Walker later said, "the Methodist mission was not much liked". Well duh!  No wonder Protestants were not popular with fur men and early settlers.  In the same Methodist camp, Reverend Asahel Munger, determined to work miracles for the edification of the Indians, nailed his hand to a fireplace mantel and proceeded to roast to death on the mission hearth.  How that helped represent religion to the Native Americans is beyond me...more of how stupid white men could be!

Next time ...Restless but Successful Joel.

What Make A Good Wife?

Honorable actions like Walker's with regards to the Native American tribes enhanced not out their reputations but

those of potential others as well.  Men like Bridger and Walker cared for the Native Americans because they were their own people.  They acted as warriors in a way the tribes found honorable.  From 1820 onward, the American westering ideals grew.

With few exceptions these white men took Indian wives, not savagely, but properly in tribal custom.  Native women were one of the greatest attractions and rewards of the West according to these mountain men.  They were fascinated by their beauty, style, liveliness, erotic and domestic behavior.

Courtship rituals were neither long nor elaborate.  Marriage was a natural part of life, usually arranged and only after the groom had made proper payment to the bride's family.  A marrying woman was worth at least 1 horse, in some tribes a dozen, worth $500-$1000.  If you rustled these horses it was a tribal felony for which the bride's father and brothers would hunt you down.  No record exists of any mountain men obtaining a wife by these means.

Next time...What makes a good wife Part 2

The Good Samaritan

One story of the 1840s contributed to the legend of Joe Walker.  Joe Meek had become a loner in the fur business by the 1840s.  He set out for Fort Davy Crockett some 200 miles away on the Green River.  With not enough pelts to make the winter's provisions, or even  buy clothing, he started out on foot to meet his wife and son.

Along the way Meek was met by one of the early western tourists, Thomas Jefferson Farnham, a Vermont lawyer who wanted to establish a commune out west.  When he saw Meek he judged him to be very poor and without sufficient clothing.  Just after meeting Farnham, Meek reportedly fell on his rifle and was wounded. 

Without food, October was growing colder and Meek was growing weaker when 15 miles outside of Fort Crockett, Meek decided to stop and rest. If Walker hadn't have come by, Meek would have surely frozen to death, but Walker gave him buffalo jerky, furnished him with a horse and carried him to his destination.

Fort Crockett, by the way, was not really a fort, but was a one story building made of wood and clay with 3 sheds attached.  There was, however, good water,  pasture and good hunting nearby.  It was a favorite winter camp for remaining trappers and traders.

Next Time...Horse Thieves

Searching the Sierras...

May 1, 1834, Walker's party found a spring in Owens Valley and said goodbye to a few more restless men of the exploration party, namely Bill Williams, Bill Craig, and Joe Meek who were tired of the tight discipline Walker required of his men.  Ironically once they left Captain Walker, they ran a muck in New Mexico and Arizona.


Meanwhile, Walker traveled North skirting Death Valley and the Nevada barrens, following the eastern foothills of the Sierras.  It was a safe route with abundant pasture and water.  However, they took the long way because Captain Walker reasoned that if they headed into the dessert on a northeast diagonal they would would cover less ground in the end. 

On May 10, they turned away from the Sierras into the dessert...which makes me wonder if there is ever any good reason to go into a dessert??  We will find out next time...

Fort Nonsense

The fort was named Fort Bonneville but it was a well known truth throughout the West that a better name was Fort Nonsense.

Looking back it was a good summer camp and easily accessed by wagon trains for supplies an safe from the Indians, but it lacked food and pasture.  A great  location, it was centrally located to most warring tribes in the mountains and the plains.

Fort Nonsense controlled the Snake River Pass from Oregon to California, and repelled anyone  coming from the Pacific Ocean.  Hmmm - remember Bonneville's true reason for partnering with Walker on this expedition?

Walker did not take part in the construction of the fort but went looking for free trappers to replace the lost Delaware Indians.

Next time..Moving So Soon?