INDEPENDENCE ROCK.
"Camp No. 87, July 3, 1906.—Odometer 1,065, Independence Rock. We drove
over to the 'Rock,' from the 'Devil's Gate,' a distance of six miles,
and camped at 10:00 o'clock for the day."
Not being conversant with the work done by others to perpetuate their
names on this famous boulder that covers about thirty acres, we groped
our way among the inscriptions to find some of them nearly obliterated
and many legible only in part, showing how impotent the efforts of
individuals to perpetuate the memory of their own names, and, may I
add, how foolish it is, in most cases, forgetting, as these individuals
have, that it is actions, not words, even if engraved upon stone,
that carry one's name down to future generations. We walked all the
way around the stone, which was nearly a mile around, of irregular
shape, and over a hundred feet high, the walls being so precipitous
as to prevent ascending to the top except in two vantage points.
Unfortunately, we missed the Fremont inscription made in 1842.
Of this inscription Fremont writes in his journal: "August 23 (1842).
Yesterday evening we reached our encampment at Rock Independence, where
I took some astronomical observations. Here, not unmindful of the
custom of early travelers and explorers in our country, I engraved on
this rock of the Far West a symbol of the Christian faith. Among the
thickly inscribed names, I made on the hard granite the impression of a
large cross, which I covered with a black preparation of India rubber,
well calculated to resist the influences of the wind and rain. It
stands amidst the names of many who have long since found their way to
the grave and for whom the huge rock is a giant gravestone.
"One George Weymouth was sent out to Maine by the Earl of Southampton,
Lord Arundel, and others; and in the narrative of their discoveries he
says: 'The next day we ascended in our pinnace that part of the river
which lies more to the westward, carrying with us a cross—a thing never
omitted by any Christian traveler—which we erected at the ultimate end
of our route.' This was in the year 1605; and in 1842 I obeyed the
feeling of early travelers, and I left the impression of the cross
deeply engraved on the vast rock 1,000 miles beyond the Mississippi, to
which discoverers have given the national name of Rock Independence."
The reader will note that Fremont writes in 1842 of the name, "to which
discoverers have given the national name of Independence Rock," showing
that the name of the rock long antedated his visit, as he had inscribed
the cross "amidst the names of many."
Of recent years the traveled road leads to the left of the rock, going
eastward, instead of to the right and nearer the left bank of the
Sweetwater as in early years; and so I selected a spot on the westward
sloping face of the stone for the inscription, "Old Oregon Trail,
1843-57," near the present traveled road, where people can see it, as
shown in the illustration, and inscribed it with as deep cut letters
as we could make with a dulled cold chisel, and painted the sunken
letters with the best sign writer's paint in oil. On this expedition,
where possible, I have in like manner inscribed a number of boulders,
with paint only, which it is to be hoped, before the life of the paint
has gone out, may find loving hands to inscribe deep into the stone;
but here on this huge boulder I hope the inscription may last for
centuries, though not as deeply cut as I would have liked had we but
had suitable tools.
FISH CREEK.
Eleven miles out from Independence Rock we nooned on the bank of a
small stream, well named Fish Creek, for it literally swarmed with fish
of suitable size for the pan, but they would not bite, and we had no
appliances for catching with a net, and so consoled ourselves with the
exclamation that they were suckers only, and we didn't care, but I came
away with the feeling that maybe we were "suckers" ourselves for having
wet a blanket in an attempt to seine them, getting into the water over
boot top deep, and working all the noon hour instead of resting like an
elderly person should, and as the oxen did.
NORTH PLATTE RIVER.
Our next camp brought us to the North Platte River, fifteen miles above
the town of Casper.
I quote from my journal:
"Camp No. 89, North Platte River, July 5, 1906.—Odometer 1,104,
distance traveled twenty-two miles.
"We followed the old Trail till nearly 4:00 p. m., and then came to
the forks of the traveled road, with the Trail untraveled by anyone
going straight ahead between the two roads. I took the right-hand road,
fearing the other led off north, and anyway the one taken would lead
us to the North Platte River; and on the old Trail there would be no
water, as we were informed, until we reached Casper. We did not arrive
at the Platte River until after dark, and then found there was no feed;
got some musty alfalfa hay the cattle would not eat; had a little
cracked corn we had hauled nearly 300 miles from Kemmerer, and had fed
them the last of it in the afternoon; went to bed in the wagon, first
watering the cattle, after dark, from the North Platte, which I had not
seen for over fifty-four years, as I had passed fifteen miles below
here the last of June, 1852.
