Carylin' on the Oregon Trail - Day Three

On Day Three (Tuesday, December18th) of our exciting journey, we woke up in Kearney Nebraska with the goal of making it to Laramie, four hundred and sixty-seven miles away, by days end. Our first stop on the route was Ash Hollow, near the town of Luellen, Nebraska, about a hundred and seventy miles from Kearney. It took the wagon trains fifteen days to make the “short jaunt” for us.

Since we went to Fort Kearny coming into town, we couldn’t wait to get started. BTW, You might note the town and fort are spelled differently. The Fort carries the name of the General Stephen Watts Kearny—no ‘E,’ however, postal workers added the ‘E’ when so many people spelled it wrong and it stuck.

The fort was built in 1845 and called Fort Chelds until 1848 when its name changed to Kearny.

And you may remember in its twenty-three years (1845-1868) as a U.S. Army fort, the Indians never attacked it.

The Oregon Trail was also referred to then as the Great Platte River Road, and Fort Kearny, three hundred and thirty miles from Saint Joseph served as its Eastern anchor and an important way station for both civilian and military travelers.

Our first stop for the morning was Ash Hollow.

Reading up on what happened there, the incredible danger of getting a fully loaded wagon—oxen or mule teams still attached—down a twenty-five-degree slope (looked more like a cliff to me) three hundred feet high!

 The wagon trains accomplished this using a system of rope pulleys to help keep the weight of the load from hurling over the animals who didn’t need to pull at all!

This took the train from the high tablelands to the south down to the Ash Hollow and the North Platte River, the source of water—their lifeline—for the longest drive on the Oregon Trail.

Notable is a historical battle in 1855 on September 3rd at Ash Hollow between seven hundred U.S. soldiers and the Lakota Sioux. It also was called the Battle of Blue Water Creek or the Harney Massacre, too.

Led by General William Harney, his troops attacked a village of 250 revenging a previous attack by the Sioux. The army killed more than a hundred Indians, men, women, and children.

One little boy there who witnessed the massacre lived to take revenge of his own twenty-one years later at Custer's Battle of the Big Horn. His name was Crazy Horse.

From there we scurried down the highway to see Courthouse and Jailhouse Rocks, side by side towering four hundred feet high out of the flatlands near Bridgeport, Nebraska—landmarks for the weary emigrants formed from sandstone and volcanic ash. Pumpkin Creek elbows nearby, providing a great campsite for the trains.

Chimney Rock came next, another great landmark encouraging the travelers along their way, a mere ten miles (a full day for the wagon trains) from the Courthouse and Jail formations. It’s also twenty miles (a couple of days) from the next amazing sight along the trail, Scott’s Bluff. Day three was packed full with so many sights to see!

Scott’s Bluff lies on the south side of the North Platte River. It dwarfs the previous landmarks rising eight hundred feet above the plains.

It’s composed of five formations (Crown Rock, Dome Rock, Eagle Rock, Saddle Rock, and Sentinel Rock) and without the pass—that the U.S. Army Corps engineers worked tirelessly to make it smoother, easier to get through, in 1853, the very year that Christina Adams, her family, and Remi went through it!

If you're wondering who Christina and Remi are, they are a big part of the reason we went Carylin' on the Oregon Trail! They are the heroines from my April and May releases.

My April 3rd release UNIQUELY COMMON  is my contribution to the Sweet Americana Sweethearts multi-author (ten) "Lockets and Lace" series. Although it ends at Saint Joseph, Missouri.

Toward the end of it, readers meet Agnus Remington Dalrumple. You can understand why she hated her name and went by Remi, can't you?

My May 3rd release, REMI--wherein she becomes the heroine forced to travel with Christina's family since wagon trains strictly do not allow single women. She went on a lark to find her absent-all-her-life father in California.

She never dreamed the journey would be so hard--I'm certain most of the women didn't or they would never have gone. I kept thinking of that all along my journey. And they couldn't turn back. Especially after they'd gone as far as Scott's Bluff. Until then, it'd truly hadn't been so bad . . . even considering Ash Hollow.


The bluff was named after Hiram Scott, an early mountain man, trapper, and pelt trader famed in his day for taking part in the first trade expedition of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1822.

He passed in 1828, but his contribution to the opening of the western lands remains appreciated as thousands of visitors visit the Scott’s Bluff National Park each year. Find out more here: https://www.nps.gov/scbl/learn/historyculture/hscott.htm

Scott’s Bluff is where the Great Plains give way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, bringing the journey of those on covered-wagon sojourners to the roughest and hardest part of there journey.

Local Indians called it “Me-a-pa-te” meaning “the hill that is hard to go around.” The Oregon/California Trail actually went through Mitchell’s Pass there, torturous and hazardous. Getting on the other side proved to be a significant milestone for the westward traveling wagons.       

Laramie Fort, our last planned stop for the day, was an awesome place, the highlight being the still- standing recently-restored main building that was still fairly new when my covered-wagon families passed through in 1853. Constructed in 1849 by the U.S. Army in the government's efforts of the "Manifest Destiny" sea-to-shining-sea dream, it seemed the perfect setting at the confluence of the North Platte Rivers.

To remind you: In those days, the government was interested in emigrants settling the west. Their goal was for the “Manifest Destiny” to come to fruition, for the United States to stretch from sea to shining sea! So, they built the forts to help them on their way.

The pioneers could rest a few days there, restock, make repairs. The U.S. Army carried great amounts of food to the forts to be sold at cost or even given away to the emigrants, helping them on their ways.

