We met last night for a big book-a-thon, successfully plotting our overnights from South Dakota to central Oregon, and picking up some POIs along the way.
Leaving Black Hills NF, we’ll stay the night at a historic inn in central Hot Springs, South Dakota, mostly for “wait what is that?!” reasons.
Battle Mountain Sanitarium (now part of the Veterans Affairs Black Hills Health Care System) was part of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, which provided care for Union veterans after the Civil War.
National Park Service.
“Founded in the 1880s as a warm water mineral springs health resort, the town of Hot Springs became a popular destination for regional health seekers by 1900,” so… another town which rose to fame in the era of “believing hot water was medicine.”
Ah, yes:
Sanitarium treatment options included bathing in or drinking the mineral waters. This treatment particularly helped veterans with musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, and respiratory conditions and skin diseases. Once cured, or no longer improving, the patients went back to their residential branch. Between 1908 and 1909, 865 Civil War and Spanish American War veterans received treatment at the facility.
Spring water can help with GI issues? … Good to know; I’ve tried everything else…
Wyoming and Utah
From there, we cross into Wyoming and rejoin The Oregon Trail proper, trudging across the state, starting in Gurnesey. That is near Fort Laramie, which we learned 1) is so tiny it has nowhere to say, and 2) is (confusingly) hours away from Laramie, the city everyone has actually heard of.
Then on through Lander, in the foothills of the Shoshone National Forest. And finally down into Mountain View, WY, in the vicinity of Fort Bridger.
Fort Bridger is after South Pass City and “The Parting of the Ways” where the old migration trail split into the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and (later) the Mormon Pioneer Trail. Not all Oregon Trail travelers even went as far south as Fort Bridger, crossing more directly toward Soda Springs.
However, the trading post run by Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez was a good stop for provisions and information.
Not all of it good.
When a man named Lansford Hastings started publicizing a shortcut (a treacherous one, which he’d never successfully traveled himself), Bridger and Vasquez conveniently did not warn people away, as it passed right by their fort…
Famously, the Donner-Reed Party Disaster was caused by this shortcut that added hundreds of miles of rough terrain and more than a month in a salty desert basin. This put them catastrophically behind schedule, leaving them unprepared and trapped (and hungry…) at Truckee Lake in the Sierra Nevada in eastern California in bitter winter.
In the years following, the Mormons developed Hastings Cuttoff into a viable route as far as Salt Lake City — which I’ll be using to make a quick detour down to Salt Lake City International Airport to fetch Evan G to copilot my wagon. There is a small memorial on “Donner Hill” at the opening of Emigrant Canyon in East Salt Lake City that I’ll try to visit.
Idaho
After Fort Bridger, we head northwest through Soda Springs, Idaho and on to Fort Hall / Pocatello, our first “big” city in a while. We’ve arranged to stay at Grandma’s House… which is to say, it is the most mid-century-modern-but-dressed-from-the-70s house we’ve ever seen.
No, those aren’t just drapes. Those are honest-to-God “window treatments.”
George
Sadly, Memorial Day Weekend crowds had already filled The Black Swan Inn downtown before we discovered it — “one of the best themed hotel/bed and breakfasts in the country.” Not our usual fare, but just look at this madness:
The unique English Tudor building was built in 1933 and originally featured ten two-story apartments. New owners purchased the building in 1996, with the intention of turning it into themed suites. Extensive renovations began in 2001, bringing the property up to modern codes. By 2005, renovations completed and a final, fifteenth suite was opened.
Themes include Atlantis Under the Sea, Cave, Jungle, Egyptian, Pirates, Rainforest, and Wild West, among others. I suppose the property being full saves us from competing over who gets which room.
Between Pocatello and Boise, we’ve decided to make another detour from the route to visit Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.
It seems to be equal parts small mountains, lava field, and prairie with bats, pronghorns, marmots, and a multitude of wildflowers. I’m not entirely sure what to expect here, but it looks otherworldly and well-worth the detour.
That night, we rejoin the route at Glenns Ferry, which escaped mention in the game, but has built up quite an identity around Oregon Trail crossings.
Travelers could ford the Snake River here at Three Island Crossing — where a ferry was later constructed 2 miles upstream. Unfortunately, because of a bend downstream, they would have to cross it again after Fort Boise. Or, according to the NPS trail map, they could follow the south/west banks of the Snake River instead to avoid major fords, but miss Boise entirely.
Oregon
After Boise, we stop between the Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests in Baker City, just south of “The Blue Mountains.” On the road into town are two visible sets of wagon tracks, a centennial memorial obelisk, and an interpretive center. In the center of town is the peak of opulence, the Geiser Grand Hotel, which opened in 1889 and became known as “The Queen of the Mines” during the gold rush. It was said to be the finest hotel between Portland and Salt Lake City, and houses the third elevator to be constructed west of the Mississippi River!
We’re not staying there. But I do hope we drink there.
We aren’t staying at The Oregon Trail Motel & Restaurant either, but it definitely captured our attention briefly… until we realized there’s a reason it’s so cheap. Instead, we’ll be staying at the “Pinecone Cottage” a few blocks off Main Street.
From there, it’s a short drive to The Dalles and on to Oregon City Portland, which are our final two stays to book. We’ll let those sit a while while we turn our attention to other matters…
Where do you get a covered wagon these days?