The Long Riders' Guild

Here at The Long Riders' Guild we have not historically been associated with Wagon travel.  But several wagon travellers asked us to give them a page on this site, as of course many of the concerns of Long Riders (such as finding food and water for the horses, horse-shoes, safety in traffic) mirror the wagon traveller.  As The Guild had a page for Michael Muir's journey in his famous ancestor's footprints, we are delighted to tell our visitors about this forthcoming journey.

Here is the text of the message received here at LRG HQ:

In  2008 the Oregon California Trails Association will hold its twenty sixth annual National Convention at the Nampa Civic Center August 4 - 9.  To coincide with this event we will have a wagon train travel from Montpelier to Nampa, Idaho. The wagon train will try to use as close as possible the same route used by those early pioneers who helped settle the West.
We will travel portions of the Oregon California Trail, the Jeffery/Goodale Cutoff, the Kelton Road, and trails used by stagecoaches, freighters and drovers. . These trails still have in places evidence of the thousands of wagon wheels and hoof prints needed to move America WEST. 
By traveling these famous trails by horse and wagon we hope to provide a chance for teamsters and horsemen, as well as any one else, to visit these historic locations. It will also be an opportunity for teamsters, outriders and wagon riders to experience, however modernized, the determination it took to travel through unfamiliar country in order to reach a new beginning.
Horses, Mules and Oxen were the power to move those hardy pioneers across this wonderful state of Idaho. Today America travels at speeds per hour that our predecessors traveled per week. We are offering a chance to slow back down to three or four miles per hour and let the world know that life doesn't need to be traveled at such a frantic pace.
Nearly all of the proposed route will be on State, County, BLM or Forest service roads, however in many places these roads cover, cross or parallel the ruts left here over one hundred fifty years ago.  We hope to bring to the public's attention that places like this still exist and should be preserved for future generations to view. Hopefully from a wagon seat or the back of a horse.
We will be in communication with several area news agencies to provide information about the part that these trails played in the expansion of America, and that a large portion of the credit should go to the HORSE.
We will start from Montpelier, Idaho at the first of July and travel through Georgetown to Soda Springs. Then continue on through Chesterfield on the California / Oregon Trail and across the Fort Hall Reservation on Ross Fork Creek to the Fort Hall Casino on Interstate 15. With permission of the Shoshone Bannock Tribe, we will visit the OLD Fort Hall Trading Post area and the Buffalo pastures in the Snake River Bottoms.
We will leave Fort Hall by crossing the Snake River at Ferry Butte and continue on the west side up to Blackfoot. We will travel west from Blackfoot out to the Jeffery / Goodale Cutoff then to the Big Southern Butte and around to OLD Arco. We have been invited to participate in the Arco Atomic Days Parade on July 19, 2008
There will be a rest day at the same location where the Goodale Wagon train camped at Champagne Meadows. With over 350 wagons they created a very narrow winding track along the edge of the Craters of the Moon. We will be able to drive, ride or walk on most of the trail through this area.
Travelers went across the hills behind Carey and over Bradley Summit, where several teams were needed just to pull one wagon up that steep grade.  Participants will follow the Jeffery / Goodale trial through this area. We will turn north and continue through Gannet and turn west again across the Wood River Valley near Sun Valley to Rock Creek.
Then travel past the Moonstone Ranch and across the flats behind Fairfield to Castle Rocks where there are still grooves etched in the rocks by those thousands of iron-tired wheels. Travel around Little Camas reservoir to the Dixie Cutoff will take us to Tollgate Hill, Immigrant Road and then over 25 miles of up and downs called the Mayfield Road.
After we reach Blacks Creek road and cross under Interstate 84 near Boise, we will stop in Kuna. Our trail's end in Nampa should be on August 4, 2008 in time for the OCTA Convention. There will be at least 30 camp stops along the way and we encourage entertainment and / or local information by wagon train participants.
We have permission to camp in Nampa on a vacant lot across from the Nampa Livestock Auction, this will be a short distance from the Civic center, but wagon rides can be arranged with wagon owners.
This trip will take us through eight Idaho Counties; travel approximately 450 miles from the Southeast corner of the state to the Western side of the state and a third of the way North.  There will be at least five wagons travel the whole route and perhaps as many as twenty at various other locations with an unknown number of outriders and passengers. Any one is welcome to come join us for an hour, a day, a week or the entire trip. Wagons do not need to be authentic to the old days; horses, mules, oxen or even a donkey cart can join in, if they can manage to travel approximately 3 ½ miles per hour and average 18 miles per day.  Or walk, just as most of those determined pioneers did.
Alfalfa hay cubes or pellets will be available to meet weed free regulations at cost plus delivery.  We will try to camp where water is available each night but there may be a few places where we have to haul water for the animals.  All fire regulations will be adhered too.  There may be costs such as fuel for the water truck and support vehicles plus any permits and insurance.
Bring your cameras and the grand kids and let them experience some of what our hardy ancestors may have had to live through.  With today's graded roads, and the ability to send a car to the closest convenience store for a cold drink and a bag of ice, it won't be quite the same.  BUT the probability of it being the same in the years to come will in all likelihood disappear just as the pioneer trails have faded away.  Modern wagons on rubber tires and springs will smooth the trails but bring your tent, a bedroll, and some camping gear and rough it for a while. The travel and camping schedule will be finalized by mid January.
 
Dell M. Mangum
Board of Directors Idaho Chapter of the Oregon California Trails Association
352 West  170 North
Blackfoot, Idaho,  83221-5612
(208)785-6006)

April 2008 - the first article about this forthcoming journey has appeared.

For more information, please visit their website.

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