{"id":473,"date":"2016-10-02T00:16:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T04:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=473"},"modified":"2016-10-02T00:16:53","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T04:16:53","slug":"in-their-footprints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=473","title":{"rendered":"IN THEIR FOOTPRINTS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Organ Trail Tracks Near Guernsey, Wyoming<\/h2>\n

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My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction,\u00a0 and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction.\u00a0 Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon<\/strong><\/h2>\n


One of the highlights of our recent trip out West was a visit to several locations where the ruts worn into the landscape by the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail in the 1800s are still plainly visible.\u00a0 In Guernsey, Wyoming, the actual ground is worn down as much as two feet.\u00a0 Back then, there were no highways in the West, of course, not even roads.\u00a0 The road was created by wagon wheels, horse or oxen traffic, and human feet\u2014frequently bare. <\/strong>

Other than the powerful testament to the hardship of the journey, the ruts present visitors with the truth of how sparely these pioneers traveled.\u00a0 The wheels that made that road were only about three or four feet apart.\u00a0 How narrow were those wagons that carried all the necessities for a family\u2019s journey\u2014and whatever was essential to begin their new life!\u00a0 Rarely did the pioneers ride.\u00a0 Unless sick or crippled or very, very young, they walked\u2014day after day, after day, after day.\u00a0 The wagon was too cram packed with tools, potatoes, dried beans, and essential clothing to allow for passengers.\u00a0 Nor would it have been a comfortable ride.\u00a0 A jolting, and often tilting, wagon could hardly have been pleasant.\u00a0 In one case, the family sow was allowed to ride with her just born piglets, because the importance of future meat.\u00a0 Piglets were too young to trot the fifteen or so miles the wagon could cover in a day.\u00a0 All in vain!\u00a0 The ride was so rough that they died anyway.\u00a0 I assume the sow had to resume trotting as soon as she was deemed able to keep up.<\/strong>

Most of the children and some of the adults were barefoot.\u00a0 Even if they had shoes at the beginning of the trip, they soon wore out.\u00a0 Clothes became filthy and shredded.\u00a0 Of course, the wagons stopped sometimes long enough to do washing, but only when they had to.\u00a0 Time was of the essence.\u00a0 Their food supplies wouldn\u2019t last forever and neither would warm, traveling\u00a0 weather.\u00a0 They had to get to the final destination as soon as possible.<\/strong>

As the wagon became increasingly rickety and the horses more thin and exhausted, families frequently had to lighten the load.\u00a0 Books, furniture,\u00a0 even bedding were frequently set out on the ground and abandoned to the elements.\u00a0 <\/strong>

When I looked at those tracks and the hilly country all around, I knew those people were tougher than me.\u00a0 And the women had it harder than the men.\u00a0 Most of them had young children to take care of.\u00a0 That can be a big job for even a modern day mother.\u00a0 Imagine doing it while traveling with a wagon train!\u00a0 Some women gave birth during the trip.\u00a0 Even in the comfort of home and with the benefit of a doctor in attendance, giving birth back in the 1800s could be a life and death matter.\u00a0 Some of those new mothers died and many of the babies did not make it.\u00a0 There was no choice but to bury the dead along the trail and keep going.\u00a0 One woman with five children wove cloth the year before they started west, and made burial shrouds for every member of her family, just in case.\u00a0 Fortunately, they all survived the journey.\u00a0 Some families were not so lucky.\u00a0 If too many of the adults died and no other travelers took mercy on the orphaned children, whole families could be doomed.\u00a0 <\/strong>

Traveling West way back then was an adventure, and those who lived through it, and successfully made new starts looked back on the journey as the high point in their lives.\u00a0 <\/strong>

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My hat is off to them.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n