Meek Cutoff

Last updated
Emigrants marked their path on this juniper limb, found southeast of present-day Redmond, Oregon. The limb is now on display in the Deschutes County Museum. Meek Juniper Tree.jpg
Emigrants marked their path on this juniper limb, found southeast of present-day Redmond, Oregon. The limb is now on display in the Deschutes County Museum.

Meek Cutoff was a horse trail road that branched off the Oregon Trail in northeastern Oregon and was used as an alternate emigrant route to the Willamette Valley in the mid-19th century. The road was named for frontiersman Stephen Meek, who was hired to lead the first wagon train along it in 1845. The journey was a particularly hard one, and many of the pioneers lost their lives.

Contents

Starting where the Oregon Trail leaves the Snake River Plain and heads northwest toward the Columbia River Gorge (the general route of modern Interstate 84), Meek's party intended to instead head west across the Oregon High Desert, straight to the Willamette Valley. They left the main trail at Vale, Oregon and followed the Malheur River to head into the Harney Basin. They then turned west towards Wagontire Mountain and northwest to the south fork of the Crooked River. At this point, due to hardship, the party split into two groups, each of which found the Deschutes River. The two groups reunited north of where the Crooked River empties into the Deschutes and, deflecting from their original westward purpose, followed the river to the Columbia and rejoined the Oregon Trail at The Dalles.

In 1853, the Elliott Cutoff was established, completing Meek's purpose by turning upstream at the Deschutes River for 30 miles (48 km) and then crossing the Cascade Mountains at Willamette Pass.

History

Stephen Meek Stephen Meek photo.jpg
Stephen Meek

In 1845, there were rumors circulating among the emigrants on the Oregon Trail that Walla Walla and Cayuse Indians might possibly attack the settlers in the Blue Mountains of Oregon or along the Columbia River. Reports of threats came in conjunction with the murder of two Frenchmen in the area. [1] Stephen Meek, the older brother of Joe Meek, was an experienced fur trapper and explorer who made his living as a wagon train guide. Meek was unemployed at the time but was considered to be someone who was familiar with eastern Oregon. When he offered the emigrants an alternate route to avoid the Blue Mountains many decided to follow him. [2] Some 200 wagons and 1,000 people turned off the primary Oregon Trail at Vale and followed Meek into the Oregon desert, where no wagons had traveled before.

Blazing a new trail

Meek led the wagon train southwest through the Malheur Mountains. The party followed the Malheur River for the first two days but were then forced into the hill country. As they progressed the road became stonier. It was so hard on the oxen that several died each day. [3]

The grave of Sarah "Sally" King Chambers. The inscription reads "Mrs. S Chambers Sep 3rd 1845". Grave of Sarah King Chambers.jpg
The grave of Sarah "Sally" King Chambers. The inscription reads "Mrs. S Chambers Sep 3rd 1845".

Some of the emigrants were not doing well, especially those who were already sick when the train took the cutoff. Just west of Castle Rock and along the North Fork of the Malheur River, Rowland Chambers' wife Sarah, the Captain's daughter and a young mother of two small children, was now critically ill, having contracted camp fever earlier in the journey. "Everything possible was done to ease her distress as she lay in the wagon hovering between life and death but alas, to no avail. Sarah breathed her last breath at this camp and was laid to rest beneath the sagebrush." [4] The next day the grieving husband was left behind with a horse as the train continued to journey on. He went down to the river and found a native stone that he smoothed, then carved this inscription: "Mrs. S Chambers, Sep 3rd 1845." It remains one of the few Oregon Trail gravestones in existence.

