34 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



But not so with the early users of the trail. To them it was a real 

 hardship to he overcome. Even for the stage coach, drawn hy four or 

 occasionally six light horses, it was a long and tedious day's travel. 

 And for the heavier loaded and slower moving emigrant and freight 

 outfits a single day did not suffice for the journey. It was their cus- 

 tom, I was told, to divide their wagon trains at the Snake River, tak- 

 ing one half up the first five miles of heavy climb to the top of the 

 divide and leaving them there for the night, while the oxen or horses 



Fig. 27. — A bit of the Old Oregon Trail, looking east toward Snake River 

 from the top of the Plain, near which an Indian attack is reported to have 

 taken place. 



were taken hack to the river to bring on the remainder of the wagons 

 early the next morning, when the journey through the sandy sage 

 brush country to the next water hole was resumed. The necessity of 

 breaking up the wagon trains at this point naturally weakened then- 

 defense against attack by hostile Indians. This fact was evidently 

 recognized and taken advantage of by the latter, for it was here some 

 of their most successful attacks were made. It was said that here one 

 whole emigrant train was surrounded and burned. Mute evidence of 

 the tragedy is still perceptible in the form of occasional pieces of 

 wagon irons that may be found scattered through the sage brush near 



