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Short accounts of historic trails of the world and the people who traveled them for trade or migration.




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The California Trail, Part 1

5/30/2019

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Picture
The California Trail separated from the Oregon Trail and headed southwest to the Humboldt River in present day northeastern Nevada.
PictureWagon trains in 1855 traveling through a dry landscape with little grass for livestock.
Roger M McCoy
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The California Trail,Part 1

    The California Trail turned away from the Oregon Trail about sixty miles east of present day Idaho Falls, and headed southwest toward the beginning of the Humboldt River near present day Wells, Nevada.  The source of the Humboldt River main stem in northeastern Nevada is a spring called Humboldt Wells. From that point the wagon trains headed westward following the Humboldt River to its end in the Humboldt Sink. This article covers the California Trail emigrants along the Humboldt River.
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About 300 diaries written by migrants on the California Trail provide a wealth of insight into travel through the harsh and unfamiliar terrain of the Great Basin Desert, mostly within the present State of Nevada. Weeks of travel along the Humboldt River through scorching heat and stifling dust taxed the endurance of men, women, horses, mules, and oxen. The saving factor that made such a trip possible was the Humboldt River itself. The river provided water for most of the route across the Basin, and supported grass of variable quality along its shores. The diaries of those nineteenth century migrants give accounts of distances, quality of water and grass, and the general conditions and hardships the travelers faced. The following is a sampling written during crossings from 1849 to 1855 through the Great Basin.
    One migrant, James Wilkins, expressed his strong opinion of the Great Basin, “…the most detestable countries God ever made, to say nothing of its sterility and barrenness.”  The wagon trace followed the river for almost 300 miles, but for most migrants the trip seemed unending, partly because they had no certain way of knowing how much farther they had to go.
    Often one wagon train was followed closely by others, sometimes creating a congestion of people. The route became so crowded at times that A.H. Houston wrote, “The immense crowd on the road made the trip more difficult and disagreeable. If you tried to pass other trains, you broke down your team in doing so. If you laid by to recruit, hundreds of teams were passing daily, making it more difficult to procure grass.” (The word “recruit” was commonly used in the nineteenth century meaning replenish or refresh.) Finding adequate grass for livestock was a daily problem. Some stretches of the trail offered good grass, but in many places grass was inadequate. Joseph Wood, lamenting the poor grass as his cattle began wasting away, wrote, “The grass does not contain sufficient nourishment for teams that have so much work to perform and hardships to endure.”

 
    As they went downstream conditions grew worse daily. Charles Tinker: “Feed grew scarcer & water poorer & the weather hotter.” As the river water became more alkaline the travelers began to hate the river. Elisha Perkins wrote, “I must agree with the majority of the Emigrants in nicknaming it ‘Humbug River.” He added that the “river had become only a good sized creek. We could hardly get enough for our mules to eat and water barely drinkable from saline and sulfurous impregnation and having a milky color.”
     Another constant problem was the six to ten inches of dust that lay on the trail raising choking clouds into the air.  William Z. Walker wrote, “The dust along the stream in intolerable, filling our eyes so that we could hardly see our animals. We were visited by such a hurricane of dust during the forenoon that we were obliged to turn out of the road and stop till the wind subsided.” John Middleton added, “Our poor faded and exhausted cattle! It harrowed my soul that I could render them no relief—that we must rush on to save our lives at the expense of others. Poor obedient creatures, what hellish cruelties I have seen inflicted on them by hard-hearted men.” Unfortunately the travelers who arrived later in the summer found conditions worse because the grass had not sufficiently recovered from the passage of earlier wagon trains. Wagon wheels passing through the hot dust dried to the point that their wooden wheels rattled “like a bag of bones” as they turned. Not surprisingly many migrants had buyers remorse as conditions worsened. Joseph Wood wrote, “I would give One Dollar for a newspaper, Five for a letter and Fifty to see our friends. We shall be glad to leave the valley of the Humboldt.”
    The marshy conditions at the terminus of the Humboldt River provided good stands of grass and the travelers stopped long enough to cut ample grass to carry for the perilous trek across the Carson Sink. Through August the grassy meadow was crowded with emigrants. Thomas van Dorn wrote, “Without this grass here, this route would be abandoned, but it forms a natural recruiting point in this vast desert region,”
    Near today’s Lovelock, Nevada, the nearly depleted Humboldt River spread out into a vast playa and intermittent wetland called Humboldt Sink, now shown on maps as Humboldt Lake. This harsh dry lake bed, or playa, merged with another massive playa, the Carson Sink, formed at the terminus of the Carson River flowing from the Sierra Mountains. The two great playas were separated by a low, almost imperceptible, divide called the Humboldt Bar. The Carson Sink became known to migrants as “The Forty-mile Desert.” The scene on the Forty-mile Desert is bleak, flat, and featureless. The Carson Sink is visible as you speed by on Interstate 80 and one can only imagine crossing it on foot or in a slow-moving wagon.
    Migrants often wrote of their disgust for conditions at the end of the Humboldt. Amasa Morgan lamented that, “This river that forces its way 290 miles through narrow Kanyans sandy deserts and around many a mountain here is lost in the earth, and whare its waters go to no one knows.” David Hindman called the area  “a pool of black, stagnant water…upon which the stillness of death was resting.”  A migrant named Addison Crane wrote a poem expressing his disdain for the Humboldt River:
        Farewell to thee, thou stinking, turbid stream,
        Amid who's waters frogs and serpents glean.
        Thou putrid mass of filth, farewell forever.
    
