July 12

As been our custom, we left Boise, Idaho avoiding freeways.  We headed for Payette, Idaho to find the ferry crossing over the Snake River into Oregon.  We failed in this regard and the Payette County Historical Society & Museum sympathized with our efforts and suggested a book that might be helpful.

Our grand return into Oregon was the welcome sign of the commercial progress our state has over all the others we visited.

We made a side trip to Willow Creek and then onto Baker City to see the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.  An excellent center, but as we anticipated, they had no information on the trails the Parcels took from their entry into the state to Lebanon, Oregon. 

We continued on to Pendleton for an over-night stay.  Home tomorrow.  There may not be a blog entry tomorrow.

July 11

In Ketchum, Idaho we had our most expensive meals and most expensive lodging, but it was good not to try making it from Pocatello to Boise in one day – not the route we followed.  We continued the Parcel’s  desert trail toward the Boise Valley.

Once in Boise, we headed straight to the Idaho State Historical Museum.  We didn’t find any pictures of the Chinese gardens that the Parcels were so impressed by.  So far we haven’t seen any fruit orchards, but we still have tomorrow.  We did take lots of pictures in the museum and then again outdoors.

 

 

 

Linda has been taking pictures of flowers throughout the trip.  This is one taken today.  Tomorrow we make it back to Oregon and home by Saturday.

July 10

Left Pocatello, Idaho late.  Tried to find an atlas / gazetteer of Idaho, but after the GPS lead us to two locations without a bookstore in sight and then to a used book store that didn’t have it (whose manager recommended we go to an Ace Hardware store because they sold outdoor stuff) we temporarily gave up and went to see the replica of Fort Hall.  The replica must have been inside the Federal Court House, since it wasn’t within several blocks of where the GPS sent us.  We suspected that the Craters of the Moon National Monument was still where the GPS could find it and weren’t disappointed.

The way we interpreted the diary, the Parcels took the Goodale Cutoff to save time getting to Boise.  This meant they went through the Craters of the Moon area.  The Park Rangers at the monument, having heard our story, agreed with our interpretation.  The trip from Fort Hall through the Craters of the Moon area was 45 miles to any water or grass for the animals.  But this is what they should have found after their all night travel through the desert.

One of the rangers told us we should find a wagon trail at this spot and we did.

The area west of this small paradise was more desert.  We continued onto Ketchum, ID which was not part of the Parcel adventure.

 

July 9

An emotion filled day.  We left Rock Springs and headed to a much used Oregon Trail ferry crossing a 30 minute drive north of Green River.  We took pictures of a replica of a ferry and saw our first wagon wheel tracks.

We then proceeded to Granger and took photos of a Stagecoach Change Station.  These stations weren’t needed in 1888 after the business collapse of the Pony Express mail service in 1861, the end of most passenger stagecoach travel with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, and the end of most conflicts with the Native American tribes in 1877.  Anyhow, Myra Parcel noted passing at least one of these stations in her diary.

We passed through much beautiful scenery.  This picture is in Idaho approaching Soda Springs.  The Parcels celebrated the 4^th of July in Soda Springs, so sometime on our trip tomorrow we will pass through the same location as the Parcels on the same day they did – just 125 years later.

 

 

The day was emotional for us because we finally (with only three days left) took a number of pictures that had eluded us since we started this diary-related journey.  As an added bonus, we took pictures of the most treacherous part of the trip that they survived.  The steep downhill struggle is depicted in the life-size portrayal outside the really really great National Oregon / California  Trail Center in Montpelier, Idaho.

July 8

A day of rest in Rock Springs, Wyoming translates into one hour more sleep, half the driving of a normal day on the road, and returning to the same bed for a second night.  From Rock Springs we drove to the next city to the west called Green River (which is mentioned in the diary).  After talking to the nice folks at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, we realized that the Parcels probably crossed the Green River at Buckboard crossing.  The picture shows the landscape approaching the river from the east.

Buckboard Crossing is now part of a recreational area which includes a boat landing and camping.  This picture is of Buckboard Crossing taken from the west side of the reservoir formed by the Green River.

After having crossed what was then a rushing river by ferry, the Parcels traveled north to the town of Green River.  This picture shows what they might have seen approaching the town.

