Site 1 ★ Two Island Crossing

Site 1 ★ Two Island Crossing. Main Oregon Trail Back County Byway. Thursday July 24 , "Traveled 13 miles struck the river 2 miles above the ford. Here we found a company ferrying in wagon beds we unloaded two our best wagon beds and commenced calking them got them finished and ferried their loads that night. The next day we finished crossing and were ready to roll out." -- Susan Amelia Cranston, 1851 , After two days of travel across the desert without easy access to water, many emigrants came to the Snake River as the south of Rosevear Gulch to water their stock. Most continued downstream two miles to Three Island Crossing where they had to decide to either ford the river or continue along the south side of the Snake River. , Some elected to cross the river here instead. The water at this location was too deep to ford so wagons had to be floated across as boats or ferries. Wagons were caulked with whatever materials were available. Holes were plugged with clothing. Wheels were removed and loaded into the wagon box. Often a man would first swim across the river carrying a rope. Once on the north side, he would pull the wagon boats across the river. Some people managed to row their wagon boats across while the cattle were forced to swim the river. Ezra Meeker rowed his wagon across the river at this site during his journey on the Oregon Trail in 1852.