Wagon Train, Ho! By Donna Schlachter – with Giveaway

Pioneers crossing the Plains of Nebraska (wikipedia)

Whenever somebody says “wagon train”, various images are conjured in our minds. The iconic television program of the 1950s. The multitude of westerns produced over the years. Bonnets, long skirts, horses, whips, campfires, rugged terrain, mountains, butter churns, running out of water, blazing hot sun, freezing winter storm, stampedes—but most always, the western migration to the Pacific coast is the goal.

So it might surprise you to learn that wagon trains are neither a product of the 1840s and onward, or an American invention. In fact, one of the most famous wagon designs, the Conestoga, is first officially mentioned in 1717. James Hendricks purchased the wagon named after the Conestoga River in Lancaster County, PA. The design was perhaps introduced by German settlers.

Line drawing of a Conestoga wagon with oxen (wikipedia)

Conestoga wagons were initially used during colonial times as a cargo wagon, pulled by up to eight horses or twelve oxen. A special breed of draft horse, the Conestoga, was developed for hauling these heavy freight wagons in the 1700s.

Covered wagons were a variation of the Conestoga wagon, a pared-down version because the heavy Conestoga was too weighty for the thousands of miles of travel required. Often a farmer used an ordinary farm wagon with a series of bent saplings and a canvas cover strung over the top. Oxen were most common, although mules and horses were also used. 

Perhaps the favorite of the covered wagons was the chuckwagon, a type of field wagon used to store and prepare food. The invention of the chuckwagon as we currently know it is attributed to Charles Goodnight, a Texas rancher, in 1866. Following the Civil War, the beef market in Texas expanded, and thousands of cattle drives meant tens of thousands of men on the trail for months at a time. He added a “chuck box” to the back of a wagon with drawers and shelves for storage, along with a hinged lid for a flat cooking surface. With a water barrel and a canvas firewood sling, the rig was complete.

Wagon trains had a hierarchy of sorts. There was a leader or a captain who rode in the first wagon. The rest of the wagons fell into an unspoken position usually based on the fastest team or lightest wagon. If one of the families fell sick, they were moved back in the train since they’d probably have to stop more often, and perhaps because nobody wanted the germs “blowing back” on them. Later arrivals joined the end of the train until they proved themselves worthy of moving forward. The chuck wagon usually came before the sick.

To save wear and tear on their animals, migrants walked a good part of the day. Only the very young, very old, or infirmed would ride in the wagon. With oxen, many times the driver would also walk alongside.

Scout riders rode ahead to check for safe passage, while several rode up and down the wagon train, checking that everybody was keeping up. If a wagon broke down, those behind would halt and help with the repair. Sometimes this was also a good time to light a fire and have something hot to eat.

Any cattle included in the wagon train were watched over by a couple of riders, then when the train stopped for the night, were driven into the inside of the circle of wagons for safekeeping and so they didn’t wander off in the night.

In my book, Christmas Under the Stars, I used oxen to pull the covered wagons because that was a tidbit of history that I thought readers would enjoy. Driving oxen is a skill unto itself, and so I did research into the words used, such as “gee” and “haw” (right or left).

To enter a random drawing to win a print (US only) or ebook copy of Christmas Under the Stars, please leave a comment.

About Christmas Under the Stars:

November 1858, Utah Territory

Edie Meredith strives to keep her temper and her tongue under control as she heads west with her brother to California. Raised in an itinerant preacher family, she promises she will never marry a man of the cloth.

Tom Aiken, drover of the wagon train, longs to answer his true calling: to preach, and while he realizes not every woman would choose a preacher for a husband, he hopes to soon find his help-meet.

Suspicious ‘accidents’ plague their journey. Is someone trying to keep them from reaching their destination? Or will misunderstanding and circumstances keep them apart?

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas and full-length novels. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In Crime, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches writing classes online and in person. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.





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Tidbits About the First Major Wagon Train to Oregon

On May 22, 1843 the first major wagon train headed to the NorthWest. They left with 1000 pioneers and departed from Elms Grove, Missiouri.

You can read more at This Date in History

Please note this is not the first trip on the Oregon Trail it wasn't even the largest as two years later 3000 pioneers left. But this has the unique status of the first largest group to travel. Some of their struggles were unique to the size of the group as well as what had happened on the trail the two years prior.

