The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1915-02-25
A PIONEER TRIP
ACROSS THE PLAINS
By Robert Rand
Continued from last week.

tContlnued from last week.
The next morning when our company
was ready for the road, we waited for
the stage 10 90 ahead. As il came
down from Fort Laramie the driver
made a mistake and took the wrong
road. crossing the stream in the wrong
place. The coach came near capsizing
and Horace Greeley erawled out and
came wsding to the bank, where our
crowd stood ready to cheer him and
wish him a safe journey. He looked
down into the water and said: well,
this water is just as wet as that in the
East. One of our crowd said: "Yes,
but we do not use 1t for watering stocks
as they do in the States" Greeley
smiled and said: "You are a Democrat,
aren't your" The man told him that
he was and that he came from Mis-
souri,.
At the meeting, when Greeley came
out on the bank be shook hands with
all our crowd When ! shook hands
with him ! said. ''lam glad to meet
you. And so you are gong west?"
Yes" he replied, 81 am" 'You are
taking the advice you have given young
men right along" | told him. lie
smiled and said, "Thank you "
The coach was righted and he was
soon on his way.
We then struck off across the range
of Black Hills to the Sweetwater river,
where we camped for several days to
| give our stock rest, and allow them to
feed.
Near this point is a large oval rock.
covering about two acres. 1t is near
the river and one can walk with ease
over the top of it. That rock was
simply covered with the names of emil
grants, some carved with all manner of
steel instruments, others painted, and
some made with coal tar and ink. cut
mine near the top with 10 penny nail.
The rock, which is of hard sandstone,
is called Independence rock. The dec
laration has often been read fromsits
| top, and many orators of fame have
spoken from the rock. And many have
walked the top of the great stone who
have met with fame afterward. But,
too, count among the emigrant trails
the graves of others, who walked there
as they Travelled with hope toward the
setting sun and who we're stricken in
| ehSh piisimdsSs NO, yOu Cuulu HOt
count these graves, either, for all
traces of them, the boards stuck in the
soil, have been obliterated.
On the third day out from the rock
we had our first and only stampede.
One of the men walking ahead, grow
ing tired or lazy, lay down beside the
trail as the train came up he arose
and then the fun began. The third
team gave a kind of peculiar snort and
the others seemed to understand. They
| did not follow the road but went pell
nell in every direction into the sage
brush. The drivers ran along trying to
keepsup, but the more they yelled the
faster the animals ran. The occupants
of the wagons came out the sides and
over the tail boards, wondering what
| had happened. | was asleep in our
wagon, and when | raised up to see
what was the matter was tossed from
one side of the wagon to the other. |
made a dive for the loop in the back
end and landed against the bows.
| then tried the front. was finally
pitched out, and | don't know whether
landed right side up or not. When |
finally gained my feet ! watched the
parade, which might have been inter-
esting to an outsider, but not pleasant
for the members of our company. A
man with horse got in ahead of the
OK teams and stopped the parade.
When they we're drivensinto camp we
took an inventory of our stock.
Our company was then disbanded.
Mr.. Knapp, with two wagons, and three
others continued the journey. There
we're nine of US then in the party. The
Others divided into six different COM
panies.
Until we reached Fort Bridges there
was nothing further of interest We
remained there day and tried to buy
some provisions. However, they told
US they were short themselves, and we
could not procure any thing. We were
down to a couple of spoonfuls of flour
apiece each day. We put this together
and made gravy. That was our ra-
tions until we could reach Salt Lake.
At the Bridges there were many
government wagons, large fellows
weighing two tons apiece. They were
worthless and had been abandoned.
The wagons had been left when the
soldiers, who had been called to quell
Mormon uprisings, broke camp at
Bridges. Before the soldiers had come
Brigham Young had sent word to Uncle
| Sam that he wanted hands off. But
when the troops arrived he promised
to be good
On our first morning at the place we
built fire in the hub of one of the
wagon wheels. As it was filled with
| 81 IN knI
gravy over. That flour gravy and the
odor of the soldiers cooking was all
we had to eat. Indeed. we didn't get
anything but the flour gravy until we
reached Salt Lake two days later.
On our way down Echo canyon we
found about 20 bitches from eigth to 10
feet wide and about six feet deep.
They had been dug by the Mormons to
impede the soldiers. On top of the
canyon had been erected stone forts
with loop holes that the Mormons
| might fire on the soldiers while they
were repairing the roads.
We camped the next night at the foot
of the canyon on Bear creek. Three of
US drove the cattle short distance mp
the river where they found good feed
On our way back to camp we found
some fresh earth ridged up, and at one
end pair of boots stuck out. On ex-
animation we found that man had
been buried there with his boots on.
Near by was barnlike shack. AS we
passed man came to the door ringing
big COW bell and shouting. big
dance here tonight" As a result of
what we saw we placed double guard
for the night UP at daybreak we made
haste to cross the Bear river and leave