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This article establishes more clearly the character of a significant but not yet fully explained phenomenon of one of the most iconic episodes in American history. From 1839 to 1869, approximately 400,000 Euro-Americans made the overland passage from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of signatures inscribed onto the immense rock formations that were often used as landmarks along the way—the signature rocks—one rock alone being said in 1860 to have 40,000 to 50,000 signatures. This study identifies the various cultural dynamics of self-assertion motivating this mass signing, including a sense of trespassing, participation in a great historical movement, “vainglory,” and, for the vast majority, the dynamic of tourism (traditional “curiosity” but also Romantic ideas of landscape and the sublime). Native American petroglyphs appear to have been respected within the context of emigrant signing practices, an attitude in keeping with “trespassers” claiming passage but not land. It was largely only with the first generation of settlers, those who did claim the land, that intentional dominance appears to have become a distinct factor in overwriting petroglyphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Oregon Trail is an ephemeral artifact of great importance to the history of the United States. While there is a great deal of historical documentation in the way of journals, travel itineraries, and cargo manifests, there is much less documentation in terms of the physical trail itself. That lack of research on the condition of the roadbed, then and now, and of alternate paths taken off the trail are having a deleterious effect on the understanding of this time in history, as the trail itself is disappearing. Using ground-penetrating radar, we have begun digital documentation of the trail and its unique characteristics in a way that has not been widely published. With these new methodologies and the theoretical approach of conflict-event theory, we propose a new process capable of creating a "digital signature" of the Oregon Trail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first published image in a government report based on a sketch made within the Rocky Mountains appeared in 1843. This report is a visual description of how the author located the viewpoint for that 1842 field sketch with a horizontal error of less than three feet and a vertical error of less than four inches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff (2010) as an example of ‘slow’ and feminist western film. In particular, it shows how, by applying an “austere” aesthetics (Gorfinkel 2015) and by giving prominence to the act of migrating rather than the act of settling, the movie rewrites pioneer history, offering an example of what Catherine Russel defines “migrant cinema” (2017). Because of the visual centrality given to the act of migration, with its feeling of geographical displacement and psychological apprehension, the movie situates itself alongside other contemporary films representing present-day migration, and questions the traditional western movement as a travel of self-confident expansion and colonization. In this sense, Meek’s Cutoff can be rather read as a “decolonizing” (Trimble Young and Veracini 2017) rendition of white migration in the West, mostly achieved by including two destabilizing characters within the group of white settlers, Emily Tetherow and a Cayuse Indian, who trigger reflections on matters of knowledge and alliances.

On my right metatarsus you can see the swale caused by wet wagon wheels coming out of the Big Blue River, heaving their sodden burdens over the top of my [...]

This article locates and describes different versions of dual credit for first-year composition as they occur across Oregon and concludes with recommendations, a call for financial transparency in the funding of dual credit in Oregon, and an invitation to researchers in other states to map dual credit in their own states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Presents information on the history of the Oregon Trail and the Oregon Trail Pageant staged in Eugene from 1926 to 1950. Events of the Oregon Trail Pageant; Views of Harvey W. Scott, editor of `Morning Oregonian'; Information on a tribute to the trail published in 1934 by Douglas Hilts.

The article offers the author's insights regarding the history of the Oregon Trail wagon route and its impact and contribution to the settler colonialism in the U.S. The author discusses the interrelated ideology and geography of the game "The Oregon Trail" suggesting that the game reinforces colonialist worldview by representing time, place, and space.

Though there are many historical accounts of travel along the Oregon Trail toward the Pacific Northwest with a scattering of marked and clandestine graves along the way and reports from mining towns near trail destinations, very little bioarchaeological evidence of life along these trails and in western mining towns exist. Two skeletons were salvaged from Walters Ferry along the Snake River in southwest Idaho. This report re-examines osteological and archaeological remains from the site and uses bioarchaeological analysis combined with historic documentation. Results reveal that these remains were of two adult Euroamerican women interred between December 1888 and March 1889. Skeletal indicators of health reflects a harsh lifestyle resulting in workload-related bony growths and infection. These remains provide a unique glimpse at life, death, and the roles of women along the Boise-San Francisco Stage Route in late nineteenth century Idaho. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE OREGON TRAIL ran from the back entrance of Bridge Elementary down through the school yard to the edge of the woods. Cones marked the journey. Not the satisfying rubber [...]

The author considers the use of games in education, focusing particularly on his efforts to create a game to teach the history of medicine entitled "Pox and the City," a digital role-playing game based in 18th-century Edinburgh, Scotland to study smallpox and immunization. Other games discussed include "Oregon Trail," "Dr. John Snow and the Great London Cholera Epidemic of 1854," and "Illsville: Fight the Disease."

The article explores historical preservation and commemoration of the Oregon Trail in Oregon. The author reflects on a visit by U.S. President Warren G. Harding and an event organized by the Old Oregon Trail Association (OOTA), headed by president Walter E. Meacham. Efforts of the OOTA included state and federal legal recognition of the roadway, laying monuments, promotion of tourism through advertising, and a historical re-enactment production known as "Old Oregon Pageant."

