The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 4, December, 1900Oregon Historical Society
History
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 4, December, 1900
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon -- History -- Periodicals
Their route had no rich diversity of scenic grandeur. There are most
impressive natural features along the line of it, but with their slow
mode of travel one phase became exceedingly monotonous before another
was reached. There were the vastness and solitude of the prairies and
plains, the transparency of the atmosphere that gave magnificent sweep
of view. Along the North Fork of the Platte stood great sentinel rocks
with interesting sculptured proportions. Among these are the Lone or
Court House Rock, Chimney Rock, Castle Rock, Steamboat Rock, and Scott’s
Bluff. Farther along on their journey they come to Independence Rock and
Devil’s Gate on the Sweetwater, one a huge basaltic mound upon which
with tar or with iron chisels they would register their names; the other
a most unique breach in a granitic range with sides two hundred feet
high, through which the Sweetwater flows. A week or two later they would
have the exhilarating sense of standing on the backbone of the continent
in South Pass, with the towering Wind River Mountains to their right and
the Oregon buttes to their left. A few miles on they would drink from
the Pacific springs and know they were in what was then called Oregon.
Scenery most unique was still before them on their way. Some of it, like
the panorama from the divide between the Green and the Bear rivers and
the Soda Springs, they would enjoy. But their march from the South Pass
on was a retreat. Oxen would fall helpless in their yokes, wagons would
become rickety beyond repair. The trail was strewn with wreckage, and
the stench from the dead cattle was appalling. The watering places along
the Snake were contaminated by the stock that had perished. As soon as
they reached the Blue Mountains their stock was safe from starvation,
but the exertion required of their way-worn and weak oxen on the steep
grades now before them was the last straw often that these creatures now
could not bear. They could not let them recruit; the season was far
advanced towards winter; they must press on.
Data for determining the numbers that came across the plains to Oregon
during the successive years are as yet very unsatisfactory. The
estimates given below for 1842 and 1843 are well founded, but the
others, especially from 1847 on, are from no very tangible basis.
At the close of 1841 the Americans in Oregon numbered possibly four
hundred.
The immigration of 1842 estimated from 105 to 137
The immigration of 1843 estimated from 875 to 1,000
The immigration of 1844 estimated about 700
The immigration of 1845 estimated about 3,000
The immigration of 1846 estimated about 1,350
The above figures are taken quite closely from those given by Elwood
Evans in his address before the Pioneer Association in 1877. I make the
immigration of 1844, however, seven hundred, instead of four hundred and
seventy-five, as he gives it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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