Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/19

 MILES CANNON

11

10th, Rizner and the two men were massacred while taking beaver on the South Fork, the squaw and two children only

When they arrived at the mouth of the river escaping. was discovered that not one of the party was left alive.

it

The trials and tribulations of this poor Indian woman, from moment until her arrival the following spring in the

this

Walla Walla country, constitutes one of the most heart-rending It is a story that will be told tragedies in western history. as long as people read history and, when properly told, will This brings us to the first Indian massacre in the Snake river valley, a series of which continued, with varying degrees of ferocity and frequency over a period of 58 years. To Stuart is usually accorded the credit of being the first white man to lead a party over the Indian trial that, in time, touch the heart of a nation.

became known

as the

Oregon

Trail.

Of

this trail

I

will

content myself by mentioning only a few of the historic points as they appear today, and as are directly connected with the Snake river in history.

The winter camp of Bonneville, 1833-4, is about eight miles north-west of Bancroft, Idaho, a station on the O. S. L. Ry. It is now in the confines of a farm but the spring still gushes out of the earth in sufficient quantities "to turn a mill" provided the mill were not too large. The trail, in most part, from the Bear river to the Snake, is in a fair state of preservation to the point where it touched the latter stream.

From

this place to the site of

Fort Hall

it is

rather uncer-

only proper for me to state here that there is some doubt in the minds of several gentlemen who have given the

tain.

It is

subject

much thought

as to the exact location of Fort Hall.

I

was given to me by an Indian scout who piloted give me to the place, who was born in its vicinity at a time when the building still stood and whose father was acquainted with the Hudson's Bay traders who were located there. About four miles below the place where the trail strikes the river, on the left bank and within 20 feet of a slightly lower level it

as

it

covered with cottonwood timber,

is,

so

my

guide informed me,