The Lesser End of the Trail Report

""Don't live and die in sight of your father's house,
but take a trip to Oregon!" - T.D. Wood, 1844

We are here. We are here, at the End of the Trail. Oregon City. It is still quite a beautiful city, situated on the banks of the Willamette (will-AM-et) river. The musem here, which is aptly named the "End of the Trail Interpretive Center" is, amazingly, situated on a piece of land called Abernethy Green, the very spot where emigrants arrived in their wagons from the Barlow Road or by raft from Fort Vancouver, and where many camped for their first winter (they often arrived in fall, so waited until spring to claim their land. The museum itself is shaped like a gigantic covered wagon, though the fabric covers that once graced the metal arches are no longer there (much like the actual wagons, I suppose). It's still completely identifiable, though.



Arriving at the site, visitors are struck by the ways in which they have added detail. The steps going up to the entrance are engraved with the names, in order, of the major stops along the Oregon Trail. You might recognize some of the names from our travel together (not the best quality, turn up your speakers, it's faint, but the sentiment is there)..



Inside, there was a movie called "Bound for Oregon", which focuses on actual stories of several emigrants' journeys, and highlights the life and perspective of John McLoughlin, considered "the father of Oregon". There are also exhibits on everything from pioneer era photography to games that they played on the trail to the process of land claims to individual stories of remarkable people. And nearly every exhibit has an interactive component. We played checkers, we made silouettes (many people could not afford photographers, silouettes were less expensive), we imagined using the pages of an old catalog as toilet paper (ow!). We tried on pioneer clothes, we played with 1800's children's games and puzzles, and we filed our claim for our 640 acres.


Of course, we are darned near Oregon Trail Museum-ed out at this point, so we did not stay as long as we might have had we not seen many of these things before. It was good fun, though, and inspiring to be on this particular spot of land. The weather was also striking, as it is cool here, "just right", so unlike the 105 degrees of the prairie. It must have been such a relief--we even feel it, and we had air conditioning!!

We have also been struck in this area by how kind most people seem to be. Many people have struck up terrific conversations with either or both of us. A waitress in one restaurant pointed out that the Oregon Trail story is very important to people in this area because, as she said, "that's how we got here!", and in another town, we met a 70-something year old woman who told us that her mother's family came to that town in 1852, and their family is still there. In Oregon, all kids study the Oregon Trail in depth when they are in 4th grade, so many local people were surprised that Phoebe knew about it, but they were also pleased. We made "friends" everywhere we went the last few days, from the fabric store, where we bought some fabric to make Phoebe a pioneer dress and bonnet at home (she REALLY wants one, and it seemed special to buy the fabric in Oregon City) to the ice cream store.

Tonight, out of the blue, Phoebe asked me if I was happier being on these trips, or if I was happier being at home. I did not answer right away--I knew that there might be a catch in there somewhere. I said I thought I was probably a bit happier being on these trips (I have wanderlust, I'm sure of it now). She said she was too. Now, neither of us might be entirely right or sure about that, at least not all of the time, but it made us both very happy in the moment to acknowledge how much fun we are and have been having. We settled on "traveling is good, home is good". Fair enough.

So the obvious question remains...now that we're at the end of the Oregon Trail, what happens to the blog? Well, there are a few answers. The first is that we have to acknowledge, with much sadness, that it is almost over. The second is that we still have a few surprises to share with you, some of which may take us a couple of days to get together, so our Oregon Trail reporting is not over quite yet. And the third is that our travel, while not Oregon Trail related (although some people did move on from Oregon City...) is continuing for several more days, as we wind our way down to the San Francisco area to hang out with my mom for five or six days. We can report on those journeys and adventures, or we can leave it neatly here, all tied up in its Oregon Trail completeness (as soon as we add those few more things). We haven't quite decided yet, though Phoebe wants to continue to write....so we'll see.

The one thing we can say for sure is that there is a big trip like this on the tentative agenda for next summer and hopefully, for many summers to come. I'm not sure that the computer thing will work out in all potential locales, but where and when it does, we will be back on your radar...er, computer...screen. Same time, same channel, different place (any and all suggestions welcome--adventure is key--we don't finalize our plans until May sometime). So stay tuned, keep in touch, and DON'T STOP READING YET!!