Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Barry Swackhamer
Taken: June 22, 2017
Caption: Westward Ho!
Additional Description: Captions: (center left) Father Pierre-Jean De Smet in 1858; (bottom left) Father De Smet hired legendary mountain man Thomas Fitzpatrick to guide the missionary party and the first emigrant wagon train over the Oregon Trail to Soda Springs.; (bottom center) John Bidwell, co-leader of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party of pioneers, joined with the De Smet party in Kansas. Bidwell later admitted: "Our ignorance of the route (to California) was complete."; (center right) "Departure from Westport" sketched by Nicholas Point S.J. depicts the beginning of Father De Smet's second missionary party to Rocky Mountains, departing Westport on May 10, 1841.; (bottom right) In 1859 at a peace conference at Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, De Smet is photographed with the following Indian leaders, left to right, front row: Victor, Kalipel Tribe; Alexander, Pend Oreille Tribe; Adolphe, Flathead Tribe; Andrew, Coeur d'Alene Tribe: and back row. Dennis, Colville Tribe; Bonaventure, Coeur d'Alene Tribe; De Smet and Francis Xavier, Flathead Tribe.
Submitted: August 10, 2017, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.
Database Locator Identification Number: p393568
File Size: 3.332 Megabytes

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