Flash-Pack » Oregon

Chief Joseph’s Long March

webadmin@brainspiral.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:56:13 +0000

For nearly 70 years, the Nez Perce Indians were friendly to whites, beginning when Lewis and Clark passed through their Northwestern territory en route to the Pacific. But a series of gold rushes in the 1860s led to a treaty dispossessing them of their lands in Oregon’s Wallowa valley and elsewhere and confining them to a reservation in Lapwai, Idaho. In 1877, troops were sent to drive the “non treaty” Nez Perce from the Wallowa area to Lapwai. But the Indians, numbering about 200 warriors and 300 non-combatants under the leadership of Chief Joseph, fled, leading the Army on a 1,300 mile zigzag chase through Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Though heavily outnumbered, Joseph’s band fought off their pursuers several times. Refused sanctuary by other tribes, they headed for safety in Canada but were cornered — cold, starving and exhausted — 30 miles from the border. There, Chief Joseph made his eloquent surrender speech: “It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death… Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” Despite a promise they might go to their reservation, Joseph’s band was shipped to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), where many sickened and died. In 1885 some were allowed back to Lapwai, but Joseph, still considered a dangerous influence, was sent to a reservation in Washington state, where he died in 1904.

The Overland Mail

webadmin@brainspiral.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:12:11 +0000

The acquisition of Oregon and discovery of gold in California in the 1840s created a need for a transportation network linking the East with the Pacific coast. California pressure for a regular stagecoach service led in 1857 to the award of a federal mail contract to a syndicate headed by John Butterfield, the owner of stagecoach lines in New York. The following year, Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company began a semi-weekly mail service, operating in each direction on a 25-day schedule over a 2,800 mile route between St. Louis and San Francisco. Thousands of miles of overland routes were established in the next decade. Best-known was the Pony Express, established in 1860 by the firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell. Relays of pony riders covered the 1,966 miles between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California in only ten days, thus demonstrating the superiority of the Central Plains route over the more circuitous southerly route followed by Butterfield. But without a government subsidy the Pony Express was incapable of make a profit. In any case it was rendered obsolete after only eight months by the completion of the transcontinental telegraph line. When Russell, Majors and Waddell went bankrupt in 1862, its remaining freight lines were bought by Ben Holladay, who, after organizing a thriving stagecoach empire spanning most the the West, sold out in 1866 to Wells, Fargo, and Co.

Crossing the Plains

webadmin@brainspiral.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:53:03 +0000

Whichever route the emigrants chose, they found the journey across the continent slow, fatiguing and full of hardship. Averaging only about 10 or 15 miles a day — enduring heat, dust, wind, sand, mud and sometimes snow — the pioneers rarely reached their destination in less than three months. Accidents, sickness and death took a regular toll as was evident from the emigrant graves, bones of oxen, discarded household goods and broken wagons that littered the overland trails. One of the worst disasters befell the California-bound Donner party in 1846. Poorly equipped and ill-advised, they became trapped by snows in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Many died of starvation and the survivors resorted to cannibalism before they were finally rescued.

Yet despite the difficulty and hardship, the emigrants kept coming, motivated by many things. For the Mormons; it was to escape religious persecution and build a “community of Saints” in the great Salt Lake Valley. For others, it was to farm the fertile valleys of California and Oregon or strike it rich in fields of gold. Some came for freedom and adventure or to escape the past. But in one way or another they all came for the same thing — the promise of a better life.

The Oregon Trail

webadmin@brainspiral.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:51:36 +0000

The most famous of the overland emigrant routes to the Pacific, the Oregon Trail extended over 2,000 miles from Independence, Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River. Mountain men blazed the Trail in the 1830s but it was not until the 1840s, after returning trappers, traders, surveyors and missionaries had kindled Oregon fever, that the first wagon trains successfully traversed the route. Consisting of canvas-topped “prairie schooners” drawn by horses or oxen, the wagon trains adopted a semi-military organization with elected leaders to enforce discipline and maximize protection. Thus at night, to protect against the danger of Indian attack (which was actually rate), and to prevent animals from straying, the wagons would be drawn up in a tight circular stockade or corral, guarded by sentinels. In 1843, approximately 900 emigrants traveled the Oregon Trail. Their numbers swelled in the years thereafter: an estimated 1,500 in 1844; 2,500 in 1845; and 4,000 in 1847. After the discovery of gold in California in 1848, more than 25,000 took to the Oregon Trail, most branching off at South Pass for California. In 1850, approximately 50,000 traveled the Oregon and its subsidiary trails to California; 60,000 during the peak year of 1852. The Oregon Trail remained a popular overland route until the 1870s when it was superceded by the railroads.