The Meek Cutoff: Tracing the Oregon Trail's Lost Wagon Train of 1845
by Brooks Geer Ragen
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Description
In 1845, an estimated 2,500 emigrants left Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri, for the Willamette Valley in what was soon to become the Oregon Territory. It was general knowledge that the route of the Oregon Trail through the Blue Mountains and down the Columbia River to The Dalles was grueling and dangerous. About 1,200 men, women, and children in over two hundred wagons accepted fur trapper and guide Stephen Meek's offer to lead them on a shortcut across the trackless high desert of show more eastern Oregon.Those who followed Meek experienced a terrible ordeal when his memory of the terrain apparently failed. Lost for weeks with little or no water and a shortage of food, the Overlanders encountered deep dust, alkali lakes, and steep, rocky terrain. Many became ill and some died in the forty days it took to travel from the Snake River in present-day Idaho to the Deschutes River near Bend, Oregon. Stories persist that children in the group found gold nuggets in a small, dry creek bed along the way.From 2006 to 2011, Brooks Ragan and a team of specialists in history, geology, global positioning, metal detecting, and aerial photography spent weeks every spring and summer tracing the Meek Cutoff. They located wagon ruts, gravesites, and other physical evidence from the most difficult part of the trail, from Vale, Oregon, to the upper reaches of the Crooked River and to a location near Redmond where a section of the train reached the Deschutes.The Meek Cutoff moves readers back and forth in time, using surviving journals from members of the 1845 party, detailed day-to-day maps, aerial photographs, and descriptions of the modern-day exploration to document an extraordinary story of the Oregon Trail. show lessTags
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oregonobsessionz Terrible Trail was used as a primary source for locating the route.
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Set in the Pacific Northwest
136 works; 7 members
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2 Works 10 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2013
- People/Characters
- Stephen Meek
- Dedication
- To my wife, Susie, who maintained a highly enthusiastic demeanor even though the Meek expeditions were out of her "comfort zone".
To my great-great-uncle, Joseph Carey Geer Jr., who was with the Lost Wagon Train of... (show all) 1845.
To my grandmother, Annetta "Nettie" Geer Sweitzer Gradon Ragen, and my mother, Florence Gradon Ragen, who initiated and encouraged my interest in the story of the Meek Cutoff.
To those who are interested in exploring the historic trails and vanishing Old West of eastern Oregon. - First words
- (Preface) While Native Americans were the original inhabitants of that part of the American continent now known as the Pacific Northwest, Russian, Spanish, and British ships explored the area's coast on many occasions during ... (show all)the eighteenth century.
(Introduction) From 1840 to 1860, an estimated fifty thousand people traveled overland to what became designated as the Oregon Territory.
Saturday, August 23, 1845
Herren, Cooley, and Parker traveled about fifteen miles to the present-day site of Vale on the Oregon Trail. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)(Cooley) . . . The rite hand road is some nearest as the company behind made a cut off on us. 8 miles
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)(Final Thoughts) Perhaps Walt Whitman's words are an appropriate end to this story:
Not for delectations sweet,
Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious,
Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the safe enjoyment,
Pioneers! O pioneers! - Original language
- English
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- Languages
- English
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- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