The big tourist attraction in Sweetwater County is Flaming Gorge, so named by John Wesley Powell, who started his trip down the Green and Colorado Rivers from the town of Green River, Wyoming in 1869.  This our favorite picture of this very picturesque gorge.

July 7

We got a bit later start this morning because we feed the car’s GPS navigation device Lat/Long settings and county road intersections.  Our first diary-related stop was Barrel Springs.  We passed through what we discovered too late were no public access roads for trucks we now believe were hauling water for fracking.  We saw many unmarked large storage tanks along the way.  Barrel Springs was uninspiring, but the trip on Barrel Springs Road had some nice scenery.

After lunch in Wamsutter (where we ran into the first convenience store and restaurant that don’t allow use of the restrooms unless you buy something), we went off to find three more diary landmarks.  The sight of Black Buttes was one such landmark.  We are sure the crane in the picture is a more recent addition.

 

We didn’t have high hopes of finding Mud Springs (the last landmark for the day), but we did.  Not very exciting for us in 2013, but when there was water in 1888, a different story. Thank you, Google Earth and Google Maps for your help.  It makes us wonder, however, what kind of maps the Parcels used.

The trip from Mud Springs to Rock Springs was filled with many nice views.  We drove through the first rain we’ve had in days.

July 6

From Cheyenne we headed west to Ames Monument which honors the Union Pacific Railroad financiers who envisioned a transcontinental railroad.  The Parcels passed by this monument in 1888 while it was still the highest point in the Union Pacific track.  The railroad has since been relocated twice to lower elevations, leaving the monument with no train track in sight.







From the monument we went through Laramie and onto a road that passed through the Medicine Bow Mountains.  What a beautiful trip.  The Parcels traveled on Rattlesnake Pass, which a park ranger informed us still existed and had been close to (if not part of) the Overland Trail north of the mountains.

The Parcels crossed the North Platte River for the last time in Saratoga (just west of the Medicine Bow Mts.) and having read part of the diary to the park ranger, we are now reasonably sure that they continued from Saratoga on the Overland Trail for the next few days.  We stopped in Saratoga take a picture of the river and to tour the local museum.

Doing our best to duplicate the Parcel’s 1888 trip, we headed north and then east to just to drive west again on the gravel road used as a pass north of the Medicine Bow Mts.  Along this route, which was also very pretty, we saw many antelope.  These sightings are certainly something most travelers miss on I-80.

July 5

We received several nice emails from the ladies at the Sumner County Kansas Historical and Genealogical Society.  They have followed through on some research on common interests and added us to their Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sumner-County-Kansas-Historical-and-Genealogical-Society/218930379987 ).

 

We left North Platte and made our way to Big Springs, Nebraska – a stop mentioned in the diary.  Not much left of the springs.

We then proceeded down Hwy 30 following the UPRR tracks.  The diary mentions several times that they followed the tracks.  It also mentions camping along Pole Creek.  We are pretty sure the name now is Lodgepole Creek and probably now only sees water during floods.

 

By following the UPRR tracks 125 years ago, the Parcel’s missed seeing Chimney Rock.  We drove about an hour north of Hwy 30 to see the famous Oregon Trail landmark.  It made for a longer day, but was worth it.

 

The picture of Linda and the old wagon was taken in the Oregon Trail RV Park near Chimney Rock.  Linda is keeping a careful eye out for rattlesnakes.

July 4

Happy Fourth of July!  We thought this was going to be a day of rest, but it didn’t turn out that way.  We did laundry at a Laundromat in the morning and toured a museum in the afternoon.  We noted an obvious contrast in how washing clothes was done 125 years ago versus today.

Before heading off to the Lincoln County Historical Museum in the afternoon, we went to the Golden Spike Tower overlooking the world’s largest classification train yard (over 8 miles in length and 2 miles wide).  This train yard does not build a train of cars, but can separate a train of cars off on a separate track.  This yard does major refueling, is Union Pacific’s largest repair facility, and is a location for changing crews.  They also scan the barcodes on each car that goes through the yard.

The museum had a wonderful collection of buildings.  The building in picture dates back to 1869, so could have been seen by the Parcels as they passed through North Platte.

 

The family did not stay in North Platte but camped in the rolling sand hills north of the city.

