It’s been 24 days on the trail now. At this stage of the journey I’m travelling through Nebraska along the Platte River, a tributary of the Missouri River.
At 362 miles I pass an important landmark: Plum Creek. At first I thought this was the place Laura Ingalls Wilder Lived in the book On the Banks of Plum Creek but actually that is a different Plum Creek in Minnesota.
This Plum Creek’s claim to fame is of a much more tragic nature. In August of 1864, there were a series of coordinated attacks along the Platte River by Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux.
The best documented of these incidents took place on August 8th, 1864. A wagon train of freighters travelling from Iowa to Denver was attacked by about 100 American Indians. 11 of the freighters were killed, and a woman and child were taken hostage. This event was later known as the Plum Creek Massacre.
The other attacks were directed at wagon trains, stage coach stations, and road ranches, and caused the deaths of about 40 people altogether. Most of the routes (including the Oregon Trail) were shut down for several weeks. Even worse, the events led to the Indian War of 1864.
During the heyday of the Oregon Trail American Indians were one of the biggest fears of pioneers, but disease was many many times more deadly, and on the Oregon Trail between 1840-1860, only about 362 immigrants were killed by American Indians, while 426 American Indians were killed by the immigrants. (http://my.ilstu.edu/~jabraun/students/kertz/page6.htm)
Total Miles Traveled: 375
I’m now almost a 5th of the way to Oregon. This next leg of the journey calls for a music change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bJ7LoWDvao&list=PL7C9EB4E62841001F&index=12
Quester Jester 