Below is a quote from Jesse Applegate, one of the members of the company of 1000.
"In his journal of the trip he gave a pleasing picture of the afternoon and evening of a long day:

It is now one o'clock; the bugle has sounded, and the caravan has resumed its westward journey. It is in the same order but the evening is far less animated than the morning march; a drowsiness has fallen apparently on man and beast; teamsters drop asleep on their perches and even when walking by the teams, and the words of command are now addressed to the slowly creeping oxen in the soft tones of women or the piping treble of children, while the snores of the teamsters make a droning accompaniment. But a little incident broke the monotony of the march. An emigrant's wife, whose state of health has caused Doctor Whitman to travel near the wagon for the day, is now taken with violent illness. The Doctor has had the wagon driven out of the line, a tent pitched and a fire kindled. Many conjectures are being made in regard to the mysterious proceeding . . . The sun is now getting low in the west, and at length the painstaking pilot is standing ready to conduct the teams in the circle which he has previously measured and marked out, which is to form the invisible fortification for the night. The leading wagons follow him so evenly around the arch that but a wagon's length separates them. Each wagon follows in the track, until its tongue and oxchain will perfectly reach from one to the other, and so accurate the measure and perfect the practice, that the hindmost wagon of the train always precisely closes the gateway, as each wagon is brought into position. It is dropped from its team (the team being inside the circle), the team unyoked and the yokes and chains are used to connect the wagon strongly with that in front. Within ten minutes from the time the leading wagon halted, the barricade is formed, the teams unyoked and driven out to pasture. Every one is busy preparing fires of buffalo chips to cook the evening meal, pitching tents and otherwise preparing for the night. There are anxious watchers for the absent wagon, for there are many matrons who may be afflicted like its inmate before the journey is over . . . But as the sun goes down the absent wagon rolls into camp, the bright, speaking face and cheery look of the doctor, who rides in advance, declares without words that all is well, and both mother and child are comfortable."



Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 42 years. Lynn's latest novel "The Shepherd's Betrothal" is the third book in her Historical St. Augustine, FL. series. Coming in Oct. The Rails to Love Romance Collection

Devil's Gate

Devil’s Gate is still open--with a giveaway for you

by Susan Page Davis

A landmark for travelers on the Oregon Trail, Devil’s gate is a narrow cleft where the Sweetwater River flows between the granite rocks. It is close to Independence Rock, which was sometimes considered the halfway point.

Devil's Gate at low water, 2013, by Wehwal, Creative Commons licenses

Wagon train leaders liked to camp at Independence Rock by July 4, knowing they should make it through to their destination before winter. Sometimes trains would pause a day or two at Independence Rock, and the travelers would do laundry, bake, and make an outing of going to view Devil’s Gate.

Circled Wagon Trains at Independence Rock, with Devil's Gate in the distance, drawing by William Henry Jackson, circa 1870

At its base, the “gate” is too narrow for wagons to pass beside the river, so the trail bypassed it, but emigrants often hiked to see it. Many waded through the gap in the river or climbed the cleft ridge, known as the Sweetwater Rocks, and carved their names or initials. Bighorn sheep were seen climbing the rocks nearby in the mid-1800s.

The chasm is only 30 feet wide in the bottom, at its narrowest point. The cleft is about 1,500 feet long and 370 feet deep. At the top, the rocks are about 300 feet apart. It can be seen from about 15 miles away if you are coming from the east. From a distance, it appears as a slot in the ridge.

Looking West from the rocks above Devil's Gate, showing the plains of the Sweetwater and the Oregon Trail; 1870 by William Henry Jackson

An Indian legend says a large beast with huge tusks tore the passage through the rock when pursued by hunters. Scientists, however, say the river carved it over time through the sedimentary rock. But it seems odd that the river ate through the rocks instead of flowing around them. The wagon road takes the flatter, easier route not far away.

Trading posts sprang up at Devil’s Gate and Independence Rock in the early 1850s, to cater to the emigrant trains. Travelers could find a few basic supplies there, and if they were lucky, trade worn-out animals for fresh stock. The earliest known photograph of this landmark was taken in 1858 by Samuel C. Mills.

Mill's 1858 photo, public domain

As the wagon trains grew fewer, the cabins of the Devil’s Gate post were abandoned by 1856. The following winter, desperate members of the Mormon handcart parties found them during a severe blizzard and took shelter.

photo by Ryan Reeder, 2004, Creative Commons Licenses

By 1872, a hunting camp was established near Devil’s Gate by a French Canadian, Tom Sun. Within ten years, Sun’s family had a thriving ranch with thousands of head of cattle. The Sun Family Ranch operated for more than 100 years. In the 1990s, they sold part of it to the Mormon church, which now operates a visitor center there to tell the story of the handcart pioneers. It includes a reconstruction of the 1850s trading post.