The very next day the train experienced its most difficult ascent. In order to reach a ridge west of the North Fork of the Malheur River, the emigrants were forced to climb a steep, narrow ravine choked with boulders. One emigrant wrote about moving "ten thousand stones" in order to make a roadbed. Some of the wagons were damaged during the 1,000 foot (300 m) climb, but they were soon repaired and the wagons continued over the hill and down to Cottonwood Creek. [5]

The train continued over mountains until it finally came down East Cow Creek into the Harney Basin, in a region known today as the Oregon High Desert. The expression on Meek's face "changed to one of complete bewilderment, as if he were seeing the country for the first time." [6] When trapping in this area 10 years prior, the alkaline lakes had flooded a large portion of the valley. But now it was a drought year, the lakes were small and everything looked different. They continued south along the Silvies River and out into the lakebed, where they turned west. As they made their way to Silver Creek there were some in the forward company who insisted they continue west to find a pass over the Cascades. Meek wanted to follow Silver Creek to the north, but they refused to follow him.

On September 11, 1845, James Field wrote in his diary:

It was his intention to follow down Crooked River to the Deschutes and down it to the old road, but when he came to the marshy lake spoken of last Sunday, the company refused to follow him if he made the circuit necessary to get around it upon Crooked river again so he struck off in a westerly direction in order to get upon the main Deschutes River. He well knew that there was a scarcity of grass and water across here and so informed them, but it was nearer and they would have him go it, and now blame him for coming the route they obliged him to. [7]

Sherar's Bridge was later built where some in Meek's wagon train built an elaborate pulley system to get people and wagons across the Deschutes River. Others tied ropes across the river banks about two miles (3.2 km) upstream and used their wagon box as a boat to cross the swift current. Sherars Bridge.jpg
Sherar's Bridge was later built where some in Meek's wagon train built an elaborate pulley system to get people and wagons across the Deschutes River. Others tied ropes across the river banks about two miles (3.2 km) upstream and used their wagon box as a boat to cross the swift current.

The train continued to Wagontire Mountain, a name it later received when early settlers found a wagon tire there. Here the emigrants camped in and around what they called the "Lost Hollow". There was water and grass but not an ample supply for the emigrants and all their livestock. As emigrants further back in the train continued to arrive, circumstances in the camp became desperate. Water quickly became scarce and many ran out of their staple supplies. In a weakened condition, more travelers became sick. Camp fever and other ailments began to overcome large numbers, especially the children and elders. [8]

On September 13, Field again wrote:

Started this morning in expectation of a long drive across the plain before us, but when about four miles (6.4 km) from camp met Meek's wife in company with a friend, returning with the news that they had found no water as yet and requesting all who were at the spring to remain there until he found a camp and returned or sent word back for them to come on. Nothing remained for us to do but drive back to the camp we had just left, where we found Teatherow's company also, so if misery loves company here is enough of it, for this small camping spot is nearly eaten out by our own large stock of cattle, and to add to all this there are some in the company nearly out of provisions. [9]

For weeks the emigrants had been finding out how unfamiliar Meek was with the area, especially as the wagons followed a serpentine route into Harney Valley. However, there was always enough grass and water to get by. But now as the train became stalled at the Lost Hollow tensions reached a boiling point. Scouts were sent out in all directions looking for water and they searched for long distances but all came back empty-handed.

In 1849, Betsy Bayley recalled this event in a letter written to her sister in Ohio:

We camped at a spring which we gave the name of "The Lost Hollow" because there was very little water there. We had men out in every direction in search of water. They traveled 40 or 50 miles (64 or 80 km) in search of water but found none. You cannot imagine how we all felt. Go back, we could not and we knew not what was before us. Our provisions were failing us. There was sorrow and dismay depicted on every countenance. We were like mariners lost at sea and in this mountainous wilderness we had to remain for five days. At last we concluded to take a Northwesterly direction . . . . After we got in the right direction, people began to get sick. [10]

The search for water ended when Meek climbed Midnight Point and from there he could see Buck Creek 25 miles (40 km) due north. [11] The emigrants immediately left for Buck Creek but from this point on they were no longer following Meek. [12]

During this period of the journey – while emigrants were driving their livestock throughout the night to water – the John Herren family reportedly found some gold nuggets, which led to the legend of the Lost Blue Bucket Mine. The name came from the story later circulated by some of the emigrants. The Herrens reported that if they had remained at their campsite they could have filled a blue bucket with gold nuggets. This place has never been found, but if it exists it is thought by some to be between Wagontire Mountain and the south fork of the Crooked River. [13]

