I camped beside the Snake River not far from where Emigrants crossed the river and entered Oregon along the Oregon Trail near modern day Boise, Idaho.
Imagine their dismay when they realized they still had miles and miles of desert to cross before they reached the Oregon they dreamed of.
The next water was 15 miles away...the Malheur River, in present-day Vale, Oregon. I would be following the same route they took with covered wagons, only I in my RV on a paved road.
About half-way to Vale is an interpretive site with wagon ruts still visible and a trail to walk along beside them for a ways. Thistle and I stopped and took the trail back in time. I'll tell you who Keeney was later in this post.
This map shows the wagon tracks and the trail which goes to the top of a hill with a view of the trail in both directions.
There are two wide ruts where wagons traversed side-by-side.
Grass has grown in the ruts, but when the trail was in heavy use, there was nothing but dust and sage.
Sage brush
Below the peak in the center flows the Malheur River, the Emigrants destination for the day's travel from the Snake River crossing.
Looking back the way they came.
You can see the road I'll take. The Emigrants walked all day and arrived after dark. It'll take me about 20 minutes.
In their own words...
Try to imagine the sounds, the heat, the smells...
I wonder what they would think of my RV and the highway I'm traveling today.
Much smaller than the Snake, the Emigrants called it a creek.
And who ferried them over the river for $17? It was Jonathan Keeney. (Remember the wagon rut site was named for him?)
He built the first building in what is now Vale on the banks of the Malheur River and set up business offering "accommodations" to the weary travelers.
There are many murals in the town of Vale depicting its history, but I'll only show you a couple relating to the Oregon Trail. This one is on the side of the drug store.
And this one depicting Emigrants camping beside the river where there were hot springs.
I also camped by water, beside the man-made Bully Creek Reservoir, which of course, did not exist back then.
