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Meek Cutoff
Meek Cutoff was a horse trail road that branched off the Oregon Trail in northeastern Oregon and was used as an alternate emigrant route to the Willamette Valley in the mid-19th century. The road was named for frontiersman Stephen Meek, who was hired to lead the first wagon train along it in 1845. The journey was a particularly hard one, and many of the pioneers lost their lives.
Starting where the Oregon Trail leaves the Snake River Plain and heads northwest toward the Columbia River Gorge (the general route of modern Interstate 84), Meek's party intended to instead head west across the Oregon High Desert, straight to the Willamette Valley. They left the main trail at Vale, Oregon and followed the Malheur River to head into the Harney Basin. They then turned west towards Wagontire Mountain and northwest to the south fork of the Crooked River. At this point, due to hardship, the party split into two groups, each of which found the Deschutes River. The two groups reunited north of where the Crooked River empties into the Deschutes and, deflecting from their original westward purpose, followed the river to the Columbia and rejoined the Oregon Trail at The Dalles.
In 1853, the Elliott Cutoff was established, completing Meek's purpose by turning upstream at the Deschutes River for 30 miles (48 km) and then crossing the Cascade Mountains at Willamette Pass.
In 1845, there were rumors circulating among the emigrants on the Oregon Trail that Walla Walla and Cayuse Indians might possibly attack the settlers in the Blue Mountains of Oregon or along the Columbia River. Reports of threats came in conjunction with the murder of two Frenchmen in the area. Stephen Meek, the older brother of Joe Meek, was an experienced fur trapper and explorer who made his living as a wagon train guide. Meek was unemployed at the time but was considered to be someone who was familiar with eastern Oregon. When he offered the emigrants an alternate route to avoid the Blue Mountains many decided to follow him. Some 200 wagons and 1,000 people turned off the primary Oregon Trail at Vale and followed Meek into the Oregon desert, where no wagons had traveled before.
Meek led the wagon train southwest through the Malheur Mountains. The party followed the Malheur River for the first two days but were then forced into the hill country. As they progressed the road became stonier. It was so hard on the oxen that several died each day.
Some of the emigrants were not doing well, especially those who were already sick when the train took the cutoff. Just west of Castle Rock and along the North Fork of the Malheur River, Rowland Chambers' wife Sarah, the Captain's daughter and a young mother of two small children, was now critically ill, having contracted camp fever earlier in the journey. "Everything possible was done to ease her distress as she lay in the wagon hovering between life and death but alas, to no avail. Sarah breathed her last breath at this camp and was laid to rest beneath the sagebrush." The next day the grieving husband was left behind with a horse as the train continued to journey on. He went down to the river and found a native stone that he smoothed, then carved this inscription: "Mrs. S Chambers, Sep 3rd 1845." It remains one of the few Oregon Trail gravestones in existence.
The very next day the train experienced its most difficult ascent. In order to reach a ridge west of the North Fork of the Malheur River, the emigrants were forced to climb a steep, narrow ravine choked with boulders. One emigrant wrote about moving "ten thousand stones" in order to make a roadbed. Some of the wagons were damaged during the 1,000 foot (300 m) climb, but they were soon repaired and the wagons continued over the hill and down to Cottonwood Creek.
The train continued over mountains until it finally came down East Cow Creek into the Harney Basin, in a region known today as the Oregon High Desert. The expression on Meek's face "changed to one of complete bewilderment, as if he were seeing the country for the first time." When trapping in this area 10 years prior, the alkaline lakes had flooded a large portion of the valley. But now it was a drought year, the lakes were small and everything looked different. They continued south along the Silvies River and out into the lakebed, where they turned west. As they made their way to Silver Creek there were some in the forward company who insisted they continue west to find a pass over the Cascades. Meek wanted to follow Silver Creek to the north, but they refused to follow him.
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Meek Cutoff
Meek Cutoff was a horse trail road that branched off the Oregon Trail in northeastern Oregon and was used as an alternate emigrant route to the Willamette Valley in the mid-19th century. The road was named for frontiersman Stephen Meek, who was hired to lead the first wagon train along it in 1845. The journey was a particularly hard one, and many of the pioneers lost their lives.
Starting where the Oregon Trail leaves the Snake River Plain and heads northwest toward the Columbia River Gorge (the general route of modern Interstate 84), Meek's party intended to instead head west across the Oregon High Desert, straight to the Willamette Valley. They left the main trail at Vale, Oregon and followed the Malheur River to head into the Harney Basin. They then turned west towards Wagontire Mountain and northwest to the south fork of the Crooked River. At this point, due to hardship, the party split into two groups, each of which found the Deschutes River. The two groups reunited north of where the Crooked River empties into the Deschutes and, deflecting from their original westward purpose, followed the river to the Columbia and rejoined the Oregon Trail at The Dalles.
In 1853, the Elliott Cutoff was established, completing Meek's purpose by turning upstream at the Deschutes River for 30 miles (48 km) and then crossing the Cascade Mountains at Willamette Pass.
In 1845, there were rumors circulating among the emigrants on the Oregon Trail that Walla Walla and Cayuse Indians might possibly attack the settlers in the Blue Mountains of Oregon or along the Columbia River. Reports of threats came in conjunction with the murder of two Frenchmen in the area. Stephen Meek, the older brother of Joe Meek, was an experienced fur trapper and explorer who made his living as a wagon train guide. Meek was unemployed at the time but was considered to be someone who was familiar with eastern Oregon. When he offered the emigrants an alternate route to avoid the Blue Mountains many decided to follow him. Some 200 wagons and 1,000 people turned off the primary Oregon Trail at Vale and followed Meek into the Oregon desert, where no wagons had traveled before.
Meek led the wagon train southwest through the Malheur Mountains. The party followed the Malheur River for the first two days but were then forced into the hill country. As they progressed the road became stonier. It was so hard on the oxen that several died each day.
Some of the emigrants were not doing well, especially those who were already sick when the train took the cutoff. Just west of Castle Rock and along the North Fork of the Malheur River, Rowland Chambers' wife Sarah, the Captain's daughter and a young mother of two small children, was now critically ill, having contracted camp fever earlier in the journey. "Everything possible was done to ease her distress as she lay in the wagon hovering between life and death but alas, to no avail. Sarah breathed her last breath at this camp and was laid to rest beneath the sagebrush." The next day the grieving husband was left behind with a horse as the train continued to journey on. He went down to the river and found a native stone that he smoothed, then carved this inscription: "Mrs. S Chambers, Sep 3rd 1845." It remains one of the few Oregon Trail gravestones in existence.
The very next day the train experienced its most difficult ascent. In order to reach a ridge west of the North Fork of the Malheur River, the emigrants were forced to climb a steep, narrow ravine choked with boulders. One emigrant wrote about moving "ten thousand stones" in order to make a roadbed. Some of the wagons were damaged during the 1,000 foot (300 m) climb, but they were soon repaired and the wagons continued over the hill and down to Cottonwood Creek.
The train continued over mountains until it finally came down East Cow Creek into the Harney Basin, in a region known today as the Oregon High Desert. The expression on Meek's face "changed to one of complete bewilderment, as if he were seeing the country for the first time." When trapping in this area 10 years prior, the alkaline lakes had flooded a large portion of the valley. But now it was a drought year, the lakes were small and everything looked different. They continued south along the Silvies River and out into the lakebed, where they turned west. As they made their way to Silver Creek there were some in the forward company who insisted they continue west to find a pass over the Cascades. Meek wanted to follow Silver Creek to the north, but they refused to follow him.