REBIRTH OF THE TRAIL

More from David Dary’s: The Oregon Trail; An American Saga Copyright 2004 First Edition Published by Alfred A. Knopf http://www.aaknopf.com/ small arm of Random House, Inc., New York.

Chapter Seventeen - - - Words copied from:
Page 310-311, & 319-321

History is not a remote Olympian bar of judgment, but a controversial arena in which each generation must make its own estimates of the past. Allan Nevins.

As the twentieth Century Began, Francis Parkman’s book on the Oregon Trail was reprinted by a New York publisher, but few people paid attention. It was a new century, and transportation by the transcontinental railroad and the automobile were over shadowing the past, including the struggles and hardships endured by those who had traveled overland by wagon over the Oregon Trail. Such things had become old-timer history. The romance and adventure of the Old West were still alive in novels like Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902) and in wild west shows, but the real West was changing. Much of the area had been settled, and new towns and cities dotted the western landscape. The railroads had already brought eastern big business west, and with it came corruption, including boss rule in many areas.

After timber reserves in the Great Lakes region were nearly depleted, loggers targeted the deep forests of Oregon, and as the twentieth century began, it became the nation’s third-ranking lumber-producing state. But then progressives in Oregon overthrew the timber barons’ rule and gained the adoption of a series of reform measures, including the initiative, the referendum, recall, and the direct primary.

The initiative enabled citizens to propose legislation: the referendum allowed them to vote for or against laws already passed by state lawmakers; recall permitted them to oust corrupt officials; and the direct primary (a reform measure first enacted by the Wisconsin legislature in 1903) bypassed party machinery and enabled the voters to choose their party candidates at the polls.

Collectively these reforms became known as the Oregon System and were widely adopted in many other areas of the nation to increase popular control of local and state governments.

* There is always more …. Let’s take a look at what I was going to end with, first …. A quote from something that Ezra Meeker wrote. Meeker, who on January 29th 1906, left his home in Puyallup, Washington to retrace the Oregon Trail with his ”prairie schooner” which incorporated parts from two other wagons that had also traversed the Oregon Trail in 1852. He ultimately wound up in Washington D.C. championing his cause which did in fact generate a bill for appropriations in the amount of $50,000 from a committee in Congress, to mark the Oregon Trail. *

“The difference between a civilized and an untutored people is in the application of experiences. The civilized man builds upon the foundation of the past, with hope and ambition for the future. The savage has neither past nor aspiration for the future. To keep the flame of patriotism alive, we must keep the memory of the past vividly before us. It was with these thoughts in mind that the expedition to mark the Old Oregon Trail
was undertaken.”

Although most Americans living between Oregon and the Atlantic coast were too involved in the problems of the present to pay much attention to the past, especially the old Oregon Trail over which so many emigrants had passed to settle the West, not everyone had forgotten. Ezra Meeker, born in Butler County, Ohio, in 1830, had traveled the road to Oregon in the 1852 with other emigrants. After an unsuccessful mercantile business in the town of Steilacoom, Meeker settled in the Puyallup Valley, where he founded the town of Puyallup in 1877, located a few miles southeast of modern Tacoma.

There he realized the fertile soil could grow abundant crops. He planted hops, used to give the bitter flavor to malt liquors, and by 1885 was wealthy and known as the “Hop King of the World.” His business took him to Europe, where in London he met Queen Victoria. Everything was fine until 1891 when an infestation of hop aphids decimated his crops. He lost a fortune but managed to keep his home in Puyallup. Soon he dabbled in other enterprises and made four trips to the Klondike in search of gold. He found little.

Back in Puyallup, he began writing a romance novel about coming west, in which he expressed his sympathy for the plight of the Indians. He also expressed sympathy for Chinese emigrants who were treated as outcasts in the Pacific Northwest. By 1900 he realized that too many Americans had forgotten the Oregon Trail. Meeker, then sevnty-seven, decided to memorialize the road by retracing the route he had taken in 1852 and marking it.

More from David Dary’s: “The Oregon Trail; An American Saga” Copyright 2004 First Edition Published by Alfred A. Knopf http://www.aaknopf.com/ small arm of Random House, Inc., New York.

Chapter Seventeen - - - Words copied from Page 310-311, & 319-321

A Message for the 110th Congress

From the pages of David Dary's: "The Oregon Trail" A message to "We The People" of the United States but specifically our elected representatives.

This is a quote from the 110th page for the 110th Congress. This was quite a discovery for me on Easter Sunday 2007. An Easter egg hunt i was on unwittingly while reading "The Oregon Trail" during 2nd floor security watch at Common Ground relief shelter at St. Mary's Church, New Orleans, upper ninth ward from 3am - 9am.

From page 110 and i quote, "The vote was 52 to 50. On that day Oregon's Provisional Government was born. A legislative committee of nine men was created to write a constitution. A handful of settlers wanted Oregon to be an independent nation , but they moved to California before the constitution was adopted in a meeting on July5, 1843. On that day the preamble was revised to read: "We the people of Oregon Territory, For purposes of mutual protection, and to secure peace and prosperity among ourselves, Agree to adopt the following laws and regulations until such time as the USA extend their jurisdiction over us."

This Organic Act, as it is called, created a legislature, an executive committee of three men, and a judicial system. The settlers were not taxed, but were encouraged to make donations through subscriptions to cover the expenses of their new government. In drawing up the laws and regulations, someone happened to have a copy of the laws of Iowa, and they were adopted.

Down the Willamette River at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, John McLoughlin received and rejected an invitation that the Hudson's Bay Company join the new government. McLoughlin then added a bastion to the fort and increased its defenses, claiming he did so because of unrest among Indians, but many American settlers believed McLoughlin was more fearful of the organized American settlers and reports he had received telling of belligerent speeches against Britain in the American Congress."

"The Oregon Trail" 'An American Saga' by David Dary
Alfred A. Knopf New York 2004

To the memory of those pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail

This small passage has weighty value for our congress and We The People Today. It would be refreshing to hear the Congress and Senate take on the domestic issues here at home rather than neglecting them, abandoning our people in the process of fighting a 'War On Terror," coming to a town near you in the name of 'Enduring Freedom.'

On page 109 the day was disclosed as one May 2, 1843. Author David Dary provides insight as to the make up of the 102 who voted. "Fifty-two of the settlers were Canadians with instructions from John McLoughlin and the Hudson's Bay Company to head off the attempt."

Question for all who have read this far? What is the United States? What are it's interests?

Many of you are more suited to be loyal to a corporation than a citizen of theses United States!

If you are offended or surprised by that statement then i am definitely talking / typing to you, sir or mam.

Do you wear a Hudson's Bay Co. T-shirt today? If you do then you fit into that category as well. It is time to stand up on your hind legs and fight for the freedoms that the brave men and women of our past have secured without propane, electricity, cars, gasoline, etc. They braved the elements, drought, famine and disease to establish the boundary of this great nation.

I am working on a reverse Oregon Trail Already. In this reverse Oregon Trail we will reverse the actions that were wrong in this westward quest. We are going to make amends with many of the Indian tribes we displaced, abused and killed for our own selfish gain, while keeping the foreign financial powers at bay.

Stetty 4 Congress

Michael Stettler for Congress makes SENS
Simple Economic National Solutions.