Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1911-11-08

halls, churches, SchooIhOuSeS and pub
lie squares, and thousands of street
corner crowds. Furthermore, he has
secured the erection of % monuments
to mark the trail, has inscribed "a
boulders and erected many wooden
posts. He has ascertained that 700
monuments will be necessary to
adequately mark the entire route,
and that the approximate cost will be
about $4,000. Through his efforts
bills were introduced In both the Six
tfeth and Sixty-first congresses, pro-
vtding for the appropriation of $4,000
for the marking of the trail; but these
bills never came up for action. How
ever, congress has not heard the last
of Ezra Meeker and the Oregon Trail
The Oregon and the Santa Fe
Trails both started at Independence,
Mo. For Al miles they were identical
but where the town of Gardner now
stands the Santa Fe Trail bore of to
the southwest, and the newer route
turned to the northwest At the point
of separation a sign board indicated
the northern route, with the simple le-
the direction of the Kansas and Little
Blue rivers to the Platte, reaching
that stream near Grand Island. 1t fol-
lowed the Platte and Sweetwater for
a distance of $50 miles, to South Pass
that hardly perceptible crossing OF
the Rockies, $50 miles from the Mis-
souri, river. Green river was crossed,
and then came Fort Bridger, 1,O7O
miles from Independence Sixty miles
farther on was the ford of Bear river,
which was followed for 40 miles, to
Soda Springs. LILO miles from the
starting point Here the later CaIifor-
mia Trail turned off to the southwest
The road to Oregon continued on to
Fort Hall, 1928 miles from Independ-
ence, at the first crossing of the Snake
river. Forty-five miles farther west,
at the Raft river, the old California
Trail diverged to the south-the trail
followed by the Forty Miners" but
later abandoned in favor of the bet
ter road that left the main trail at
Soda Springs. Then down the Snake
valley, across the Blue mountains,
through the valley of the Umatilla,
treked the pioneers. The distance
from the Missouri river to Fort Van
couver was 1920 miles, and to the
mouth of the Columbia 2,134 miles
In 1849 occurred the great migra-
tion-the historic march of the For
ty-Niners" to the gold fields of Cali
fornia. Crowds began gathering
along the Missouri early in April. and
by the last of that month 1t was estt-
mated that 10000 people were en-
camped waiting for the grass to grow
live stock. The procession started
about the first of May. and by the
first of June there was struggling
caravan a thousand miles long NOV
ing westward. Then the cholera cpl
demic that had broken out on the At
lantic seaboard reached independence
and spread throughout the moving
host Not less than 5000 emigrants
fell victims to the plague that year
and were buried on the plains, be-
tween the Missouri river and Fort
Laramie; but $4,000 reached Cal:for-
mia over the Oregon and California
Trail in spite of plague, famine and
all the hardships and perils incident
to the passing Of so great a host
through wild, unproductive and hos
tile country. Another outbreak of
the plague in 1852 carried off an equal
number of emigrants that year.
The Oregon and California Trails
constituted the principal highways be-
tween the east and west until the
driving of the spike of gold at Pro-
montory Point, Utah, in 1869. marked
the completion of the first Pacific
railroad The great freighting cara
vans, the Overland stages, the Pony
Express, the Indian wars, the peopling
of Deseret and the picturesque but
disastrous Mormon hand-cart emigra
ton were incidents of its history.