The Holbrook news., 1911-12-29


 from the Missouri river to the
 mouth of the Columbia, follow
 ing the route of the old Ore
 gon Trail, Is the ambitious pro- ject that has received the indorse- ment of automobile clubs. good roads associations and men prominent in state and national affairs. As yet the project is little more than a dream but it is of the kind of dreams that come true.
 Although the old Oregon Trail start ed at Independence, Mo, and proper ly terminated at The Dalles, Ore, 1t is planned to start It's successor (to be known as the Pioneer Way) at St. Louis, and to continue 1t on to the south of the Columbia, a total dis tance of approximately 2,5OO miles. When completed, it will be unsur- passed among the worlds highways in it's historic associations, and in the variety, beauty and sublimity of the natural scenery along the way. It will traverse or enter seven states, cross the roof of the continent at an elevation of 7,450 feet, and finally de- scend to sea level It will pass through the wheat and corn fields of Kansas and Nebraska, cross the high plains of Wyoming, traverse the newly irri- gated lands of Idaho, and give a glimpse of the famous Inland Elm pire" of eastern Oregon.
 From St. Louis, the Pioneer Way will follow the Missouri to Independ- ence. Thence it win go up the Little Blue river, reaching the Platte at Grand Island. For $50 miles 1t will follow the Platte and Sweetwater, to South Pass-that hardly perceptible crossing of the Rocky mountains, T. 450 feet above the sea- For 100 miles the route Hes over an almost level plateau, 1000 feet and more in height. On this long stretch, with snowy mountains in sight for much of the way on both the north and the south, l far from centers of population, in a region absolutely uninhabited and un- inhabitable, the old Oregon Trail Is i just the same today as 1t was 50 years i ago, with the exception that the thou sands who then traversed 1t have dis appeared, and that 1t has relapsed | into it's primeval solitude. Mile after l mile of the roadbed Is as distinctly 1 outlined as ever. worn by the wheels | of tens of thousands of prairie schoon- CTS and the hoofs of millions of draft | animals and pack animals to a depth | of from two to fifteen feet. and to a width of anywhere from twelve to one | hundred feet.
 Then Green river Is crossed, with It's rocks and palisades. Farther on is the ford of Bear river, after which that stream is followed for forty miles to Soda Springs, 1,17O miles from h. Here the later CaIifor- mia Trail turned of to the southwest. The road to Oregon continued on to the Raft river, where the old CaIifor- mia Trail-the one followed by the forty y-niners-diverged to the south. Then down the Snake river ran the road to Oregon This will be the most picturesque and beautiful long stretch of the Pioneer Way-just as 1t was the most difficult part of the Oregon Trail. Past American falls, Twin falls, Shoshone falls (calIed the Niagara of the vest, Upper and Low CT Salmon falls, down Boise river, up the seemingly impossible face of the Blue mountains, through the pleasant glades of great pine forests, across a dust-cursed desert. and and at last to the broad Columbia. Where the trail first strikes it. the Columbia is a mile wide; but 1t soon reaches the remark able chasm known as the Dalles, where 1t is pent between rock walls from 190 to 200 feet wide, and where no plummet has ever sounded its depth. Here is literally a river turned on edge"
 Pleads for the old Trail.
 Present day interest in the Oregon Trail is attributed solely to the ef- forts of Ezra Meeker of Puyallup, Wash, who for five years has devoted himself to a unique campaign to se- cure the speedy marking and ultimate of the old highway. He went to Oregon in 1852, when he be- came a prominent figure among the pioneers, and made and lost several fortunes. On January 2S, 1906, he started on what he calls his Oregon Trail Monument Expedition. As an object lesson to the vast majority, who know prairie schooners and bull cams" only through the medium of books and pictures, he drives team ,f red oxen, hitched to an old-fash- l