And again, the "fort" was nothing as I expected from the glory days of the Old West as portrayed in movies and television. Fort Laramie's grand building reminded me more a huge Southern plantation back east.

Isn't it beautiful? It's no wonder it became a favored place to safely rest and recoup. I can imagine some grand parties and celebrations in the beautiful building!

Due to the lack of reasonable rooms between there and Laramie, we went farther that anticipated that night, but after a dinner out of the car and a game of Quirkle, we laid our heads down and practically passed out immediately after a full day of awesome sights!

Day Four though was one of my favorites, and will be my next offering here at Sweet American Sweethearts Blog!

Bio: Praying her story gives God glory, award-winning, best-selling author Caryl McAdoo loves revisiting beloved characters in her novels. And her readers are glad she does! She’s blessed that her titles earned over fifty-percent 5-Star ratings and eighty-five to ninety percent 4 & 5-Stars! With forty-four novels (thirty-four in the last four-and-a-half years), it’s obvious she loves writing, but singing the new songs the Lord gives her also rates high. (Listen to a few at YouTube.)
    Married to Ron, her high school sweetheart, she counts their four children and eighteen grandsugars life’s best blessings. The McAdoos live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in far Northeast Texas, waiting expectantly for God to open the next door.

Carylin' on the Oregon Trail - Day One, Saint Joseph, Missouri

It was a Wednesday, December 12th, and my husband asked me, “You want to go drive the Oregon Trail?”
I responded, “Sure. When?”
“Thought we’d leave Sunday.”

And so we did! Our only itinerary being we’d start at Saint Joseph in Missouri. That’s where the Bavarian Jewelry Shop is where all our “Lockets and Lace Collection” characters get their lockets, the commonality of the Sweet Americana Sweethearts’ collection stories. I messaged our Lockets and Lace organizer, Zina Abbott for the address so I could stop in.

The morning we left, God gave us a magnificent sunrise! The shadow building is our barn at The Peaceable where we live back in the woods south of Clarksville, Texas.


So Day One—Sunday, December 16—was a long drive, just over six hundred miles to get us from Clarksville to St. Jo. We left about 7:30 a.m. then arrived around 6 p.m., making several stretch stops including lunch and gasoline. We woke up fresh on Monday morning in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

We both thoroughly enjoyed the city that celebrates its historical relevance—the town where so many of the “Trails” converged to ferry across the Missouri River! Pony Express, too, though that isn't my story here. Literally, thousands of westward-bound sojourners would descend into the most western area of the then United States, camping all around with their families, all their possessions packed into covered wagons, and their oxen and mules to care for.

They’d arrive in the Spring and would wait there, stocking their wagons with tools and foodstuffs, finding a captain or wagon master to lead them, and join a ‘wagon train’.

The captain might have ten to fifty wagons total, and he’d charge by the person, upwards to ten dollars each—half a month’s wages. A family of four would be forty dollars, two month’s wages. He’d have a list of rules and required supplies.



The best ones had successfully made the journey in prior years and might charge more. It usually took a family’s life savings to go west and claim their piece of free land.

The wagon could run two-to-four hundred dollars, depending on new or used. The prairie schooners were the most suited, while the heavier, larger Conestoga wagons were more expensive and proved harder to pull.

Oxen—bulls castrated after reaching full growth—were cheaper and considered better than mules or horses for their strength and ability to survive on poorer grass and less water. Mules were more sure-footed and could go faster, but cost double. A thousand-mile trip or less might prefer mules, but for the long haul, oxen were best.

There were also provisions necessary to buy. Six hundred pounds combined of flour, meal, salt pork, lard, and coffee—sugar was a great luxury. For meat, they would hunt and fish on the trail. They needed tools to keep their wagons repaired, and cooking utensils, chains and rope, extra clothes, and firearms. And all that cost more the closer to Saint Jo they got.

Many, many trains would be waiting to leave, but each only made one trip each year, leaving in the Spring and doing everything in their power to arrive before the winter storms.

Then came the wait. They wouldn’t leave until the prairie grasses started growing tall and nutritious for the stock. We drove down Francis Street to the Missouri River and saw the place where the bank on the far side had been shaped to handle the ferry’s offloading. The barge might hold five wagons at a time.

When the grasses grew, the thousands of pioneers would line up to get across and choke the streets of Saint Joseph for a couple of months until the last ones to leave could be ferried across. They might wait three weeks in the line for the ferry, and it would work from dawn to dusk to move thousands of wagons and families and dreams across the river.

When the emigrants landed on the far bank, they were no longer in the United States or under its protection. They would regroup with their chosen captains, and their journeys would begin at a pace of twelve to fifteen miles average a day.

Their first destination, Fort Kearny, Nebraska.

Caryl's January release: TEXAS MY TEXAS, book two in the new Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga. Available now for Pre-order! Launch date January 12th!

Watch for the Stories coming in 2019 to benefit from this awesome journey:
APRIL release: Lockets and Lace Collection, book three UNIQUELY COMMON
MAY release: Prairie Roses Collection, book one REMI
JULY release: Gold Diggers Collection, book one A THOUSAND SUNSETS



BIO:  Award-winning Author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory which is what she lives to do. Her best-selling novels entertain readers around the world who shower them with 5-Star ratings! With forty-and-counting titles, she loves writing as well as singing the new songs the Lord gives her—listen to a few at YouTube. She celebrated fifty years of marriage to Ron in June 2018 and shares four children and eighteen grandsugars with him. The McAdoos live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County, in far Northeast Texas, waiting expectantly for God to open the next door.

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