THE OREGON TRAIL

There were several reasons why people were willing to risk the long journey to Oregon. Emigrants stressed the importance of escaping from the fever-infested swamps of Missouri and Mississippi. The bad climate seems to have been the motive that has induced many of them to set out.

Stories also circulated about the high quality of the crops that could be grown in Oregon. Potential emigrants were told that wheat "grew as tall as a man, with each stalk sprouting seven kernels", clover was so dense that the "farmer could barely get into the field to harvest it" and turnips were "five feet tall".   The entire journey was over 2,000 miles.

 Our picture  taken from a distance shows Chimney Rock, it was one of the best known landmarks on the Oregon and Mormon Trails. Approximately 350, 000 pioneers passed by Chimney Rock. Fur trader Warren A. Ferris left the oldest known written description of Chimney Rock. On May 26, 1830, his party reached " ‘Nose Mountain,’ or as it is more commonly called, the ‘Chimney,’ a singular mound, which has the form of an inverted funnel."

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and before anyone asks, I'm not in this picture

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Driving through the Pass   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAAosQpXxqI 

  MITCHELL PASS: LEFT. SENTINEL ROCK, RIGHT . EAGLE ROCK

DOME ROCK

Eagle Rock

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The Rebecca Winters' gravesite is one of the few graves of the 6,000 Latter-day Saint pioneers who died while making the journey across the plains to the West. She was traveling in the James C. Snow Company in 1852 when an outbreak of cholera took her life. William F. Reynolds inscribed her name and age onto a discarded iron tyre. It reads, "Rebecca Winters - Age 50." Several individuals traveling west made mention of the grave as they passed it while traveling through the area.

In 1902, when surveyors were planning the Burlington Railroad through the area, the grave with the iron tyre was again discovered. The railroad decided to redirect the rail line out of respect for this noble pioneer mother who died on the plains. Also, the railroad constructed a small fence around the grave to help protect it the old iron tyre is still in place.