The train splits

Ruts of Meek's and Elliott's wagons near Westfall, Oregon Meek's Ruts.jpg
Ruts of Meek's and Elliott's wagons near Westfall, Oregon

When the train reached the springs at the south fork one group turned west while the other continued north. The larger group followed Samuel Parker up to Steen's Ridge where wagon ruts can still be seen today. Their goal was to follow the Crooked River. The smaller group with Solomon Tetherow continued west along the north side of Hampton Butte and then followed Bear Creek. Meek traveled with this smaller company. With the help of a Native American who guided the group to water in exchange for a blanket, they reached the Deschutes River where Cline Falls is today, and then followed the Deschutes north. This group suffered more for lack of supplies, so they sent a relief party ahead to The Dalles. The relief party thought it would be a two-day journey, but it took them ten days. When they arrived at The Dalles they were in a starving condition and so weak that some of the men needed help dismounting their horses. [14]

The train reunites

On September 26, 1845, both groups arrived on the same day at Sagebrush Springs near present-day Gateway, Oregon. They had all traveled a long distance without water, and the whole train stopped to rest on the 27th. On that day Samuel Parker entered in his diary:

May codent get to water and water was taken to them, 32 in number. Heare we beried 6 persons.

Parker later added these remarks:

Tuck what is called Meeks cutoff - a bad cutoff for all that tuck it. [15]

Meek continued on ahead of the company, and when he reached Sherars Falls on the Deschutes River he was warned that a father who lost two sons along the trail intended to kill him, so with the help of Native Americans a rope was sent across the swift river, and both Meek and his wife were guided through the water with ropes tied around them. They hurried to the Mission at The Dalles where they convinced Black Harris, a mountain man, to return to the falls with a crew and equipment to help the emigrants cross. In this way Meek made his escape, and the rescue crew arrived in time to help the pioneers, who numbered more than a thousand, cross with their wagons. The wagons were taken completely apart to facilitate the dangerous crossing. Some of the emigrants crossed from the low banks, using their wagon box as a boat and guided by ropes over the swift current. Others used a rope and pulley system above the high walls of the narrows about two miles (three point two kilometres) downstream. It took nearly two weeks to cross everyone in the wagon train. The starving and exhausted emigrants finally reached The Dalles beginning around the 2nd week of October, having suffered 23 known deaths and probably many more.

It is estimated that another 25 of the exhausted emigrants died after reaching The Dalles. [16] The deaths and other circumstances created resentment towards Meek and led to the often used phrase "Meek deserted them in the desert," [17] despite his having stayed with his emigrants throughout most of the journey. [18]

The Meek Cutoff is one of sixteen historic trails recognized by the State of Oregon. [19] The blazing of the Meek Cutoff led to later wagon roads and the settlement of the eastern and central regions of Oregon. [20]

Notable members of the party

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oregon Trail</span> Historic route connecting the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon

The Oregon Trail was a 2,170-mile (3,490 km) east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kansas and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of the current states of Idaho and Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Pass (Wyoming)</span> Route across Continental Divide in Wyoming

South Pass is a route across the Continental Divide, in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Wyoming. It lies in a broad high region, 35 miles (56 km) wide, between the nearly 14,000 ft (4,300 m) Wind River Range to the north and the over 8,500 ft (2,600 m) Oregon Buttes and arid, saline near-impassable Great Divide Basin to the south. The Pass lies in southwestern Fremont County, approximately 35 miles (56 km) SSW of Lander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Hall</span> Fortification

Fort Hall was a fort in the Western United States that was built in 1834 as a fur trading post by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth. It was located on the Snake River in the eastern Oregon Country, now part of present-day Bannock County in southeastern Idaho. Wyeth was an inventor and businessman from Boston, Massachusetts, who also founded a post at Fort William, in present-day Portland, Oregon, as part of a plan for a new trading and fisheries company. In 1837, unable to compete with the powerful British Hudson's Bay Company, based at Fort Vancouver, Wyeth sold both posts to it. Great Britain and the United States both operated in the Oregon Country in these years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malheur River</span> River in Oregon, United States

The Malheur River is a 190-mile-long (306 km) tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon in the United States. It drains a high desert area, between the Harney Basin and the Blue Mountains and the Snake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Trail</span> Historic migration route in the western United States

The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about 1,600 mi (2,600 km) across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail followed the same corridor of networked river valley trails as the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, namely the valleys of the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to Wyoming. The trail has several splits and cutoffs for alternative routes around major landforms and to different destinations, with a combined length of over 5,000 mi (8,000 km).

