Filming the Oregon Trail
In pursuit of a dream from Casper, Wyoming, to Eagle Creek, Oregon.
By: Candy Moulton 06/01/2009
When wagon trains stopped for a couple of days in a campsite to rest, they always chose a place with good water and feed for livestock. We found our own respite in Montpelier thanks to the good folks at the National Oregon/California Trail Center. Director Becky Smith welcomed our students for a dinner at her “covered wagon” dining area. She had arranged our campsite in a local park, and she gave us free tours of the interpretive center.
From Montpelier, we drove west along U.S.30 and then I-84, crossing Idaho and detouring to Trail sites along the way, including Shoshone Falls, before reaching our next campsite at the fairgrounds in Baker City, Oregon.
The wind was blowing too hard on top of Flagstaff Hill at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center near Baker City for us to do much filming, but we spent time there anyway before returning to our camp for the night. Next we crossed the Blue Mountains, a true challenge for 19th-century travelers. Our route took us west on I-84 to The Dalles, then south on U.S. 197 to Tygh Valley. From there we turned west on Highway 48 to our camp in the Mt. Hood National Forest.
Here we unloaded everything and prepared to truly return to the Trail: the Barlow Road, which was the mountain crossing into the Willamette Valley, a route pioneered in 1846 by John Barlow.
The Deep Forest
Our students, weary of road tripping, were relieved to be out of the vans and in a totally different environment: a deep forest of the Pacific Northwest.
For the next three days we filmed along the Barlow Road, leaving behind most of the support services so the students and their new “wagon families” had to fend for themselves, including doing all of their own cooking.
Leaving the forest, we again made a short hop by vehicle (Highway 48 west to U.S. 26 to Sandy, Oregon, then southwest on Highway 211) to our destination: Philip Foster Farm in Eagle Creek, Oregon. The Barlow Road ended here in the 19th century, although certainly travelers continued on to Oregon City to camp at Abernathy Green. We spent a day filming concluding scenes at Foster Farm, before taking the students on to Oregon City for a dinner provided by the Northwest Chapter of OCTA.
Our final scenes of the film, with students once again in their modern clothes and orange In Pursuit of a Dream t-shirts, took place at Foster Farm before we sent the students on their way home on airplanes. They were tired, tanned and totally immersed in the experience of the Oregon Trail.
As we had hoped when we began planning this film adventure, by the time these kids returned home, they understood the overland migration and the value of preserving the Oregon Trail today. As one of them said, “If you erase the Trail, you erase history.” Both OCTA and Boston Productions believe the film will convey that message to students and families across the nation. It will premiere at the National OCTA Convention in Loveland, Colorado, this August 18, and at the Wyoming Film Festival in Saratoga on August 22.
“They breathed trail dust into their lungs,” says Associate Producer Quackgrass Sally, “and it went straight to their hearts.”
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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