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Show + ere re ee ee 9 ed Pane KF ie el Res ee pe et Oe ed ae *.-*—-©--% Se eee ence Seer ted b-datehtt ee oe ee ee nae oa teks — + ah, ba Cn ot , ee ee seh aoe aaa Se ie ees ee paper 114 LEADING FACTS OF NEW taeahete one RCN ielires bidtiay wbsthe dtiotanne i. e° samen eas ' MEXICAN ae OLD SANTA FE TRAIL Pawnee HOOK, on the Arkansas, mh : wey was es HISTORY xa, says waneibet: Gregg, ‘The ‘‘may be lent interest to merit a brief recital. Baird, of the unfortunateof party of 1812, having returned to the United States in 1822, together with Chambers, who had descended the Canadi an river the year before, induced some gmall capitalists of St. Louis to join in an enterprise, and then undertook to return to Santa F% the same fall, with a small party and an assortment of merchandise. Reaching the Arkansas late in the Season, they were overtaken by a heavy Snow-storm and driven to take shelter on a large island. A rigorous winter ensued, which forced them to remain pent-up in that place for three long months, During this time the greater portion of the animals perished; so that, when the spring began to open they were unable to continue their journey with their goods. In s emergency they made a cache some distance above, on the north side of the river, where they stowed away the moe their Siege From thence they proceeded to Taos, where they proie ao . one returned to get their hidden property.’’ The nea a place of concealment, was originally used by the ae trappers and voyageurs. It was made by digging a hole i we itans a % the ground, somewhat in the shape of a jug, which ees. Tauren 43508 ; ry sticks, grass, or anything else that would protect goods to be So the dampness of the earth. In this place the ena. ae ed were carefully stowed away ; and the aperture ney closed as to protect them from the rails. In eachin ase ye ::ty pes deal of skill was often required so that no signs the cunning Indian might discover the place i oe of deposit the excavated earth was carried to some end this “0 * distane e and carefully concea led or thrown into a stream, if one w inin § grow Brite os olter, to view : _ goes on and th secrets from him. accurate history is written. The Rocky He was the first white man, after John upon the Great a Pea pe i of the Yellowstone park, and the first to look through the ae ; Lake. Seemingly bearing a charmed life, he wandered life and findin na ] country, sometimes fighting but more often living thei tain climbed . he ace of true brotherhood at the lodge fire. Every moun marvelous iene im, every stream he crossed, was written down in the most is wagons halte ge granted to a mountaineer. When the white mat, with Service to the engi oe Showed them the best trails. Bridger was of great ville M. Dodge ae who built the Union Pacific Railway. General Grenneglected grave a nd ved ‘his gratitude by rescuing Bridger’s body from ® interring it at Kansas City under an appropr iate shaft. were at hand. rolling point The place selected 115 for a cache was usually some sufficiently elevated to be secure from inundations. If it was well set with grass, a solid piece of turf was cut out large enough for the entrance. The turf was afterwards laid back, and, taking root, in a short time no signs remained of its ever having been molested. At times a camp-fire was built over the cache and again the animals were penned over it. This mode of concealing goods seems to have been in use from the time of the earliest French voyageurs in America. Father Hennepin, during his passage down the Mississippi river in 1680, describes an operation of this kind.*? Before reaching Caches the early trader, in his course across the plains, followed the Arkansas river for upwards of a hundred miles and beyond that point often fifty or a hundred more before crossing that river. Between the Arkansas and the Cimarron rivers, a distance of more than fifty miles, there was not even a trail. Prior to 1830 there was no regular ford across the first named stream.** The upper ford of the Arkansas, which was used as late as 1829, was located at Chouteau island, just above where the town of Hartland, Kansas, now stands. This was the crossing recommended by surveyor J. C. Brown in 1825-7 and was the nearest point on the Arkansas to the lower spring of the Cimarron which lay directly south. Far beyond this point the earlier caravans pursued their course and crossed the river near Bent’s Fort, the terminus of the upper Arkansas route being Taos and that of the lower, or Cimarron route, being San Miguel and Santa Fé.* _ 8? Father Hennepin says: ‘‘We took up the green sodde and laid it by, and digg’d a hole in the earth where we put our goods, and covered them with Pieces of timber and earth, and then put in again the green turf; so that ’twas Impossible to suspect that any Hole arth into the River.’’ had been digg’d under Crossing, seventeen miles below Dodge City. it, for we flung the : 88 The ford of the Arkansas was 392 miles the regular crossing after 1829 and was known location is twenty miles below Dodge City. from Independence. This was Its as the Cimarron Crossing. There was another, or Lower It was near the mouth of Mul- berry creek at the extreme point of the large southern bend of the river. The principal trouble in crossing the Arkansas was that of quicksand. less the trader happened by water in ‘the river. along The during the June river bottom, however, rise, he was never Un- bothered was very treacherous, and it was customary to double and treble the teams and not stop while crossing over for fear the heavy loads would sink so deep that the teams could not pull them out. 84 Storrs, A., Santa Fé Cs S. W. to the Arkansas; Trade in 1884, gives up the Arkansas the route N. of W. as from 240 miles; “marron; up the Cimarron W. 100 miles; and 8. W. to Taos. Ft. Osage S. to the Gregg, vol. 1, |