The US wine industry is frequently thought to be California – an undoubted success story. However, three other regions – New York, Washington State and Oregon – have wine industries facing mixed fortunes. This paper reviews the progress of each, demonstrating how the triple helix model identifies key relationship advantages and problems that explain performance rather better than natural advantages or market conditions. The paper reviews the mixed fortunes of these regions in the US with winemaking in other parts of the world, suggesting that institutions, rather than any other factor, explain differences in performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the settlement of the Oregon Trail region is discussed. The impact of the arid climate, the need for irrigation and the construction of dams and reservoirs are documented.

A forgotten late-19th-century cemetery (ca. 1854-1879) with 12 graves was discovered in early 2008 during a construction project in western Oregon. Eight graves had been previously opened during a 1901 disinterment, but four remained intact. All provided information on burial patterns during the decades following American settlement of the Willamette Valley by Oregon Trail pioneers. Although the timeline is both slightly delayed and compressed, trends in burial ornamentation and hardware generally follow those noted in American cemeteries in the East. The unadorned graves of the 1850s are most similar to those of earlier decades on the eastern seaboard. By the end of the 1870s, rail lines had been built through the Willamette Valley, and within a few years the valley was linked to a growing national rail network. A relative immediacy of bicoastal contact was achieved at this time, allowing a measure of synchronicity in funerary trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a dearth in historical memory concerning the life and contributions of John Montgomery, the first white settler of Spanaway, Washington. Montgomery's experiences in the area as a cattle drover for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) are analyzed. The author discusses celebrations of the opening of the Naches Pass, part of the Oregon Trail, that failed to honor Montgomery's historical contributions. The contentious relationship between the HBC and pioneers is discussed. Montgomery's experiences traveling from Scotland, his homeland, to the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest are described.

The article explores the history of U.S. Indian wars and the Battle of Platte Bridge in Wyoming in 1865. The author reflects on an alliance of Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapahoe Indians. Emphasis is given to the perspective and experience of Southern Cheyenne soldier George Bent and the article presents excerpts from Bent's letters. Topics discussed include positions of soldiers, battle plans of the Indians, combat conditions in the wilderness, attacks on wagon trains and settlers, and locations of encampments of the raiding parties.

The article presents a series of quotations and brief journal narratives describing the Idaho passage of the Oregon Trail between 1812 and 1853 by pioneers and settlers, including accounts by Joel Palmer, Elizabeth Dixon Smith, and Enoch W. Conyers.

The article explores how the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) has worked in collaboration with the United States National Park Service to preserve numerous overland trails in the western United States. It discusses how the organizations have worked together and highlights the role the OCTA members have played in mapping the routes of various Oregon and California Trails. The article discusses various preservation efforts that have taken place including the defense of the City of Rocks National Reserve.

The article discusses the history of the Oregon-California Trails Association. It traces the development of the organization and the origin of California National Historic Trail legislation. It discusses how the OCTA worked with the federal government to designate various trails at National Historic Trails. It explores the preservation efforts that have taken place and the various endowment funds that have been established with the goal of trail preservation in mind. The article also discusses how the OCTA has undertaken the task of mapping, marking and monitoring trails.

Presents the text of a 1983 speech, the first paper given at the first Oregon-California Trails Association meeting, on the significance of Robidoux Pass, western Nebraska, in the history of the Oregon Trail. The author presents a tribute to the overland emigrants who traveled through the pass and honors those buried there.

The Sacawee block is a narrow belt of Paleo- to Mesoarchean crust that extends for ~70 km across the northern Granite Mountains. It is composed of the ~3.3 Ga Sacawee orthogneiss, additional calc-alkalic and tonalitic orthogneisses, and the ~2.86 Ga Barlow Gap Group. The Sacawee block basement is characterized by negative εNd values and Paleoarchean Nd crustal residence model ages. A broad east–west-trending zone of Neoarchean high strain, which is part of the Oregon Trail structural belt, transects the Sacawee block and was studied at two locations, the Beulah Belle Lake area and West Sage Hen Rocks. U–Pb analyses of magmatic zircon from a sheared amphibolite within the high-strain zone of the Beulah Belle Lake area constrain the age of the Neoarchean deformation to be later than 2688 ± 5 Ma. At West Sage Hen Rocks, metamorphic zircons in a sheared amphibolite provide a direct date on the shear zone of 2649 ± 2.8 Ma. These data, combined with similar ages of deformation from two other shear zones, are interpreted to suggest that the Neoarchean Oregon Trail structural belt is a pervasive feature of the Sacawee block and may represent a deformation front related to accretion. Multiple east–west-trending shear zones within the Sacawee block are evidence for tectonic modification of the crust between ~2.65 and 2.63 Ga and horizontal convergence analogous to modern plate tectonics processes. The Sacawee block is either a rare exposure of ancient basement typical of that which originally underlay much of the Wyoming Province or it is an exotic block that was accreted to the core of the Wyoming Province in Neoarchean time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]