From the Pen of Mary Ann Sherrill at the Bear River

 

The Bear River, Wyoming, (Public Domain Image)

What would this journey of ours be like without the many rivers and streams? Simply impossible. The rivers water our stock, grow grass for their feed, grow timber for our cook fires, give us drinking water and washing water for laundry. We complain about the difficulty of steep or muddy river banks, the quicksand on the bottom, the swift currents, but the rivers are essential to making this trip possible.

 

Diary of Mary Ann Sherrill - at Cokeville, Wyoming

We have made it through all the obstacles on this portion of the trail. We crossed the Big Sandy River, survived the dreadful Sublette Cutoff, and took the ferry over the deep Green River at La Barge.

Green River Cliffs, by Thomas Moran, 1900, in Public Domain

Then we crossed a mountain range before arriving in Cokeville. Next we cross the Bear River and accompany it for about four days until we arrive at Soda Springs in Idaho. The landscapes, the rivers and mountains, even the sky and the clouds, all seem to me to be larger than life. Sometimes I feel like an ant, it is all so big and makes me feel so small.

Journal of James Sherrill: It's all About the Riversl

For all that the Oregon Trail is on dry land, even etched many inches deep into the land, our wagon train is actually following a series of rivers. We crossed the great Missouri River at Council Bluffs, and then followed the Platte River as far as the Sweetwater River, which joined our trail before Devil's Gate. We stuck to the Sweetwater - a river whose pure, sweet taste matched its name - until just before we reached South Pass.

After going through the pass, we came to Pacific Springs -- not a river, but an important stop on the Oregon Trail, being the first water after leaving the Sweetwater. The water was alkali, barely drinkable for man or beast. The grounds all around the springs was fouled with manure from the oxen, and muddied from all the tramping in the damp ground. There were bodies of dead oxen laying around the springs, putrefying and making it very unpleasant for a stopping place.

We were relieved to move on, crossing a dry river, a branch of the Sandy. Next we came to the Parting of the Ways, where folks taking the easier trail through Fort Bridger to our south, and folks going farther south to Utah and the Mormon center at Salt Lake, took the left hand fork in the trail. We took the right hand fork in the trail, striking out on the Sublette Cutoff, straight towards Cokesville on the Bear River, where the Oregon Trail came up from Fort Bridger towards Fort Hall. We were cutting off the part of the trail that went along the Big Sandy River,, and then the Green River and then the Bear River.

Green River, Wyoming |Source = Christie's |Date = 1878
Author = Thomas Moran, Permission = Public Domain (see note below)

First we crossed the Big Sandy, and after filling our water barrels and every container to the brim, we set out across the forty-five waterless miles that made the Sublette Cutoff so dangerous. We started in the middle of the night, after giving the oxen and everyone a rest, and we drove on through for the next twenty-four hours, pausing again at night, to rest in the cooler temperatures.

White Rock (left), Squaretop Mountain (right) reflected in Green River Lakes.
Bridger-Teton National Forest. 2012 Photo by Julie Campbell. Credit: US Forest Service.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code

Although we didn't follow the Green River, it meandered so that we had to cross it right where it was swift and deep. This was near the little town of La Barge, and we took advantage of the ferries, a rare opportunity on the Oregon Trail. From La Barge we had to navigate a mountain range that was between us and Cokeville, Wyoming, where we could rejoin the main Oregon Trail. The Oregon Trail follows the Bear River from Cokeville all the way to the Soda Springs. We have heard much about those delightful geysers, and are eager to see them.

Click once to enlarge image, click again to return.

Pandababy Blog will Return by Tuesday Feb 7 2023

 Don't give up -- James and Mary Ann, and the whole wagon train ensemble, have many adventures to come. We beg pardon for the sudden 'time out' and will return tomorrow.