The ~Christian Country Farm~

LANDMARKS

HOW DID THE PIONEERS LEARN WHAT WAS UP AHEAD?

 
 

   From those who'd gone before them. By 1845, many pioneers owned guidebooks, like The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California, written by scouts and earlier travelers. The books described landmarks along the trail and gave advice on where best to cross rivers and camp for the night.

    To see for themselves what was coming up, some members of the wagon train rode ahead on horses. An even better source of information, pioneers found, was a message system called the "roadside telegraph": notes from earlier travelers scrawled on paper and attached to trees, placed under rocks, or wedged into notched sticks stuck into the ground. Other times pioneers painted their messages right onto rocks or onto the skulls of cows, oxen, deer, or even humans. Some messages were notes to friends, but others warned of danger. One message read, "Look at this--look at this! The water here is poison, and we have lost six of our cattle. Do not let your cattle drink on this bottom."


   
    **Sometimes pioneers learned what was up ahead from go-backs, discouraged pioneers who had turned around to go back east. These travelers were said to have " seen the elephant" This expression suggested they'd seen something new and different-the hardships of the West-and didn't want any part of it.




       Taken from "The Pioneers" by Kenneth C. Davis

The Pioneers

12:01 AM, Aug. 16, 2006 .. Posted by Darcy

Boy, I just wanted to encourage you to keep doing these blips. I have really been enjoying reading them. Great idea.

Darcy