July 3

Started out at a little after 9:00 AM and headed north.  Found a number of creeks mentioned in the diary and looked hard to confirm the diary’s note of seeing many stone buildings around Russell, Kansas.  We were disappointed until we drove north of Russell and saw lots of things made from quarried stone (note stone fence posts in picture).

The diary noted seeing lots of sheep – we didn’t see one, but we did see cattle in both Kansas and Nebraska.  As we changed directions and started to head west in Nebraska, the diary said that the farms grew corn – we didn’t see any corn, but we did see lots of sorghum.  There must be corn in the area we drove through since Gothenburg processes corn.

We did our best to find a sod house.  Gothenburg, as our internet research indicated, has none other than the Sod House Museum.  Even though we arrived after they closed for the day, we did capture a picture.  Unfortunately, this museum did not host a recent meeting of sod house enthusiasts that met in Holdrege’s Nebraska Pioneer Museum.  (True – they told us!)

The diary mentioned passing the old remains of a fort near North Platte (our place of lodging for two nights).  The internet helped us identify this as Fort McPherson and let us know that the site is now a cemetery.  We stopped here and found a national cemetery.  We arrived in North Platte around 9 PM.

July 2

Today will be hard to beat for making discoveries.  At the Sumner County Historical Society we met a lady whose 101 year old mother now owns the homestead of Amariah & Myra Parcel.  The helpful ladies in the office were able to tell us exactly where the homestead was.

We are trying to follow the directions given in the diary as close as possible.  As a consequence, our poor “new” car suffered over dusty roads.  The road may have been a bit better than 125 years ago, but on our trip we saw small oil rigs and large wind turbines.

The diary mentioned cottonwood trees in St John, KS.  We looked and looked for cottonwood trees in this small burg, but found none.  We did find a nice little park with many types of tree other than cottonwoods.

July 1

Drove west and a little south from MO to KA.  Arrived in Wellington, KA to start our adventure about 20 minutes before the Chisholm Trail Museum closed.  Took pictures of what the community looked like in the 1880s and talked to a helpful volunteer who told us that the Historical Society could have some information that we might find interesting. 

After supper we drove ten miles out of town to the west to where we believe the great grand parents had a farm and talked to a nice lady in that general vicinity that told us about a local cemetery.

June 29 & 30

Drove to the Lake of the Ozarks area in MO to rest a day before starting our trip West.  We saw a number of Amish on the highway in IA and MO, and saw a couple in the Hardee’s restaurant we stopped at for lunch. 

We had hoped to stay at a cabin on the Lake of the Ozarks, but found a motel in a resort area near Truman Lake – a few miles from Warsaw, MO and a few more miles from the Lake of the Ozarks.

June 28

Not much to report today.  We drove south and a little west to Altona, Iowa just east of Des Moines.   We had downloaded the audio book of Dan Brown’s new novel – Inferno.  Listening to this and a number of lectures made time pass quickly.

June 26 & 27

On to Colfax Wisconsin to visit with Dave & Sue Haake.  Colfax is at little NW of Eau Claire which is around an hour’s drive east of Minneapolis / St Paul.  We greatly enjoyed Sue’s cooking and conversations with Dave and Sue.  Much time was spent going through papers and pictures of family history.  Rob spent hours using his portable scanner!

These four pictures taken by Linda are for brother Wayne.  Dave had some WWII Army Air Corp items that had been our Uncle Bob's.

 

 



June 25

We drove on east through green fields and long straight roads in South Dakota to the small town of Vermillion. It’s on near the Missouri River – which defines the northern border of Nebraska.  We spent that night with Marianne, a cousin of Rob’s.  Her home since 1948 is filled with memories.  We enjoyed a dinner out with Marianne, her son & his family.  We enjoyed lots of good food and great conversation.

June 24

We returned to Mt Rushmore in the morning for more photos and the (for us) mandatory browse in the bookstore. 







Then we proceeded to the Crazy Horse Monument about 12 miles away.  This monument is very impressive as well.  Just the face and a start of the arm are done and the head alone is larger than all of Mt Rushmore! 







This is all the work of one man and his family, with no government help. There is a large, beautiful complex, with a museum, restaurant, gift shop and local Indian crafters with jewelry or other crafts for sale.