California Trail Diary

April, 1849

Being on the trail for about a week has brought unexpected holdups. First off the tall grass that scrapes my bare legs as I walk. Lena, Lilly and I all have plenty of gashes from burs and thorns. Our first landmark was Alcove Springs. We never stopped, although it was nice to think that there were people before us taking this journey.

Norm and James tried figuring out how many miles until our next stop in our guide book. They said with good weather and no hold ups we would be there in a couple of days. The day finally came when we stopped in for Kearney. It was quite nice because they just built a new building last year. The old one was further away from the trail, but lucky for us, They moved it closer. Trying to move past a wagon

It was his dream to set up a hospital since he heard they were in need of one there. We only had a few hours to persuade him to come to Oregon. We all had pretty good arguments, but the one that stuck out to me was that he would be alone with nobody around if they needed help. He wasn’t even considering his terrible skills with animals. Even I could round up cows. Anyway, he finally into coming to Oregon just before we came to California Crossing. If you don’t know, it is the place in your journey where you have to decide whether you will be going to California or Oregon. Our family is going for the land as well as the fur trade industry. By supper time we reached Ash Hollow, though Norm thought it would be best if we kept going for a mile or two just in case of we would encounter some unfriendly indians. Some of the others complained out of exhaustion, but I know how smart my Norm is so I went along. Also as head of the train he is the final decider. Lunch the next day was at Courthouse Rock. Along with Lena and Joseph Sr., I have also noticed James and Elizabeth getting a bit closer. Elizabeth is laughing at everything he says, and it is kinda cute, you know, young love. Not saying I am old or anything, but I remember taking long romantic walks with Norm, and falling in love even more every time. I sometimes think about that stuff to brighten up this super fun trip. I know being sweaty and dirty from putting mud all over our

Norm told us at breakfast that once we are at Independence Rock we were halfway. The day seemed to speed by. I could see the rock for many miles, it was so big. It was just the beginning of July so we were right on track. The rock is the biggest change in terrain for many miles. Coming closer, there was a nice river called the Sweetwater River. I decided to take advantage of it and gather some of it’s water. Many people had written their names on the rock to record the year that their family took the great journey. I wrote all of our names in a column, in the order of age. First was Lena, next was Norm, me, then Lilly. Norm added Cline and then the date, 1849. I finished it off by circling it. The other families on my train also wrote theirs to be remembered. We finally had supper, set up camp, then had a restful night before starting the last half of our journey to Oregon. Waking up the next day was extremely hard. Knowing that we were only halfway, and the work was about to get harder was a huge let down. My shoes have holes from walking everyday. Blisters cover my feet. My skin is tight and stings from sunburns, yet I want to itch it off from the mosquito bites. Oh, how I wished to be back in Indiana, back in the comfort of my own