As stated above, earlier this summer, my grandson and I decided that we would follow the Oregon Trail for a summer adventure. Due to some family issues and Johnathon’s visits with his aunt, we did not get to start until 8-25. We started from his house in La Grande, OR early that morning and headed to Nyssa, OR. The trail crossed the Snake River from Fort Boise a few miles south of Nyssa and came right through here.
This was our first stop on the Trail and there is one of the many OR info kiosks here.....
That is Johnathon ready for the adventure! There are also some barely visible ruts behind this marker heading up towards the southern OR desert.
We followed some county roads up into the hills from here and ended up on the South Alternate Route of the Trail which intersects with the main trail several miles from here. This road is right on top of the SA Route. My guess is the pavement, corn, building and horse trailer were not here then.....
We headed up towards Keeny Pass and started seeing markers like these...
and ......
The brown markers have been placed by the Oregon and California Trails Association while the concrete ones are by the BLM. They mark the trail and are usually located in actual swales.
So you may ask yourself, what is a "swale?" I did .........
A swale is the rut made by the passage of wagons pulled by oxen. Today we think of an old country/dirt road as a couple of ruts the width of the average vehicle using the road. These "new" dirt roads have a raise center as there is nothing on that section - only under the wheels.
But in the old days, there were animals pulling the wagons. So not only did the trail wear under the wagon wheels, but also in the center where the animals walked. This resulted in "ruts" becoming a wide depression in the ground, slightly wider than the track of the wagon. Today they look like this.......
Johnathon is standing in a "swale" of the original trial at Keeney Pass. Just behind the one in which he is standing is another swale. One of the things you learn quickly is that these settlers did not like dust any better than we do and they spread out and go side-by-side when space permits.
Here is another picture from just up the hill showing the swales as they head up and over the hill towards what is now Vale, OR.
There is a pull off at Keeney Pass where you can park and walk up to the top of the hill to get an idea of what a days travel was then. Looking east you can see back towards Fort Boise..
and west you look towards Vale......
Several miles down the road is a sobering reminder of the reality of life and death on the trail.......
The marker states that John D. Henderson died on August 9, 1852. The original inscription that was scratched in the rock by the settlers is shown in the first picture. A historical marker about 100 yards from the actual grave, stated that he died of black measles. This is believed to be historically accurate. However, the new marker at the grave site states he died of thirst.
This falsehood was started in the 1930s by a third grader from Vale who wrote a paper stating John Henderson died of thirst when they were only 1/2 mile from the Malheur River. This story was passed on as true and was given as the reason for the death when the new marker was erected. Historical research has shown however that he really died of measles.
North of Vale we turned into the desert and followed a primitive road called "The Old Oregon Trail Road." It is the OT and follows the trail as it goes through the desert heading towards Farewell Bend.
We followed this road for a couple of miles and were just getting to where we could really experience the desolation they must have felt when we came upon this.......
This gate is across a public road and it has a no trespassing sign. I do not think this is legal and asked a farmer that I ran into back towards town about it. He stated the road is open and could not be posted. I decided that I was not in familiar country and would be looked on as an outsider. In addition, I had my grandson with me and I did not want to set any kind of a bad example for him. We did not go pat the sign. Instead we backtracked and headed to Farewell Bend on the highway.
There was some good came out of this however, as we stopped at the Ontario airport and saw these.......
Even though we were more interested in older history, these gave us the chance to talk about Vietnam. Kind of interesting to see these one time adversaries next to each other.
Before we headed for Huntington, via old Route 30 we found these marked swailes SW of Farewell Bend State Park. They are up on the hill on the west side of I-84.
This view is NE towards Farewell Bend.......
The next picture is of Farewell Bend State Park. We had planned to camp here, but it was way too early in the day to stop.....
So we headed towards Huntington.
This view is looking back down the hill towards Farewell Bend SP. The trail runs to the right of the highway. They were heading into one of the toughest sections of the Trail at this point.
The view down towards Huntington.......
We ate a late lunch in Huntington at the old Streamliner Restaurant......
Now apparently known as Howells Cafe.......
They have a killer hamburger, which I will review under a separate heading. Take my word........this place is worth a detour for a burger!
I am going to stop for now.....I am tired and it is late. More to come...