Devil's Gate, by MPlark, Creative Commons Licenses

In one of my books, The Oregon Escort, the main characters visit Devil’s Gate. To enter the giveaway for the 3-novel series anthology, Wyoming Brides, leave a comment and include your contact information below. E-book readers may choose an e-book of The Oregon Escort instead.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than sixty published novels. She’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. Her newest books The Seafaring Women of the Vera B. and The Cowboy’s Bride Collection, which was recently named to the Publisher’s Weekly Bestselling Religious Fiction List. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .

The Lost Blue Bucket Mine

Treasure Found and Lost & Book Giveaway

by Susan Page Davis

The legend of the Lost Blue Bucket Mine has intrigued people for a hundred and seventy years. Is it still out there, waiting to be discovered, or was it real in the first place?

It all started in 1845, when a wagon train got off the beaten track in eastern Oregon. There are several

Photo by James C Davis

versions of the story, and no one has proof of what actually happened. But we know it involved at least one kid, a blue bucket, and some strange pebbles.

A large wagon train had reached eastern Oregon. When they camped for a few days at a hot spring, the travelers were apprehensive about the coming ordeal of rafting down the Columbia River. 

Stephen Meek

A man named Stephen Meek, who was the brother of mountain man Joe Meek, had joined their party. He said he knew a shortcut and could lead them overland, via the “Meek Cut-off,” to the Willamette Valley, their final destination. Some of the families decided to go with Meek. The others kept to the
trail heading for the Columbia.

As the story goes, the travelers realized after a while—some say a week, others a month or two—that Meek had no idea where he was going. He left them on their own in the wilderness.  They had to get through the Cascade Mountains before winter or they might starve to death.

Most versions of the story say children went to the river to get water and returned with a blue bucket full of strange-looking pebbles. To be fair, one version says three young men went in search of some straying cattle and wandered for hours before returning with the famous rocks.

Anyway, the wise grownups of the party puzzled over the kids’ find. The blacksmith put one pebble on a metal wagon rim and pounded it. It flattened easily. They decided it was copper.

Why copper? No one’s really sure. The standard excuse is that it was 1845, several years before the California Gold Rush, and most people had never seen raw gold. Supposedly most of the rocks were dumped, but one woman, Mrs. Fisher, kept one. A few years later, with the advent of the gold craze in California, she had it assayed. It was a gold nugget.

The people who had been on that wagon train started remembering, and prospectors from all over began trying to find the spot. Many people spent years looking for it. Some people found gold in various places in Oregon, but no one was ever sure where the so-called Blue Bucket Mine was.

One clue often cited was that the gold was found three days’ ox team journey from the grave of a
Mrs. Chambers near the mouth of Crane Creek. Well, you can imagine how many people were out there looking for that grave. Supposedly the grave has been found more than once. And another tale says two Frenchmen moved it to keep people from finding the mine. 

Gravestone reads "Mrs. S Chambers Sep 3rd 1845" - found along Meek's Trail. Photo by Lostwagonman (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The woman who reportedly saved one nugget from the children’s bucket plays large in some of the stories. Mrs. Fisher’s story was written down by her grandson, but even this version is riddled with errors. For instance, he said the man who led the pioneers astray was Joe Meek, not his brother Stephen.

The wagon train split at a hot spring about a mile below the present town of Vale, near the Malheur River. Dr. Fisher, who was traveling with the Meek contingent, died and was buried August 12, 1845. The man writing Mrs. Fisher’s story knew several survivors of the wagon train. They named other landmarks they had passed.

So … The wagon train wandered on. Its exact route is a mystery, though many have tried to trace it. Eventually, they rejoined one of the trains they split off earlier. Some settled near Eugene, and some went on to California.

Wagon train using oxen. 1890 photo

 Twenty-five years later, several veterans of that wagon train got together and discussed it. They made a map of the points they knew they had passed and where they thought it most likely the gold had been found. Mrs. Fisher insisted that Mrs. Chambers died three days before the gold was found. Samuel Parker, who was also on the train at the time, said she died three days after. So, within about 100 miles—probably more like 50—in either direction, if anyone knew for certain where that grave was.

The site now believed to be the famous grave of Mrs. Chambers is about six miles east of where Crane Creek flows into the Malheur. If Mrs. Fisher was correct and the gold was found before Mrs. Chambers died, that would put the wagon train in the Willow Creek area. Gold has since been found in that area.

Gold panning--public domain photo

My best guess as to the whereabouts of the Blue Bucket Mine? I think it’s been found, in one of the areas where gold strikes were later made, but the people who found it were never sure that was the exact place.  In 1960 a group of people claimed to have found it and filed claims as the Blue Bucket Group. At least three other gold mines over the years have been named “Blue Bucket Mine,” but none of them had anything to do with the legendary east Oregon find.

