18 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



hewn inoiiument of red granite with the inscription 

 marks the overland emisTant trails throu<rh Fremont 



fornia, Utah, and Colorado. 



September 



Clark Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution." 

 monuments have been placed at many other raihoad statio 

 Hue of the old trail. 



From Ames, may be seen a gap in the line of bluffs south 



Similar 



River that marks the course of an old valley occupied by the river 



at an early stage of its development, when its bed 

 was about 100 feet higrher than at present. The river 



Ames. 



Elevation 1,230 feet. 

 Omaha 53 miles. 



w 



eastward 



and thence 



of Waterloo. 



miles 



a valley floor covered with loam and sand like the floor of the present 

 valley. Also Hke the present valley it is bordered along most of its 

 course bv steen banks of loess. 



a line of trading posts extending from th 



a 



Great^Lakea to the Pacific, the Sandwich last of American pioneers. When the 



old trail was in full tide of life it was filled 



Islands, and China, but the War of 1812 

 put a stop to this scheme. About 1824 

 William H. Ashley and Etienne Provost, 

 of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trading Co., 

 discovered South Pass, which made per- 

 manent the mountain-crossing route of 



of great out of door men and women — the 



gon Trail and later attracted th( 

 Pacific locating parties. Gen 



Union 



Dodge says further: 



"In 1843 the pathfinder, Gen. John C. 

 Fremont, began to spy out the military 

 ways across the West, and the same year 

 the Oregon pioneers took the firtit wagons 

 westward to the Pacific. The trail that 

 began with the journey of these early 

 pioneers was widened and deepened by 

 the wheels of the Mormons in 1847, and 

 when the herald of the first California 

 Golden Age sent forth a trumpet call in 

 1849, heard around the world, the trail was 

 finished from Great Salt Lake across the 

 mountains to the sea. 



That era had its great men, for great 

 men make era^. Ben Holladay, William 

 N. Russell, and Edward Creighton gave 

 to the trail the overland stage line, the 

 pony express, and the telegraph. 



Datine the beffinnine^ of trnn.srnnfi- 



with gold seekers from the Missouri to the 

 Pacific; 100,000 travelers passed over it 

 yearly. Towns stiiring and turbulent, 

 some now gone from the map and some 

 grown to be cities, flourished as the green 

 bay tree. Omaha, Salt Lake, San Fran- 

 cisco and such leaser places as Julesburg, 

 Cheyenne, Laramie, Carson, Elko, and 

 Virginia City were picturesquely lively. 



The 



immiirrant 



mines 



teams 



a 



lop; of the first riders of the pony express; 

 and of all other manner of moving men 

 and beasts. The protesting savages have 

 no place upon it but, perceiving in it an 

 instrument to alienate their domain, 



)n trains and destroyed its 

 stages as opportunity offered. At times 

 great herds of buffalo obliterated great 



cc 



nental wagon travel from the days of fort v- 



ailri 



own 

 and 



passed 



road 



passed. But the rail- 



Salifomia. The period 



stage coach and pony express and ox team 

 have marked the way of the trail upon the 

 map of the West so that it shall endure aa 

 long as the West endures." 



