Chapter 3

23. A PLAN FOR A MEMORIAL TO THE PIONEERS 165

24. ON THE OVERLAND TRAIL AGAIN 177

25. TRAILING ON TO THE SOUTH PASS 185

26. REVIVING OLD MEMORIES OF THE TRAIL 195

27. A BIT OF BAD LUCK 204

28. DRIVING ON TO THE CAPITAL 212

29. THE END OF THE LONG TRAIL 219

THE WORLD'S GREATEST TRAIL

WORN deep and wide by the migration of three hundred thousand people, lined by the graves of twenty thousand dead, witness of romance and tragedy, the Oregon Trail is unique in history and will always be sacred to the memories of the pioneers. Reaching the summit of the Rockies upon an evenly distributed grade of eight feet to the mile, following the watercourse of the River Platte and tributaries to within two miles of the summit of the South Pass, through the Rocky Mountain barrier, descending to the tidewaters of the Pacific, through the Valleys of the Snake and the Columbia, the route of the Oregon Trail points the way for a great National Highway from the Missouri River to Puget Sound: a roadway of greatest commercial importance, a highway of military preparedness, a route for a lasting memorial to the pioneers, thus combining utility and sentiment.