"Several times during the afternoon there were threatening clouds,
accompanied by distant lightning, and at one time a black cloud in the
center, with rapid moving clouds around it, made me think of a tornado,
but finally disappeared without striking us. Heavy wind at night.
"This afternoon as we were driving, with both in the wagon, William
heard the rattles of a snake, and jumped out of the wagon, and
thoughtlessly called the dog. I stopped the wagon and called the dog
away from the reptile until it was killed. When stretched out it
measured four feet eight inches, and had eight rattles."
CASPER, WYOMING.
I quote from my journal:
"Camp No. 90, odometer 1,117½, Casper, Wyoming, July 6.—At the noon
hour, while eating dinner, seven miles out, we heard the whistle of the
locomotive, something we had not seen nor heard for nearly 300 miles.
As soon as lunch was over I left the wagon and walked in ahead of the
team to select camping ground, secure feed, and get the mail. Received
twenty letters, several from home.
"Fortunately a special meeting of the commercial club held this
evening, and I laid the matter of building a monument before them, with
the usual result; they resolved to build one; opened the subscription
at once, and appointed a committee to carry the work forward. I am
assured by several prominent citizens that a $500 monument will be
erected, as the city council will join with the club to provide for a
fountain as well, and place it on the most public street crossing in
the city."[24]
Glen Rock was the next place in our itinerary, which we reached at
dark, after having driven twenty-five and one-fourth miles. This is the
longest drive we have made on the whole trip.
[Illustration: As an Old Scout.]
GLEN ROCK.
Glen Rock is a small village, but the ladies met and resolved they
"would have as nice a monument as Casper," even if it did not cost as
much, because there was a stone quarry out but six miles from town.
One enthusiastic lady said: "We will inscribe it ourselves, if no
stonecutter can be had." "'Where there's a will there's a way,' as the
old adage runs," I remarked as we left the nice little burg and said
good-bye to the energetic ladies in it. God bless the women, anyhow;
I don't see how the world could get along without them; and anyhow
I don't see what life would have been without that little faithful
companion that came over this very same ground with me fifty-four years
ago and still lives to rejoice for the many, many blessings vouchsafed
to us and our descendants.
DOUGLAS, WYOMING.
At Douglas, Wyoming, 1,177½ miles out from The Dalles, the people at
first seemed reluctant to assume the responsibility of erecting a
monument, everybody being "too busy" to give up any time to it, but
were willing to contribute. After a short canvass, $52 was contributed,
a local committee appointed, and an organized effort to erect a
monument was well in hand before we drove out of the town.
I here witnessed one of those heavy downpours like some I remember in
'52, where, as in this case, the water came down in veritable sheets,
and in an incredibly short time turned all the slopes into roaring
torrents and level places into lakes; the water ran six inches deep in
the streets in this case, on a very heavy grade the whole width of the
street.
I quote from my journal:
"Camp No. 95, July 12.—Odometer 1,192. We are camped under a group
of balm trees in the Platte bottom near the bridge at the farm of a
company, Dr. J. M. Wilson in charge, where we found a good vegetable
garden and were bidden to help ourselves, which I did, with a liberal
hand, to a feast of young onions, radishes, beets and lettuce enough
for several days."
PUYALLUP-TACOMA-SEATTLE.
This refreshing shade and these spreading balms carried me back to the
little cabin home in the Puyallup Valley, 1,500 miles away, where we
had for so long a period enjoyed the cool shades of the native forests,
enlivened by the charms of songsters at peep of day, with the dew
dripping off the leaves like as if a shower had fallen over the forest.
Having now passed the 1,200-mile mark out from The Dalles with scarcely
the vestige of timber life except in the snows of the Blue Mountains,
one can not wonder that my mind should run back to not only the little
cabin home as well as to the more pretentious residence nearby; to the
time when our homestead of 160 acres, granted to us by the Government,
was a dense forest—when the little clearing was so isolated we could
see naught else but walls of timber around us—timber that required
the labor of one man twelve years to remove from a quarter-section of
land—of the time when trails only reached the spot; when, as the poet
wrote:
"Oxen answered well for team,
Though now they'd be too slow—";
when the semi-monthly mail was eagerly looked for; when the Tribune
would be re-read again and again before the new supply came; when the
morning hours before breakfast were our only school hours for the
children; when the home-made shoe pegs and the home-shaped shoe lasts
answered for making and mending the shoes, and the home-saved bristle
for the waxen end; when the Indians, if not our nearest neighbors, I
had liked to have said our best; when the meat in the barrel and the
flour in the box, in spite of the most strenuous efforts, would at
times run low; when the time for labor would be much nearer eighteen
than eight hours a day.
