Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-11-22

none save these could successfully per
form it, with no previous preparation
relying only on the fertility of their
own invention to devise the means to
overcome each danger and difficulty
as it arose. They have undertaken to
perform with slow-moving oxen a
Journey of 1000 miles. The way lies
over trackless wastes, wide and deep
rivers, rugged and lofty mountains,
and is beset with hostile savages. Yet
whether it were a deep river with no
trees on it's banks a rugged def1le
where even a loose horse could not
pass, hill too steep for him to climb,
or a threatened attack Of an enemy,
they are always found ready and equal
to the occasion and always conquerors
May we not call them men of destiny?
They are people changed in no essen
tial particulars from their ancestors,
who have followed closely on the foot
steps of the receding savage, from the
Atlantic seaboard to the great valley
of the Mississippi
While in camp four days, on the
route in 1852, Ezra Meeker says he
saw go by them 1900 wagons, with
company of 5000 men, women and
children, 10000 draught animals and
| 80 900 loose stock, and he knew by
the inscribed dates on Independence
Rock that there were wagons full 300
miles ahead of them, and that the
| throng had continued to pass the riv-
er more than month after they had
crossed, so that it does not requQire
stretch of the imagination to say
| that the column was 500 miles long,
and like Sheridan's march to the sea,
$4,000 strong.
During the evenings the poung peo-
pie who camped there for the night
often enjoyed a dance by moonlight
in the well-beaten area fronting the
rock; others administered to the sick,
whilst others performed the sad duty
of laying away loved one in the lone
/ ly spot who had fallen to the hard
ships, privations and disease and died
because of the lack of proper nourih-
ment and being unable to secure medi
cal attention, the mute evidence OF
which is even to this day discernable
by the many depressions in Mother
in close proximity to the rock. The
small headboards however, which were
always placed at the head of the grave
with name and age carved with a
pocket knife, have long since decayed
and the dust has been scattered by
the four winds.
The spot will always be place OF
pilgrimage for some as it ought to be
for many, says DR.. Hebard, who hold
in everence the spirit of their pioneer
forbears. For all of us it has been an
abiding interest, not only as land.
mark on route of travel, but as a
monument associated with GLORIOUS
epoch in our country's Development
a reminder of the eventful years when
an army of Americans, 100000 strong
marched Westward Ho! to Oregon tc
make good the title of the United
States to the Pacific territory, and tc
add to the national domain the country
which was then Oregon and now is
Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
One cannot grasp or have an ace
quate conception of this rock out or
the desert, with names carved on i
and no sign of life, until one has beer
there, walked around it, felt of i
and traced with their fingers the
names that were carved there more
than three score years ago and ther
climbed to the top of it and obtained
sweep of the country along the line
of the old Oregon trail.