read it before the Oregon Pioneer Association, and it was published in their Transactions of that year. It was reprinted in the Oregon Historical Quarterly in December, 1900; in part, in Dr. Joseph Schafer's History of the Pacific Northwest in 1905; and as a beautiful limited edition book, with an introduction by Dr. Schafer, by The Caxton Club of Chicago in 1934.
A Day With the Cow-Column in 1843
A typical day on the Oregon Trail, "a lifelike picture of the great emigration in motion towards the west, and .. . the camping methods in use for many years among trapping parties and traders, as well as emigrants to Oregon and California." They reached Fort Hall 98 days after leaving Independence, Missouri, and it was nearly 90 days more before they all reached the Willamette Valley.
It is four o'clock a. m.; the sentinels on duty have discharged their rifles—the signal that the hours of sleep are over—and every wagon and tent is pouring forth its night tenants, and slowly kindling smokes begin largely to rise and float away in the morning air. Sixty men start from the corral, spreading as they make through the vast herd of cattle and horses that make a semicircle around the encampment, the most distant perhaps two miles away.
The herders pass the extreme verge and carefully examine for trails beyond, to see that none of the animals have strayed or been stolen during the night. This morning no trails lead beyond the outside animals in sight, and by five o'clock the herders begin to contract the great moving circle, and the well-trained animals move slowly towards camp, clipping here and there a thistle or a tempting bunch of grass on the way. In about an hour five thousand animals are close up to the encampment, and the teamsters are busy selecting their teams and driving them inside the corral to be yoked. The corral is a circle one hundred yards deep, formed with wagons connected strongly with each other; the wagon in the rear being connected with the wagon in front by its tongue and ox chains. It is a strong barrier that the most vicious ox