One amusing point made by a woman who was part of the Blue Bucket Group: In 1845, about 3,000 traveled west over various routes in wagon trains. By 1850, she said, at least a third of them claimed to have been in the party that discovered the Blue Bucket Mine.

To enter a drawing for a copy of Susan Page Davis’s The Lady’s Maid, a story about the Oregon
Trail, or another book in this series, leave a comment and your contact information. The drawing will be held Nov. 29.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than sixty published novels. She’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .

How One Cow Started A War

© Andreas Krappweis

Hey everyone! Jennifer Uhlarik here. As I was researching recently, I stumbled across a rather interesting tidbit of information that I didn’t know. Were you aware that a single cow was one of the catalysts that sparked the First Sioux War?

One lonely cow!

It happened in August, 1854, near Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory (present day Goshen County, Wyoming). A group of Mormon emigrants was traveling over the Oregon Trail when one of their cows wandered away. The bovine ended up in a large encampment of Lakota Sioux with roughly 4800 men, women, and children. There, a visiting Miniconjou warrior named High Forehead shot and killed the cow.

Mormon wagon train leaving
Council Bluffs, IA

The owner of the cow tracked it down but became fearful when he saw the encampment full of Sioux, so he went to Fort Laramie instead. He explained the situation to Lt. Hugh Fleming. Fleming, in turn, approached the Sioux chief, Conquering Bear, to discuss the situation. Conquering Bear attempted to negotiate, offering a horse from his own herd or a cow from the tribe’s herd, but the Mormon man demanded $25 cash. When they couldn’t come to terms, Fleming demanded the arrest of High Forehead, but Conquering Bear again wouldn’t agree since he had no authority over the Miniconjou tribe. They ended their negotiations in stalemate.



Second Lieutenant John Grattan, a fresh graduate of West Point, took matters into his own hands. He had little respect for the Sioux as warriors and went in search of a fight, so he took an armed detachment of thirty soldiers and one interpreter and marched into the Sioux encampment to arrest High Forehead. The interpreter, who was drunk at the time, began to taunt the Sioux warriors, calling them women and promising they would be killed by the soldiers. Grattan went to High Forehead’s tent and demanded that he surrender, to which High Forehead refused. Then, Grattan went to Conquering Bear to again negotiate. The chief once more offered a horse in exchange for the dead cow, but Grattan rejected the offer. He demanded the arrest of High Forehead. Again, the negotiations ended in stalemate. It was as Grattan walked back to his horse that the shooting began.

Red Cloud

The Sioux warriors had gradually flanked the soldiers during the negotiations, and one man became so nervous he fired his gun. The bullet struck the Sioux chief, mortally wounding him. With bows and arrows, the Sioux killed Grattan and eleven of his soldiers. The remaining men retreated to a rocky outcropping nearby, but a group of Sioux led by the rising war chief Red Cloud pursued and killed them all.

For days after the battle, the Sioux wreaked havoc on the nearby settlers, trading posts, and Fort Laramie. After three days, the Indians abandoned the large encampment and returned to their respective hunting grounds, going against the provisions of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. When a burial party went into the encampment, they found the bodies of the thirty soldiers had been mutilated almost beyond recognition.

© Phil Konstantin

When news of the battle that became known as the Grattan Massacre reached the War Department, a plan for retaliation was formed. They sent Colonel William S. Harney to Fort Kearny with the intent to garner revenge. The Indian agent in the area forewarned the Sioux of the coming battle, and half the Sioux forces went to Fort Laramie and presented themselves as friendly. The other half under Chief Little Thunder’s leadership, remained at large, although they desired also to live peacefully.

On the morning of September 3, 1855, a 700-soldier force of descended on an encampment of 250 Brulé Sioux. Harney and his men killed more than one hundred men, women, and children that day, and also took roughly seventy prisoners. The Battle of Ash Creek, as it became known, began a long history of attacks and retaliations that would continue for many years on the Western frontier. In fact, The Battle of Ash Creek can be directly linked to one of the most famous cases of retaliation in all of Indian war history. One of the young boys who witnessed the massacre of family and friends at Ash Creek grew to be known as the great Sioux warrior, Crazy Horse, who twenty-one years later, rode into battle against Custer on the banks of the Little Big Horn.

It's your turn. How do you think the situation with the runaway cow should have been handled? Could war have been prevented?

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won five writing competitions and made the top 10 and top 3 in two other competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and five fur children.