Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1910-05-28
RE BLAZING OREGON TRAIL.

Eighty years young, ERE Meeker
The pioneer of the earliest wild and
woody" west is here with his OK team
and the old schooner. making def.
Mite location places of the old Oregon
Trail SO that monuments may be plec
ed at various points along the road
indicate to the future generations the
exact location of that famous old roa
over which thousands of the earl
settlers of Oregon passed while they
wended their way to the land of the
setting sun and tobuild new empire
Where rolls the Oregon
The "reminiscences of those strenu-
Gus days, as told by this whtehair
ed pioneer, are full of profound inter
est, and some Of his stories of events
along that trail show that few of to-
day realize the train of tragedies that
followed those people as they wended
their way westward.
The Surveyor general of this state
is getting out plats of the government
survey on which he will note all trails
and roads and Mr.. Meeker is identi-
flying which Of these Is the Identical
Oregon Trail. By the help of known
points he is able to establish the line
of the trail at intermediate points.
In this section he has found def
nitely where the trail crossed the
Boise river near Caldwell. He finds
that the trail continued down the
Boise river on the north side to a
point near the mouth of the Boise
river where stood old Fort Boise,
now known as Riverside ferry.
East from the point at the Cald-
we'll bridge the trail was down the
south side Of the Boise River, hav-
ing struck the Boise river near South
Boise. The trail did not come as far
south as Nampa, but kept nearer the
Boise river
Mr.. Meeker made report to the
congressional committee at Washing
ton before which the bill is now pen6-
ing for an appropriation of $4,000
for the purpose of furnishing money
to build monuments to mark the old
trail. His report was as follows:
Made possible by the discovery
in 1924 of that wonderful gap in the
Rocky mountains known as the South
mass. the Oregon trail did not becom
a national highway until Bonnyville
and Weth in 1882 and 1888 travers-
ed the whole length, from the Mis-
souri, river to the tide waters of the
Pacific. The missionaries. trapper
and traders soon wore visible wagon
track to the traders rendezvous OF
the Green river and beyond to Fort
Hall on the upper reaches OF the
Snake river, but not until the greater
immigration of the Oregon homeseek
ers a thousand strong with their
wagon train in 1843 passed over to
the Pacific, did the trail become a
national highway. Each year there
after wagon trains passed over the
whole route to the Oregon country
in varying numbers, wearing the trac
deeper and deeper until finally the
greater exodus of 1852, when a col
umn $4,000 strong moved out from tn
Missouri river and lined the trail
with the dead, 5000 or more In num-
Der for that one year alone. Mean
while the Mormon migration had fol
lowed in the track of the Oregon
pioneers for fully 1000 miles to the
great bend of Bear river. The Cal
ifornia movement of 1849 and later al
so followed the same track to Bear
river or to Fort Hall, where the Cal
ifornia trail diverged as did the Nor
mon track also, and bore off to the
southwest, while the Oregon trail
kept steadily on to the northwest.
1.-THE trail had indeed become a
national highway 1000 miles long
Fully 900, 900 people pressed over wha
might be termed the ease section
before the advent of the Pacific rail
road, which diverted THE later traf
fic, and the trail again became a
solitude, but not until fully 100000
head Of stock passed over, either cas-
or west, and had worn the trail so
deep that the track in places might
easily be mistaken for great railroad
cuts.
The obejct in marking this his
tore trail is the same as the ma
ing of any other great battlefield of
history. The winners Of the farther
west that passed over this trail