The Holbrook news., 1911-12-29

toned prairie schooner. On his first
 expedition, he traversed every mile oi
 the trail to Independence, then con.
 tinued on to New York city, and final
 ly to Washington, reaching the na.
 tional capital November 29, 1907 It
 was his intention to ask congress at
 that time to appropriate funds to
 make of the Oregon trail a national
 highway; but from this he was dis
 suaded by President Roosevelt, who
 advised him to content himself with
 the comparatively modest request for
 an appropriation sufficient to place
 monuments and markers along the
 route
 Meeker spent the winter of 19O9-1O
 campaigning through California, in
 the endeavor to arouse the interest
 and secure the cooperation of the
 people of that state He has addressed
 more than 100000 school children,
 hundreds of public meetings in town
 halls. churches, schoolhouses and pub
 lie squares, and thousands of street
 corner crowds. Furthermore, he has
 secured the erection of 22 monuments to mark the trail, has inscribed 24 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 $85.00O Through his efforts bills were introduced in both the Six tieth and Sixty-first congresses, pro- viding for the appropriation of $5O.OOO for the marking of the trail; but these bills never came up for action.
 The Oregon and the Santa Fe Trails both started at Independence, Mo. For 41 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- gend, Road to Oregon" It followed the direction of the Kansas and Little Blue rivers to the Platte. reaching that stream near Grand Island. It 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, 1,170 miles from the l starting point. Here the later Califor- mia Trail turned of to the southwest. The road to Oregon continued on to
  ence, at the first crossing of the Snake river. Forty-ive 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 UmatilIa. treked the pioneers. The distance from the Missouri river to Fort Van couver was 2,O2O miles, and to the mouth of the Columbia 2,134 miles.
 In 1849 occurred the great migra- tion-the historic march of the For -y-Niners" to the gold fields of Cali lornia. Crowds began gathering along the Missouri early in April, and by the last of that month 1t was esti- mated that 10000 people were en- ,amped waiting for the grass to grow sufficiently to insure pasturage for i've stock. The procession started about the first of May, and by the first of June there was struggling caravan a thousand miles long nov ng westward. Then the cholera cpl iemic that had broken out on the At antic seaboard reached Independence md spread throughout the moving lost. Not less than 5000 emigrants ell victims to the plague that year md were buried on the plains, be- ween the Missouri river and Fort laramie; but 25.OOO reached CaIifor- lia over the Oregon and California Trail in spite of plague. famine and LII the hardships and perils incident o the passing of so great a host through a wild, unproductive and hos ile country. Another outbreak of he plague in 1852 carried off an equal lumber of emigrants that year.
 The Oregon and California Trails constituted the principal highways Se- ween the east and west until the Irving of the spike of gold at Pro nontory Point. Utah, in 1869, marked he completion of the first Pacific ailroad