Museums

Trails to the Frontier

Posted at August 10, 2006 12:48

By Kate Gilliam

Entering the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence feels like stepping into a cozy log cabin, with its hardwood floors, wooden beams, and exposed ceiling. A violin track plays old-fashioned tunes. The rustic atmosphere and friendly attendants invite visitors to learn about life on the frontier.

About four-hundred-thousand travelers braved the three main trails between 1840 and 1860. Of those travelers, about one in ten died along the way. The National Frontier Trails Museum was completed in 1990 to commemorate this journey by showcasing the exploration and settlement of the American West.

“This story is one of the great American sagas in our history,” museum director John Mark says. “It didn’t all just have to happen. Specific decisions were made that opened the doors for incredibly far-reaching effects.”

The three principal trails were the Santa Fe, the Oregon, and the California. The Santa Fe Trail, established in 1821, was a nine-hundred-mile foreign trade route unique due to its overland rather than seafaring trade. Settlers wishing to make new homes in the northwest used the two-thousand-mile Oregon Trail, starting in 1843. Gold-seeking travelers used the two-thousand-mile California Trail a few years later.

The trails prompted the United States to acquire additional land and resources, and that helped make the United States a major player on the world stage, John says.

Independence, founded in 1827, was the jumping-off point for the trails. Every spring, covered wagons and livestock blanketed the town as travelers gathered supplies and prepared for the journey ahead. Directly across the street from the museum, evidence of the migration still exists in the form of swales, or wagon ruts.

Curator David Aamodt says they are the set of trails closest to the beginning of the journey. “They’re very subtle, but numerous,” David says. “I like to look at them from the side because they make a corduroy effect on the land.”

Once inside, view the award-winning film, West, which presents an overview of the dangers and triumphs involved in the journey. For a more in-depth look, enjoy the Blazing the Way West exhibit that showcases the Lewis and Clark expedition. Lewis and Clark paved the way for future travelers by combining land and water routes.

Before embarking on your own journey throughout the rest of the museum, enjoy some hands-on activities. First, carefully decide which supplies to include at the Pack Your Wagon activity. As the load gets heavier, the light on the wagon turns from green to red. Second, learn how to tie bundles to a saddle similar to those used on the Santa Fe Trail at the Pack Your Saddle activity.

After stocking up at the outfitting post, settlers followed maps with little more than a line marking the course. Slogans such as “Patience and Perseverance” written on wagon covers encouraged settlers as they embarked on their journeys.

Excerpts from trail diaries documented life on the trail, and the distance traveled marks each step of the journey:

315 miles from Independence Disillusionment on the Platte River marked the first stage of the journey as feelings of frustration replaced the optimistic outlooks once held by many hopeful travelers. “The rain came down in bucketfuls, drenching us to the skin. There wasn’t a tent in the camp that held against the terrific wind,” Mary Elizabeth Munkers Estes said in 1846 at age ten.

460 miles from Independence The south fork of the Platte River was the most picturesque stretch, described by James Wilkins in 1849 as a horizon “… dotted with the white wagon covers of emigrants, like a string of beads.”

580 miles from Independence Attractions such as Chimney Rock broke the monotonous landscape. “The singular formation surmounts a conical eminence which rises, isolated and lonely, in the open prairie, reaching a height of three-hundred feet,” Rufus Sage said in 1841.

650 miles from Independence With one-third of the journey behind them, settlers recuperated at the long-awaited trading post,Fort Laramie, before facing the mountains.

775 miles from Independence The most dangerous water ford on the trail, the North Platte River, resembled a junkyard as settlers dumped everything they could live without in order to prepare for the journey ahead.

915 miles from Independence The Culminating Point represented the halfway mark as settlers reached the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains.

1150-1460 miles from Independence A rumored quicker route called the Hasting Cut-off turned out to be a bust. The Donner party, which left from Independence, fell victim to the supposed shortcut. “The Californians were generally much elated … with the prospect of a better and nearer road … Mrs. George Donner was however an exception. She was gloomy … in view of the fact that her husband and others could think for a moment of leaving the old road and confide in the statement of a man of whom they knew nothing,” Jessy Quinn Thornton said in 1846.

1256-1690 miles from Independence Settlers coined the phrase “seeing the elephant” that expressed coming to terms with the terrible realities of their long journey.

1770 miles from Independence Once settlers reached the impassable Cascade Mountains, they were forced to either abandon their wagons or raft them down the treacherous Columbia River to the Oregon settlements.

1932 miles from Independence Settlers reached their destinations in Willamette Valley.

Most visitors tour the exhibits in about two hours. Your last stop should be the library that houses more than thirty-five-thousand rare Western Americana volumes and the gift shop. Before heading back to the homestead, enjoy a covered wagon ride.

“The National Frontier Trails Museum serves as a testament to the American character and demonstrates the courage and perseverance of those that ventured west,” John says.

The museum offers combination tickets that include museum admission and covered wagon rides through part of historic Independence. Ages 6-12, $7.50; age 12 and older, $10.

April 2006

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