Necessary outfits for emigrants to Oregon or California, taken from
Palmer’s Journal of Travels to Oregon—Additional advice by the
Author.
For burthen wagons, light four-horse or heavy two-horse wagons are the
size commonly usd. They should be made of the best material, well
seasond, and should in all cases have falling tongues. The tire should
not be less than one and three fourths inches wide, but may be
advantageously usd three inches; two inches, however, is the most common
width. In fastening on the tire, bolts should be usd instead of nails;
it should be at least five eighths or three fourths of an inch thick.
Hub boxes for the hubs should be about four inches. The skeins should be
well steeld. The Mormon-fashiond wagon-bed is the best. They are usually
made straight, with side-boards about 16 inches wide, and a projection
outward of four inches on each side, and then another side-board of 10
or 12 inches. In this last, set the bows for covers, which should always
be double. Boxes for carrying effects should be so constructed as to
correspond in hight with the offset in the wagon-bed, as this gives a
smooth surface to sleep upon.
Ox teams are more extensively usd than any others. Oxen stand the trip
much better, and are not so liable to be stolen by the Indians, and are
much less trouble. Cattle are generally allowd to go at large, when not
hitchd to the wagons, whilst horses and mules must always be stakd up at
night. Oxen can procure food in many places where horses cannot, and in
much less time. Cattle that have been raisd in Illinois or Missouri,
stand the trip better than those raisd in Indiana or Ohio, as they have
been accustomd to eating the prairie grass, upon which they must wholly
rely while on the road. Great care should be taken in selecting
cattle—they should be from four to six years old, tight and heavy made.
For those who fit out but one wagon, it is not safe to start with less
than four yoke of oxen, as they are liable to get lame, have sore necks,
or to stray away. One team thus fitted up may start from Missouri with
twenty-five hundred pounds, and as each day’s rations make the load that
much lighter, before they reach any rough road, their loading is much
reducd.—Persons should recollect that every thing in the outfit should
be as light as the requird strength will permit. No useless trumpery
should be taken. The loading should consist of provisions and apparel, a
necessary supply of cooking fixtures, a few tools, &c. No great
speculation can be made in buying cattle and driving them through to
sell, but as the prices of oxen and cows are much higher in Oregon than
in the States, nothing is lost in having a good supply of them, which
will enable the emigrant to wagon through many articles that are
difficult to be obtaind in Oregon. Each family should have a few cows,
as the milk can be usd the entire route, and they are often convenient
to put to the wagon to relieve oxen. They should be so selected that
portions of them would come in fresh upon the road. Sheep can also be
advantageously driven. American horses and mares always command high
prices, and with careful usage can be taken through,—but if usd to
wagons or carriages, their loading should be light. Each family should
be provided with a sheet-iron stove, with boiler. A platform can easily
be constructed at the hind end of the wagon, and as it is frequently
quite windy, and there is often a scarcity of wood, the stove is very
convenient. Each family should also be provided with a tent, and to it
should be attachd good strong cords, to fasten it down.
The cooking fixtures generally usd are of sheet iron—a Dutch oven and
skillet of cast metal are very essential. Plates, cups, &c., should be
of tinware, as queensware is much heavier and liable to break, and
consumes much time in packing up. A reflector is sometimes very useful.
Families should each have two churns, one for carrying sweet and one for
sour milk.—They should also have one eight or ten-gallon keg for
carrying water, one axe, one shovel, two or three augers, one hand-saw,
and if a farmer, he should be provided with one cross-cut saw and a few
plow-molds, as it is difficult getting such articles. When I left the
country, plows cost from twenty-five to forty dollars each. A good
supply of ropes for tying up horses and catching cattle, should also be
taken.
Every person should be well supplied with boots and shoes, and in fact
with every kind of clothing. It is also well to be supplied with at
least one feather bed, and a good assortment of bedding. There are no
tame geese in the country, but an abundance of wild ones, yet it is
difficult procuring a sufficient quantity of feathers for a bed. The
Muscovy is the only tame duck in the country.
Each male person should have at least one rifle gun, and a shot gun is
also very useful for wild fowl and small game, of which there is an
abundance. The best sized calibre for the mountains is from thirty-two
to fifty-six to the pound—but one of from sixty to eighty, or even less,
is best when in the lower settlements. Buffaloes seldom range beyond the
South Pass, and never west of Green river. The larger game are elk,
deer, antelope, mountain sheep or bighorn, and bear. The small game are
hare, rabbit, grouse, sage hen, pheasant, quail, &c. A good supply of
ammunition is essential.
In laying in a supply of provisions for the journey, persons will
doubtless be governd in some degree by their means, but there are a few
essentials that all will require.
For each adult, there should be two hundred pounds of flour, thirty
pounds of pilot bread, seventy-five pounds of bacon, ten pounds of rice,
five pounds of coffee, two pounds of tea, twenty-five pounds of sugar,
half a bushel of dried beans, one bushel of dried fruit, two pounds of
saleratus, ten pounds of salt, half a bushel of corn meal—and it is well
to have a half bushel of corn, parchd and ground—a small keg of vinegar
should also be taken. To the above may be added as many good things as
the means of the person will enable him to carry, for whatever is good
at home is none the less so on the road. The above will be ample for the
journey, but should an additional quantity be taken, it can be readily
disposd of in the mountains and at good prices, not for cash, but for
robes, dressd skins, buckskin pants, moccasins, &c. It is also well for
families to be provided with medicines. It is seldom, however, that
emigrants are sick—but sometimes eating too freely of fresh buffalo meat
causes diarrhœa, and unless it be checkd soon prostrates the individual,
and leaves him a fit subject for disease.
