Trails, Beds, Camps

Cascade, ID to Glenns Ferry, ID

(mail stop and sightseeing)

October 29 - November 4, 2016

34 years ago we camped at the Three Island Crossing state park in Glenns Ferry so we thought it would be fun to go back to see how things looked now.  This area is where most of the groups moving along the Oregon Trail crossed the Snake river enroute to the Willamette Valley in Oregon.  It was a dangerous crossing feared by many.  Just now, many days after we were there, I was wondering why they crossed the river because it meant having to cross it again further west on what is now the Idaho/Oregon border.  Why would they do that?  You gotta love the internet - it's so easy to look things up.  The reason most groups crossed the river was because the northern route offered easier traveling conditions had ample access to water, no small issue in this very dry area.  In spite of that, some groups chose to stay on the south side to avoid the dangers of Three Island Crossing.




Marker describing this portion of the Oregon trail.





In spite of the marker above, this particular place is two island crossing
which is just up-river from three island crossing.  Some travelers crossed
 the river here instead of the more frequently used three island crossing.

Glenns Ferry was supposed to be a quick stop to pick up our mail and two packages.  We arrived on Saturday and our mail and one package were at the post office on Monday.  The other package was supposed to arrive on Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday, then....?   By this time I'm completely exasperated!  While we waited, we tried to make lemonade from lemons and drove over to Hagerman, ID to see some fossil beds, a portion of the Oregon trail (where the ruts are still visible) and learn about the WWII Japanese Internment Camp at Minidoka, Idaho.

The Visitor Center in Hagerman does a valiant job of presenting three big topics in a pretty limited area.  The Hagerman fossil beds are it's primary focus and they have some really nice specimens on display.  This is where an ancient horse (called the Hagerman Horse), closely related to Grevy's Zebras was discovered.  They have also found the fossilized remains of many other animals including giant sloths, sabertooth cats, camels, giant marmots, mastedons, and many others.

 

Full skeletal fossil of the Hagerman Horse

Hoof of the Hagerman horse shown next to a modern horse hoof (just below it).
Lots of evolutionary changes in the millions of years since the Hagerman horse roamed the plains.

This painting is an artists rendition of what the area around what is now Hagerman might have looked like millions of years ago.

Mastedon skull. On the left are the bones of a mastodon's foot.

 

Cross section of a mastodon tusk.  It has growth rings just like trees.
This fossil is at least 9 inches across!!!!

Ariel view of the Minidoka Internment Camp.
The exhibit at the visitor center was well done but very sad.
What our country did to the Japanese who had made the US their home is deplorable.

The Minidoka camp is, as you can see, in hot, flat, unforgiving country.
The Japanese who were forced to live here made the best of it however, creating
gardens for both beauty and spirituality as well as gardens to produce fresh produce.

The Oregon Trail near Hagerman, ID.  Beyond the curve the road was built right over the old trail.
The two lines coming off towards hill in the bottom right corner are the ruts of the original trail.
 

Close up of the original trail ruts - still visible after over a hundred years.
The area is a maze of washes like the one at the top of this picture so
finding a route through this area must have been a challenge.

On Friday, Nov.4th the tracking information still showed the package had left Salt Lake for Boise on Oct 29th but it never arrived in Boise. It still shows the exact same thing today (Nov 9).  Maybe it was beamed up to the mother ship somewhere out in space somewhere between SLC and Boise. Regardless of what happened - we moved on.