Forward to Missouri

Next time we meet Joe Walker is on the first steamboat up the Missouri into the western part of the state in 1819.  The "Independence" reached Franklin and Council Bluffs in that same year.


It is believed that Joe went ahead of his family to scout out the area for a new family settlement as most men of families did at that time.  The Walkers had traveled the Kentucky turnpike, followed the Ohio Valley from Tennessee toward Mississippi without stopping to hunt.  Buffalo and elk were long gone from the eastern woodlands and even deer was scarce. 

Travel was tedious and uncomfortable but no longer a danger from Indian attacks.  The roads were barely roads - full of stumps and rocks.  Even the ferries at the river crossing were not a pleasure ride with leaking and unstable vessels.  Traveling west was anything but a vacation!

Next time - The Great Migration...