Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-08-24
FRONT1ERSMAN VISITING IN
OTTUMWA TO-DAY; LECTURED LAST NIGHT

j the time he reached Burlington Dan.
dy" was as peaceable an amman as II
would be possible to find.
i The oxen 60 very slowly never NOV
ing of of walk. Twenty miles a DAY
la big stretch for them TO cover
and an average days journey Is less
/ than that. AS the animals are very
heavy it is ne cessary to shoe them
similar to horses, except that Two
i shoes are tackled to each foot. Every
time the oxen are to be fitted with
I new shoes 1t is necessary to rope ana
i throw them for they do not take kind
\ " to the operation as horses DO. On
! the trip Of 1906 the animals were
shod seventeen times in the journey
| across the country.
Faithful "Jim"
An Important pai1 Of the outfit IS
the faithful dog Jim" He has been
with the expedition from the start.
Jim has had more adventures than any
| dog living. He was run over by a
trolly car, then again by heavlly
loaded truck where the other dog was
killed with which he was fighting ana
he nearly so; then hooked over fence
by an irate cow AMI again by Dave
| thrown ever a sage brush; then again
kicked into the air by vicious morse
and then again attacked by wolf ana
finally lost in New York city for three
days. Yet he is ever ready to stand
guard over ttbe wagon, never Wiling
to ride while the team is in MOTION
Jim Is a great dog and is a great pal
Of w. B. Marden, who drives the OK
team for Mr.. Meeker.
The team averages fifteen miles a
day, and so far has been driven 6,4o'
miles. The result Of the pioneers trip
50 far is twenty-five granite memorial
monuments erected twenty four
boulders marked and thirty-six stakes
set. The present roads do not follow
the old trail, although the trail was
the path of the least resistance, avoid
ed the Mills and took the shortest
route. Why so many home builders
with their families plunged into the
unknown wilderness across so wide a
Great American Desert" no man can
tell. Certainly there is no similar rec
ord of SO many people going SO long
distance to found an empire as they,
over the two thousand miles Of the
"Oregon Trail Three hundred thou
sand people traversed this trail to be-
yond the summit Of the Rocky noun
taips and passed through that great
rift in the mountains known as the
real discovery of the pass. In prehis-.
toric times the buffalo, wore trail
over the summit. We known as little
s to when the Indians followed. Many
Of the early missionaries went that
way but missed the pass; the trappers
did not find II until about 1921.
The trail was finally fixed IN 1S43.
when one thousand men, women and
children passed over the route. No
more historic act is recorded in history
han this Of the grea. company open |
ng its own wa con road from day to
lay over goo miles west from F't. Scott !
which was then considered the point
which said THUS far and no farther
The word went out that there was
wagon road to the coast and hundreds
cutting the trail deeper. The
Mormons appeared ii. 1851, lining
the trail with their dead. Then fol.
lowed the California vgold seekers OF
40. then another gerat tide of home
relisionists. gold seekers,
and adyenturers Of every'I
xind. The trail Is now ten feet deep
n some places and IS wide as two !
hundred feet at points. Yet, long
stretches have been lost by the march I
# Improvement: the farmer took no
tote of it in sentiment and plowed it |
,ver: city builders have erected brick |
blocks over where the trail once ran I
IND so, what with great irrigation
litehes destroying it with other like !
actors at work, it Is not to be Won |
Tered that it should be called the |
II lost Trai1o