The Snake War (1864–1868) was an irregular war fought by the United States of America against the "Snake Indians," the settlers' term for Northern Paiute, Bannock and Western Shoshone bands who lived along the Snake River. Fighting took place in the states of Oregon, Nevada, and California, and in Idaho Territory. Total casualties from both sides of the conflict numbered 1,762 dead, wounded, or captured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Applegate Trail</span> United States historic place

The Applegate Trail was an emigrant trail through the present-day U.S. states of Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon used in the mid-19th century by emigrants on the American frontier. It was originally intended as a less dangerous alternative to the Oregon Trail by which to reach the Oregon Territory. Much of the route was coterminous with the California Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barlow Road</span> Historic road in Oregon

The Barlow Road is a historic road in what is now the U.S. state of Oregon. It was built in 1846 by Sam Barlow and Philip Foster, with authorization of the Provisional Legislature of Oregon, and served as the last overland segment of the Oregon Trail. Its construction allowed covered wagons to cross the Cascade Range and reach the Willamette Valley, which had previously been nearly impossible. Even so, it was by far the most harrowing 100 miles (160 km) of the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200 km) Oregon Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Meek</span> A fur trapper and guide in the American Old West

Stephen Hall L. Meek was a fur trapper and guide in the American west, most notably a guide on a large wagon train that used a trail known as the Meek Cutoff. A native of Virginia, both he and his younger brother Joseph Meek would spend their lives as trappers west of the Rocky Mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elliott Cutoff</span> Covered wagon road in Oregon, United States

The Elliott Cutoff was a covered wagon road that branched off the Oregon Trail at the Malheur River where present-day Vale, Oregon, United States is today. The first portion of the road was originally known as the Meek Cutoff after Stephen Meek, a former trapper who led over 1,000 emigrants into the Harney Basin in 1845. There were considerable difficulties for the 1845 train, and after reaching a hill known as Wagontire, the people left Meek and split into groups. They turned north at the Deschutes River and finally returned to the traditional Oregon Trail near The Dalles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Applegate</span> American pioneer

Jesse Applegate was an American pioneer who led a large group of settlers along the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Country. He was an influential member of the early government of Oregon, and helped establish the Applegate Trail as an alternative route to the Oregon Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emigrant Trail in Wyoming</span> 19th century pioneer route in western United States

The Emigrant Trail in Wyoming, which is the path followed by Western pioneers using the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, spans 400 miles (640 km) through the U.S. state of Wyoming. The trail entered from Nebraska on the eastern border of the state near the present day town of Torrington and exited on the western border near the towns of Cokeville and Afton. An estimated 350,000 to 400,000 settlers traveled on the trail through Wyoming between 1841 and 1868. All three trails follow the same path through most of the state. The Mormon Trail splits at Fort Bridger and enters Utah, while the Oregon and California Trails continue to Idaho.

In August, 1851, a band of Shoshoni Indians led by Cho Cho Co reportedly attacked a wagon train led by Thomas Clark on the Oregon Trail near where the Raft River joins the Snake River in present-day Idaho. Afterward, reports held that the Indians' primary objective was to steal horses from Thomas Clark's wagon train party, and that the indigenous tribe killed Clark's mother and brother and another man traveling with them during the horse robbery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lost Blue Bucket Mine</span> Lost mine reputed to be in Oregon, United States

The Lost Blue Bucket Mine is a lost mine reputed to be located along the Meek Wagon Train trail between the present day cities of Vale and The Dalles in Oregon, United States. Its discovery traces back to 1845, several years before the start of the California Gold Rush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huntington Wagon Road</span>