The time usually occupied in making the trip from Missouri to Oregon
city is about five months, but with the aid of a person who has traveld
the route with an emigrating company, the trip can be performd in about
four months.
Much injury is done to teams in racing them, endeavoring to pass each
other.
Emigrants should make an every-day business of traveling—resting upon
the same ground two nights is not good policy, as the teams are likely
to ramble too far.
Getting into large companies should be avoided, as they are necessarily
compeld to move more tardily. From ten to twenty-five wagons is a
sufficient number to travel with safety. The advance and rear companies
should not be less than twenty, but between, it may be safe to go with
six.
The Indians are very annoying on account of their thieving propensities,
but if well watchd, they would seldom put them in practice.
Persons should always avoid rambling far from camp unarmd or in too
small parties; Indians will sometimes seek such opportunities to rob a
man of what little effects he has about him, and if he attempts to get
away from them with his property, they will sometimes shoot him.
There are several points along the Missouri where emigrants have been in
the practice of fitting out. Of these, Independence, St. Josephs and
Council Bluffs, are the most noted. For those emigrating from Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois and northern Missouri, Iowa and Michigan, I think St.
Josephs the best point, as by taking that route the crossing of several
streams (which at the early season we travel are sometimes very high) is
avoided. Outfits may be had at this point as readily as at any other
along the river. Work cattle can be bought in its vicinity for from
twenty-five to thirty dollars per yoke, cows, horses, &c., equally
cheap.
Emigrants should endeavor to arrive at St. Josephs early in April, so as
to be in readiness to take up the line of march by the middle of April.
Companies, however, have often started as late as the tenth of May; but
in such cases they seldom arrive in Oregon until after the rainy season
commences in the Cascade range of mountains.
Those residing in northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, &c., who
contemplate traveling by land to the place of rendezvous, should start
in time to give their teams at least ten days’ rest. Ox teams, after
traveling four or five hundred miles in the States, at that season of
the year, would be unfit to perform a journey across the mountains; but
doubtless they might be exchangd for others, at or near the rendezvous.
Farmers would do well to take along a good supply of horse gears.
Mechanics should take such tools as are easily carried; as there are but
few in the country, and those are held at exorbitant prices. Every
family should lay in a good supply of school books for their children.
* * * * * * * *
Since the advice of Mr. Palmer was given to Oregon emigrants, relating
to outfits for the overland route to that country, some advantages have
been experiencd by the use of mule instead of ox teams. In the first
place, that animal is much more sure-footed than the ox or the horse,
and in the next place, he can live on kinds of food that the ox or the
horse will not eat, and he will also live on a much less amount. The
mule is more hardy than the horse or the ox, and will endure fatigue
when the others will faint. Another circumstance which I do not
recollect to have seen mentiond by any writer, and which it may not be
improper to add in this place, is the failure of oxen upon the emigrant
route, from lameness by traveling over ground bestrewn with salts of
various kinds, but mostly alkali. To neutralize the alkali so as to
prevent the oxen from becoming lame, their hoofs should be rubd with
lard or tallow at least twice each day, till the tract of country
containing such salt is passd over. It is, however, probable that in a
few years the place of oxen will be supplied by the use of mules, though
attention will doubtless need to be paid to the hoofs of mules, to keep
them sound, as well as of oxen.
If persons wish to leave the States for California by the overland
route, earlier than the time mentioned by Mr. Palmer, it would be
necessary to leave the States with as much provision for their teams as
they could at first well haul, after having first supplied themselves
with their own necessary food to last them through their journey. In
such case a considerable distance may be overcome before the early
production of grasses upon the plains.
A few words by way of advice to persons wishing to go to California to
dig for gold, may not be uninteresting here. I have noticed that miners
from the States carry to California a great amount of baggage and
implements for mining operations at great costs of transportation and
removal from one place to another, which I deem wholly unnecessary. This
oftentimes enormous expense can be savd from the fact that clothing and
mining implements of all necessary kinds are very abundant in
California, although at a higher price than in the States, yet still the
cost of most articles in the mines will not equal the cost in the
States, added to transportation costs from the States to the seat of
mining operations in California. I would therefore say that one suit of
substantial coarse clothes, and money enough to defray expenses there,
is all that is best to carry. The amount of money necessary to defray
expenses, by way of the isthmus, from the States to the seat of mining
operations in California, cannot at present be less than 200 dollars to
each person, at the cheapest mode of traveling. Conveyance by steamer,
with best accommodations, will cost not much short of 500 dollars, but
in no case, considering contingencies, will it be safe to start with
less than 300 dollars.
Another circumstance which I have seen much chanted in the public
papers, although not particularly connected with the foregoing
information, is the scheme of making a railroad from the States overland
to California. I can only speak for one person, and this much it is,
that if Whitney knew that out of 2000 miles overland, more than 1500 of
it is a waste, barren tract, and likewise much of it very rugged, he
might be prepard to think as I do, that the income of such a road would
never keep it in repair.
[Illustration: Wagon]
DESCRIPTION OF OREGON.
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