    At the Humboldt Bar the trail divided with one branch going northwest to the Truckee River and the other southeasterly to the Carson River. Both distances were about the same which most diaries estimate to be a little more than forty miles. Rumors and advice based on hearsay persuaded travelers that one or the other route would be better to take. Actually they were about equally bad. The Truckee route led to Donner Pass and the Carson route crossed the Sierra Nevada at Carson Pass. Crossing the Sierras is the subject of another blog. Before crossing the Forty-mile Desert, they first tried to prepare for their animals. They filled everything that could hold water—kegs, boilers, kettles, coffee pots, and rubber boots, and cut extra grass to carry over the desert expanse.
    Joseph Berrien said the forty-five miles of desert had fifteen miles of heavy sand and advised, “Be careful to drive in the night. Expect to find the worst desert you ever saw and you will find it worse than you expected.” Thomas Evershed described his first impression of the Carson Sink as, “a beautiful sheet of water seemingly about a mile across with the reflections of the mountains in it. …it was a mirage, the first we had seen. Soon it disappeared, leaving not a trace behind except the carcass of an old ox. Oh! For a drink of good ice water.”
    Whether traveling by day or night the Carson Sink was a perilous time for man and beast. One migrant wrote, “During the day our supply of water became exhausted. The teams began to fail. The roadside was almost covered with the carcasses of animals that could not make further progress and lay there.” When the animals died there was no way to pull the wagon, leaving many wagons abandoned along the roadside. They reported that the dead animals created “unsupportable stench, while the moans and creaky teeth of the yet living was enough to move a dragon to pity. Wagons abandoned by their owners are to be seen in every direction.”
    Writing about the Forty-mile Desert crossing Luzena Wilson wrote, “It was a hard march over the desert. The men were tired of goading on the poor oxen which seemed ready to drop at every step. They were covered with a thick coating of dust, even the tongue which hung from their mouths was swollen with thirst and heat.” Wilson continued his description of the desert crossing and told of the change he saw as they neared the Carson River. “The miserable beasts seemed to scent the freshness in the air, and they raised their heads and traveled more briskly. Within half a mile of the river the animals broke into a run in a stampede and refused to stop until they had plunged neck deep in the refreshing flood and when they were unyoked they snorted, tossed their heads and rolled over and over in the water.…after a journey of two thousand miles they raised heads and tails and galloped at full speed, an emigrant wagon with flapping sides jolting at their heels.” The Carson Sink gradually accumulated cattle carcasses and abandoned wagons left by travelers whose oxen had collapsed in the desert. A migrant then had no choice but to finish the trek on foot carrying what belongings he could on his back.
    Based on the accounts of travelers on the California Trail it is clear it was a trip of hardship from the beginning. But the last segment crossing the Forty-mile Desert took a heavy toll. Most people managed to complete the crossing, but in a demoralized state. Regardless they had no choice but to press on to the next hurdle, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, another grueling episode requiring the last bit of energy from man and beast.

Sources
Bagley, Will. With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West 1849-1852. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 2012.    
Morgan, Dale L., The Humboldt: Highroad of the West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1943.

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The Trail of Tears

5/11/2019

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Picture
Route of Cherokee migration. The Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes followed slightly different routes from the Southeast U.S.and settled in other parts of the Indian Territory.
PictureTrail of Tears painting by Robert Lindneux, 1942
Roger M McCoy     
      Forced migration or incarceration of an entire population is usually motivated by racism with a heavy dose of greed for land. One such tragedy was the forced migration of Native American tribes from the southeastern states to an area designated as Indian Territory, (now Oklahoma) and the largest such migration was of the Cherokee nation in 1838.
     Along with the U.S. government policy of forced ceding of Indian land, was a policy of preparing the Indians for assimilation into white society. In the nineteenth century the U.S. government abetted by Christian churches and missionaries attempted to force assimilation of all tribes by complete eradication of Native cultures. This effort included violent dispossession of land, prohibiting Native languages, and changing Native lifestyles. Even in the early twentieth century, Indian children were sent to “white” boarding schools to try to enculturate them, also all native American artwork and language was disallowed. Despite a significant disadvantage in political power and material resources, Native Americans developed a resistance to assimilation to ensure the survival of their communities. These government assimilation efforts were particularly successful among the tribes who became known as “The Five Civilized Tribes:” Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. The Cherokees went furthest in becoming “civilized” in the hope it would protect them against continued encroachment by white settlers. They adopted European-style farming, set up grist mills and lumber mills, lived in European-style houses, and converted to Christianity. They even devised their own alphabet so they could write their language, and wrote a constitution for the Cherokee nation with the expectation of recognition as an independent entity. 
   