The Huntington Wagon Road is a historic road in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Route of the Oregon Trail</span>

The historic 2,170-mile (3,490 km) Oregon Trail connected various towns along the Missouri River to Oregon's Willamette Valley. It was used during the 19th century by Great Plains pioneers who were seeking fertile land in the West and North.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oregon in the American Civil War</span> Union state in the American Civil War

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Oregon raised the 1st Oregon Cavalry that was activated in 1862 and served until June 1865. During the Civil War, emigrants to the newfound gold fields in Idaho and Oregon continued to clash with the Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock tribes of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada until relations degenerated into the bloody 1864–1868 Snake War. The 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed in 1864 and its last company was mustered out of service in July 1867. Both units were used to guard travel routes and Indian reservations, escort emigrant wagon trains, and protect settlers from Indian raiders. Several infantry detachments also accompanied survey parties and built roads in central and southern Oregon.

Sherry Ross was an Oregon pioneer and the namesake of Ross Island and Ross Island Bridge in Portland, Oregon.

Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of Spanish explorers and the Old Spanish Trail across southwestern Utah, northwestern Arizona, southern Nevada and the Mojave Desert of California to Los Angeles in 1847. From 1855, it became a military and commercial wagon route between California and Utah, called the Los Angeles – Salt Lake Road. In later decades this route was variously called the "Old Mormon Road", the "Old Southern Road", or the "Immigrant Road" in California. In Utah, Arizona and Nevada it was known as the "California Road".

References

  1. ↑ Keith Clark and Lowell Tiller. Terrible Trail: The Meek Cutoff, 1845, (Bend, OR: Maverick Publications Inc., 1966), 14-19.
  2. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, p. xvii-xx, 8–12.
  3. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, p. 25–28.
  4. ↑ Donna Wojcik Montgomery, The Brazen Overlanders of 1845. Bowie Maryland: Heritage Books, Inc., 1992 (Revised Edition), First publication was in 1976 by Donna Wojcik, p. 255.
  5. ↑ Robert G. Boyd, Wandering Wagons: Meek's Lost Emigrants of 1845 (Bend, OR: The High Desert Museum), p. 37.
  6. ↑ Montgomery, The Brazen Overlanders of 1845, p. 260.
  7. ↑ James Field Jr. Journal. 1845, "Crossing the Plains," Willamette Farmer, Portland, Oregon, beginning with issue dated April 18, 1879, and ending with the issue dated August 1, 1879.
  8. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, p. 48.
  9. ↑ Field, Journal. "Crossing the Plains"
  10. ↑ Betsy Bayley, Letter to Mrs. Lucy P. Griffith, 1849 (Portland, OR: MSS 1508, Oregon Historical Society).
  11. ↑ Brooks Geer Ragen, The Meek Cutoff: Tracing the Oregon Trail's Lost Wagon Train of 1845 (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2013), p. 111.
  12. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, pp. 54–55.
  13. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, pp. 91–101.
  14. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, p. 62-89.
  15. ↑ Samuel Parker, Diary, 1845 (Portland, OR: MSS 1508, Oregon Historical Society).
  16. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, p. 115-119.
  17. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, p. 138.
  18. ↑ Clark and Tiller. Terrible Trail, p. 138-143.
  19. ↑ ORS 358.057 "Chapter 358— Oregon Historical and Heritage Agencies, Programs and Tax Provisions; Museums; Local Symphonies and Bands; Archaeological Objects and Sites" . Retrieved November 28, 2010.
  20. ↑ "Oregon House Joint Memorial 6". 1995. Archived from the original on 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
  21. 1 2 "Charlotte Moffett Cartwright"  . The Souvenir of Western Women.
  22. ↑ Himes, George H. "First Newspapers of Southern Oregon and Their Editors"  . Oregon Historical Quarterly. 24.

43°58′44″N117°15′31″W / 43.97886°N 117.25871°W / 43.97886; -117.25871

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.