Day 4 - Baker City to Boise

We set out this morning from Baker City, but did not get too far.  Too many interesting sights along the way:

The Baker City Heritage Museum is located in a building built in 1920 and was originally a natorium.  There was a large paper near the front door where the “nators” signed in.  The indoor pool has been covered and is now a large exhibit area and the balcony around the pool is also an exhibit area.  The exhibits include artifacts from various aspects of the life of the city – including gold mining artifacts, fire fighting equipment, farm equipment, various cars buggies and a 1900 era horse drawn, open air school bus.

Among the more interesting artifacts are a portable dental chair that fold up like the sports chairs we use today.  You can gargle and spit, have your teeth pulled, and whatever other dental procedures were in vogue in the day done right in the comfort of your living room. There was also a 2-stamp stamp mill and associated equipment from the gold mining boom that occurred in Eastern Oregon after 1860. Another interesting part of the museum was several historical rooms installed in an upstairs ballroom.  A series of kitchens ranging from about 1850 through the early 20^th century, Mark Hatfield’s office desk, a dining room with a vey nice China set, an organ like the one at home, and a few other rooms.

Another interesting exhibit was about Wally Byam, a resident of Baker City, who developed the Airstream trailer.  That was a coincidence because on Wednesday in Oregon City at the Interpretive Center there we saw a young man with the tricycle equivalent of the Airstream trailer.  This pedal-powered motor home, a tricycle, has something like 5 derailleurs and weighs 1000 pounds fully loaded.  It was build from scratch and the man who now owns it takes it on rides throughout Oregon. He was cooking his breakfast on the table at the rear when we arrived.

Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

The Oregon Trail interpretive center in Baker City is very similar to the one I saw in Elko Nevada along the California Trail – lots of constructed dioramas, a few artifacts and a lot of narrative signage.  I think the dioramas are particularly information and actually give the visitors, including a busload of school kids, a reasonable idea of what life was like on the trails.  From the observation deck looking southwest, the old wagon wheel swales are visible.  The trains headed from the Hells Canyon area over the mountains and into the Powder River valley.  Today that valley is filled with lush green fields, cattle hers, and some ranch house.  In 1850, as one of the signs said, all of the bunch grass had been destroyed and sage brush proliferated. It is hard to know whether the current proliferation of sage brush is more or less than existed 150 or so years ago.

Farewell Bend State Park and Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

Farewell Bend on the Snake Rive s the point at which the travelers diverted from the Snake River to head northwest towards the Columbia River. By this point on their trip food is scarce, shoes are worn out, many of the people are depressed and/or sick, the animals are weak and starving, and optimism is wearing then.  But surprisingly, some to the people record in their diaries the beauty of the landscape, the great adventure that was drawing to a close, and their optimism for the future. The promoters were active in the east, exhorting the people to move to the land of opportunity – Oregon.  One man was so enthusiastic about going to Oregon he traveled to Washington, DC, in an effort to procure government assistance for a group of families to move to Oregon,  One sign said that in the spring of 1832 there were 1000 people gather ready to embark on a trip – it is not clear if any of those people actually did, but some others certainly did.

But the lure of Gold was greater. In 1849 the direction of emigration was changed so that more people went to California than to Oregon.  Then, in 1860, gold was discovered in Eastern Idaho so a reverse gold rush began. That caused a new ferry service across the Snake to be developed.  The new ferry Service established east of Farewell Bend at the allowed the Argonauts of 1860 to avoid the ferry at Fort Boise and get to the Idaho gold fields a little more quickly.  The new ferry was also an improvement for the westward bound travelers.

We visited a rail crossing site a couple of miles west of Farewell Bend where the swale was worn into the landscape as the wagons made there way across the Powder River valley to the Blue Mountains and then the Columbia River.  One can easily imagine the children running back and forth along the trail, the men yelling “gee” the “haw” as they prodded their oxen to go either up hill or down hill – not around the hills. The top-heavy covered wagons were always in danger of tipping over causing loss of supplies, damage to the wagon, a broken wheel, an injured traveler and, most importantly, a delay for the whole group.

We have finally landed in Boise. During the day we found the various maps and directions that we had, printed and electronic, somewhat confusing. For example, the brochure we picked up about the Baker city interpretive Center states that the Center was 5 miles east of Baker City off Highway something-or other.  Exit 302 from IS84.  So, since we were in Baker City, we proceeded to the IS84 freeway, and got on in the eastbound direction.  We travelled for about 15 miles where there were three exits – 304, 306, and 308.  We were finally smart enough to call and confirm exit 302, and we deduced that exit 302 came before 308, even thought the Center, and exit 308, are both east of Baker City.

The confusion was solved when we realized that the brochure meant the Center was actually east of Baker City, but the freeway runs north and south through Baker City, ultimately turning to the east in Idaho. So w backtracked a bit to the center and had an interesting tour there. 

Here are some pictures.