Filming the Oregon Trail
In pursuit of a dream from Casper, Wyoming, to Eagle Creek, Oregon.
By: Candy Moulton 06/01/2009
Then we began to time travel.
First, we gave every student some new clothes, although we had them keep their own comfortable hiking shoes.
After they changed into pioneer dress, all of us gathered together to talk about communication. Then we took the kids’ cell phones away. “I’m supposed to call my parents, every day,” Eddie Streltsov told Mr. Merchant, holding up his cell phone. It didn’t matter that we took the phones; in the great wide open of Wyoming, they don’t work half the time anyway.
I, however, had computer service via an AT&T wireless card, so I sent a message to parents back home: “Don’t worry about your children if you do not hear from them. We took their phones away. We will call you if there is a problem.” I can only imagine what some of the parents thought about that message. To their credit none of them freaked out and called me; a few sent e-mail replies. We had also established an Internet blog, and I did try to keep it up to date so parents could track our progress.
After lunch everybody loaded into the wagons and we headed out on the Trail. We came upon a camp of topographical engineers, who were using John C. Fremont’s pioneer-era map and report of the region, and were continuing to map the country. While learning from these topographical engineers, the students stood in a place where the vista was free of modern intrusions: no trees and no roads, other than the two-track trail they had followed to this point. We set the hook quickly that this was a wide-open land and the adventure equally so.
In addition to sharing the message of hardships on the Oregon Trail, this film of the kids presents a message about preservation of the Trail, so on our first full day of traveling, we joined OCTA Wyoming Chapter President Pinky Ellis and member Tom Rea to learn about the organization’s efforts to map and mark the Trail. The kids assisted them in placing a new trail marker that will help people following the route know where the wagons passed in the 19th century.
The students set up their own tents at our Horse Creek Camp (a place used by Trail travelers throughout the emigration period; it was also the site of a Pony Express Station, and Mormon travelers met rescuers here in 1856 when they struggled west in heavy snowstorms). Dark clouds swept around camp as the tents went up; shortly afterward the storm front brought some of Wyoming’s well-known winds and the students found that in this outdoor classroom tests come quickly. After the peak wind gusts died down, it was necessary to put the tents up again as almost all of them had not been properly stretched and staked, so they collapsed in the wind.
The next day our route was along the Trail crossing private ranch land, the Pathfinder National Wildlife Refuge and on to Independence Rock for our third camp. Some of the students walked the 12 miles from Horse Creek Camp to Independence Rock; others walked just a portion of the Trail. Even so they all had the energy to climb to the top of the most written about landmark on the Oregon Trail.
I truly knew these students were capturing the spirit of the Trail when one of them said, “I don’t know what time it is or even what day it is. I just know we have morning, noon and night.”
Comments (1)
Thanks Candy. You guys did a great job. I can relate to the Wy winds. If you have more about the time and place where this movie will be shown I would like to find out. Would be great to attend. will work on it. Jeanie
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