"SUPPER." Supper is ready; and when repeated in more imperative tones,
I at last awake to inhale the fragrant flavors of that most delicious
beverage, camp coffee, from the Mocha and Java mixed grain that had
"just come to a boil," and to realize there was something else in the
air when the bill of fare was scanned.
Menu.
Calf's liver, fried crisp, with bacon.
Coffee, with cream, and a lump of butter added.
Lettuce, with vinegar and sugar.
Young onions.
Boiled young carrots.
Radishes.
Beets, covered with vinegar.
Cornmeal mush, cooked forty minutes, in reserve and for
a breakfast fry.
These "delicacies of the season," coupled with the—what shall I call
it?—delicious appetite incident to a strenuous day's travel and a late
supper hour, without a dinner padding in the stomach, aroused me to
a sense of the necessities of the inner man, and to that keen relish
incident to prolonged exertion and to open-air life, and justice was
meted out to the second meal of the day following a 5:00 o'clock
breakfast.
I awoke also to the fact that I was on the spot near where I camped
fifty-four years ago in this same Platte Valley, then apparently almost
a desert. Now what do I see? As we drew into camp, two mowing machines
cutting the alfalfa; two or more teams raking the cured hay to the
rick, and a huge fork or rake at intervals climbing the steep incline
of fenders to above the top of the rick, and depositing its equivalent
to a wagon-load at a time. To my right, as we drove through the gate,
the large garden looked temptingly near, as did some rows of small
fruit. Hay ricks dotted the field, and outhouses, barns and dwellings
at the home. We are in the midst of plenty and the guests, we may
almost say, of friends, instead of feeling we must deposit the trusted
rifle in convenient place while we eat. Yes, we will exclaim again,
"What wondrous changes time has wrought!"
But my mind will go back to the little ivy-covered cabin now so
carefully preserved in Pioneer Park in the little pretentious city of
Puyallup, that was once our homestead, and so long our home, and where
the residence still stands nearby. The timber is all gone and in its
place brick blocks and pleasant, modest homes are found, where the
roots and stumps once occupied the ground now smiling fruit gardens
adorn the landscape and fill the purses of 1,400 fruit growers, and
supply the wants of 6,000 people. Instead of the slow trudging ox team,
driven to the market town sixteen miles distant, with a day in camp on
the way, I see fifty-four railroad trains a day thundering through the
town. I see electric lines with crowded cars carrying passengers to
tide water and to the rising city of Tacoma, but seven miles distant.
I see a quarter of a million people within a radius of thirty miles,
where solitude reigned supreme fifty-four years ago, save the song of
the Indian, the thump of his canoe paddle, or the din of his gambling
revels. When I go down to the Sound I see miles of shipping docks where
before the waters rippled over a pebbly beach filled with shell-fish.
I look farther, and see hundreds of steamers plying thither and yon on
the great inland sea, where fifty-four years ago the Indian's canoe
only noiselessly skimmed the water. I see hundreds of sail vessels that
whiten every sea of the globe, being either towed here and there or
at dock, receiving or discharging cargo, where before scarce a dozen
had in a year ventured the voyage. At the docks in Seattle I see the
28,000-ton steamers receiving their monster cargoes for the Orient, and
am reminded that these monsters can enter any of the numerous harbors
of Puget Sound and are supplemented by a great array of other steam
tonnage contending for that vast across-sea trade, and again exclaim
with greater wonderment than ever, "What wondrous changes time has
wrought!" If I look through the channels of Puget Sound, I yet see the
forty islands or more; its sixteen hundred miles of shore line; its
schools of fish, and at intervals the seal; its myriads of sea gulls;
the hawking crow; the clam beds; the ebb and flow of the tide—still
there. But many happy homes dot the shore line where the dense forests
stood; the wild fruits have given way to the cultivated; trainloads of
fruit go out to distant markets; and what we once looked upon as barren
land now gives plenteous crops; and we again exclaim, "What wondrous
changes time has wrought," or shall we not say, "What wondrous changes
the hand of man has wrought!"
But I am admonished I have wandered and must needs go back to our
narrative of "Out on the Trail."
FOOTNOTE:
[24] A monument 25 feet high has since been erected, that cost
$1,500.00.