   



 


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    The state of Georgia objected that recognition of the Cherokee’s as sovereign nation would create a state within a state and demanded that the government remove them. Other states made the same demands. To prevent a constitutional crisis President Jackson ordered compulsory removal. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 required the relocation of more than 100,000 Indians living east of the Mississippi River.
 White settlers had begun encroaching on Indian lands in the Southeast soon after the Revolutionary War and the squatters eventually brought pressure on the federal government to remove the Indians. In the beginning, inducements were offered to encourage voluntary migration as much as possible. Many voluntary relocations occurred but not enough to satisfy the terms of the Indian Removal Act. President Jackson negotiated a land exchange treaty with the Cherokee. Forced relocations were then carried out by U.S. government. Tribes subjected to movement between 1830 and 1850 were of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, Creek, and Choctaw nations located primarily in the southeastern states. Each tribal relocation has a tragic story of hardship and illness, but the experience of the Cherokees was especially hard. The Cherokees referred to their ordeal as the “trail that made us cry,” and became known as the Trail of Tears.
     In late summer of 1838 a group of Cherokees left the stockade where they had been held for months awaiting the beginning of their long journey. One of them later recalled, “At this very moment a low sound of distant thunder fell on my ear. In the western direction a dark spiral cloud was rising above the horizon and sent forth a murmur I almost fancied a voice of divine indignation for the wrongs of my poor unhappy countrymen, driven by brutal power from all they loved and cherished in the land of their fathers, to satisfy the cravings of avarice.” Others who saw the cloud also regarded it as an omen of tragedy.
     Another writer observed the looks of sadness and anger on the Cherokee’s faces: “Some carry a downcast look of despair, others have a wild frantic appearance as if they were about to pounce like a tiger upon their enemies.” Above all they felt they had been betrayed by the U.S. government, especially by President Andrew Jackson himself.
      Relocation of so many people over a distance of up to a 1,000 miles, depending on the route taken, would be daunting task even today. In the nineteenth century it was brutal. The Cherokees were not moved as one single unit, but traveled in several groups of varying size over dirt roads that turned into impassable mud mires during rainy periods. In hilly areas the Cherokees often had to double team the wagons. River crossings provided other problems. Low water season on the Tennessee River required long waits for the water to rise enough for a ferry to operate. Winter ice floes on the Mississippi often stopped crossing for a month or more. Even with ideal conditions river crossings were a major operation. One group of 1,766 people, eighty-eight wagons, 881 horses, and many oxen required two and a half days to cross the Tennessee River in fair weather, using four ferries from early morning to late evening. The treks continued in the heat of summer and the cold blasts of winter. A limited number of people, the elderly and disabled, were able to ride in a wagon or on horseback. One observer wrote, “Many go on horseback and multitudes go on foot—even aged females, apparently nearly ready to drop into the grave, were traveling with heavy burdens on their back—on the sometimes frozen ground and sometimes muddy roads, with no covering for their feet except what nature had given them.”
     Government escorts determined campsites in advance at ten to fifteen mile intervals, which was considered a day’s journey for such a large group. Campsites must have ample space for wagons plus grass for livestock. Shelter was canvas tents and food was primarily cornmeal and salt pork. The lack of clean drinking water was a frequent problem sometime leading to sickness. Also illnesses such as measles, whooping cough, dysentery, and respiratory infections often swept through the migrant groups. Army doctors and Cherokee doctors treated the illnesses as well as possible under the adverse conditions, but the Cherokee doctors were hampered by the lack of herbs they normally found in their native area.
     Some Cherokee groups took a route that used river boats for much of the trip. This required overland travel to the Tennessee River system, then downstream to the Ohio River, to the Mississippi River, to the mouth of the Arkansas River, then upstream on the Arkansas River to the eastern parts of the new Indian Territory (east of present day Tulsa, Oklahoma). 
     The Cherokees arrived in the Indian Territory exhausted and discouraged. Of 16,000 Cherokees who trekked from the east, 4,000 died enroute. The U.S. government had agreed to provide rations for a year after arriving in Indian Territory. Provisions consisted of salt pork or fresh beef, wheat flour, corn, and salt. Unfortunately distribution was erratic and the Cherokees went through periods of ample food supplies followed by periods of scarcity.    
     Looking at the Trail of Tears today we can see some ugly underlying motives, namely racism and greed for land owned by Native Americans. Unfortunately these impulses were given the sanction of the U.S. government thus subverting the ideals of America. In the nineteenth century few Americans, except the tribes, were aware of the tragedy of the Trail of Tears, and many who were aware failed to see it as a tragedy.
     In 2006 the then Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chadwick Smith, wrote, “…this episode of history should be studied because it is the culmination of two sins that have plagued humankind since the beginning of time: simple greed and lust for power.” He further added, “We are a people who have faced adversity, survived, adapted, and who now prosper and excel.”


Sources
Haywood, John. The Great Migrations. London: Quercus Books. 2008.
King, Duane. The Cherokee Trail of Tears. Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Books. 2007.
Perdue, Theda and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation Trail of Tears. New York:             Penguin Books. 2007




    

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