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Caption: Marker detail: Journal entries
Additional Description: For many, the adventure of traveling west was both frightening and exhilarating. Danger, trials, and even death lay ahead and thousands of letters, journals, and diaries recorded these experiences.

"Cold and windy, so cold that every man had to put on two or three coats. The roads are the best I ever see. Camped on a branch of Blue River near the place of leaving the Santafee Road. Mcdonald was unwell all day yesterday. Last night and today quite sick."
—Amos Josslyn, May 1, 1849, enroute to the California goldfields

"…road bad - deep ruts and mud… if an opportunity could have offered itself I should have returned home."
—Charles Glass Gray, May 12, 1849, bound for California

”About 4 o'clock p.m., I reached the point where I supposed the Oregon trail diverged from the Santa Fe road. It was raining copiously."
—Edwin Bryant, May 13, 1846, bound for California

"I wish you were all here with us going to the dear Indians. I have become very much attached to Richard Sak-ah-too-ah. 'T is the one you saw at our wedding; he calls me mother; I love to teach him - to take care of him, and hear them talk. There are five Nez Perces in the company, and when they are together they chatter finely."
—Narcissa Whitman, June 4. 1836, bound for Oregon Territory
Submitted: March 24, 2019, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Database Locator Identification Number: p467669
File Size: 0.491 Megabytes

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