34 Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 



place emigrants started at that time for California. At 

 Independence, Missouri, we "fitted out" for California, 

 which was the "far West" then surely. We bought four 

 yoke of oxen for each wagon, loading each with about 

 two thousand pounds of provisions, outfit, etc. This was 

 not a large load for such a team, but we thought it safest 

 to have enough oxen. There were about eighty persons 

 in our crowd. Altogether we had twenty-one wagons, 

 which with their four-yoke teams made a very formida- 

 ble appearance. We had not gone far, however, before 

 grass became scarce. Then, too, we could not always 

 agree as to the best route to be taken. For these rea- 

 sons our large party soon split up into smaller ones, each 

 taking whichever route it pleased. 



By the middle of May we reached Grand Island, 

 Nebraska, where we found our first good grass. Thisi 

 was an important item, since our cattle were already 

 getting weak and thin. From Grand Island, where we 

 struck the valley, we moved up the Platte river to old 

 Fort Carney [Kearney], thence west hj Ash Hollow and 

 the North Platte to Fort Laramie, situated at the point 

 where the Laramie fork enters the North Platte. Ar- 

 rived at the Eocky Mountains, we did not follow the 

 Union Pacific track over the divide, though this was the 

 usual route, but took rather the South Pass over the 

 mountains, which were passed about June 1. Once over 

 the Great Divide we went down the Humboldt^ River to 

 the Carson river and then up the Carson river to its head. 

 The journey across the Sierra Nevada range, which was 

 reached early in August, brought the greatest suffering 

 of the whole trip, for the snow was heavy and it was 

 biting cold. The crust on the snow was strong enough 

 to bear up our heavy wagons, for which we were thank- 

 ful, since it lessened the hardship somewhat. Descend- 

 ing the western slope of the Sierra Nevada range we 

 reached the gold fields at a place called Hangtown [now 

 Placerville], California, about September 1. 



1. In Nevada. No effort has been made to identify the exact 

 route taken on this journey because the story of this trip may be con- 

 sidered as merely introductory to tlae main narrative to follow. 



