Show aa cof S d 4 rr r AM lill A 4 att A it W aw 44 ike ox 4 0 pap w nt v ik it gh to I 1 N V 0 t J f 40 ab al A 4 74 X 1 rw OX if t wi 4 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON the ol 01 apici 10 18 1830 0 when in the little town of st louis mo then a frontier trading post three men jedediah Jed edlah S 9 smith david E jackson and W Y L sub lette called the roll of 81 members of a fur trading tion ordered i the osen oxen and mules hitched to the v A train of covered w afons which tl ey 41 had assembled and gave the corn coin 0 mand mana to start ve westward stward on their arelt adventure theirs was the first alered lowered wagon agon caravan to pass over what history has written as the olegon trail later rater bears ears vere ere to see thousands of other v w ig ns pass over tt tl it at trail and more than persons wl 0 can cari led the star of empire v w eastward were to f folio ollo v it across the plains and ner he tle m in an epic migration which ell ds as one of the greate t movements in all I 1 story ar A 1 no v JIM jut a hundred years later the people f america are to honor the pioneers who followed tl at tra I 1 I 1 resi rest lent hoover has issued a proclamation proclaim atlon callin calling for the observance ot servance of the covered wagon IN agon centennial Cei tennial from april 10 to december 29 of this year april 10 being the hun dreith anniversary of the start of the first wagon train westward N a and nd cecen december Dec enber bar 29 being the I 1 un dreith ann of ezra meder ua er tl tie e grand old man alan of ta tie e bip on trail who devoted his life to the perpetuation of its memory and the memory of those who mho traveled it N I 1 en ezra meeker died in december 1928 at tt e age of ninety eight his last whispered words were I 1 am not quite ready to go my work Is e I 1 but I 1 ie e left behind him an or organza gan za tion which apropo proposes es to see to it that his work Is finished tl TI it N 1 tl ti e oregon trail memorial association wl ich he founded and a fitting climax of its patriotic otic otle work mork 1 19 the covered wagon centen nial in which it I bis is invited the whole nation to with city state and national covered wagon centennial celebrations in view of the nation wide interest which this celebration has it seems particularly appropriate that there should have appeared recently a new book bv by a well known bistor an which deals with nith the oregon trail from a new point of view it Is I 1 the oi 01 erland tra I 1 the apic path of the pio to oregon wr aten by agnes C laut and published by the frederick A stokes company in he flint chapter na M ss laut sas tl TI ere stand in almerea tl ree great obelisks ore Is in washington the federal capital it is the W ington monument it marks the begin n ng of a great nation in its expansion from the atlantic to the pacific it commemorates also one of the noblest leaders who ever guided that na tion in its destiny the second Is in kansas city it commemorates the soldiers who perished in the 11 orld war but it also marks the beginning of a great racial path in that expansion from the atlantic to the pacific that racial path is the overland trail here set out in the last trek of humanity west ward not an army of soldiers in rank formation but an army of pioneers who conquered a wilder ness and transformed a desert into a garden and they accomplished in a little more than a century v hat the old world did not achieve in sixty cen they conquered by sheer dogged dauntless s courage an empire half the area of europe awen ty thousand people men women and children perished from hunger from hardship from ind an raids in a single year on tl e oregon trail it if you want to realize the epic heroism of such pioneer heroism compare that mortal ty loss to the army death list of a single little war in europe some principality not the size of a single county la 1 the states border ng tl e overland trail I 1 then vou you grasp bilat the great acial highway means IN Amerlean history you realize why to the west aest it Is sacred as the very altar stairs of a sa nt a fonua ent in asia or europe it too is da died ed in sacrificial martar mart r blood it too Is worn by the pil grims feet in traces which tame can never nener e face the tl third ird obelisk stands at the final outlet of columbia river to the I 1 atit acif c it Is kno n as the astor monolith it mai maiks Ls ta tie e end of ta tie e oregon pioneer trail it con cne montes fir li ie it symbolizes tt tl e final destination of in in s trek t d the world from last to A est for six thou sand sears one may grasp the significance of these th I 1 lest est perhaps by telescoping back from the I 1 pes i es ent to the past and seeing how all from simple beginnings the v ft riter of tl ti is book then follows the arii step by step from tl e missouri to the pacific link ing the past with ith tie present in the en eer er changing panorama of the trail trails s history and as aft A a V A lf za 2 craith comma V it the climax to this stirring picture are these wolds from the lust chapter of the book and cow now look back over the long overland trail from the to the pacific two thousand miles stretching from lewis and clara clars s day roughly to 18 over oner half a century I 1 look back over the longer racial trail d in in the historic past co covering Nering at least two thousand bears ears or s lefore 1 hi hl tore tor ingils on stone or parchment six thousand bears i ears or dougl ly sixty centuries e mav may say it was pagan persecution ers elution as to idol woral ip or it N was as lack of pasturage urage e for his flocks sent abraham treal ing up tl it e I 1 updates rates to palestine about 2000 R C drougel t sent jacob and his twelve t v eive patriarchal tribal al sons trekking to egypt Leo economic persecute perse cut on sent I 1 is descendants under moses wandering Aan dering lack to their promised land for doity deais fighting a way through wll wil verneis raiders sometime about 1 00 to 1100 B C dispersion Ds D sp erslon by war scattered the tribes up through I 1 I 1 aar ss germany and op up by sea through the pillars of hercules G to britain from to B 0 love of adventure 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i i i i i i 1 A proclamation the congress by unanimous vote ha has authorized commemoration of the heroism of the father fathers and mother mothers who traversed the oregon trail to the far wet west on april 10 1830 the first wagon train left st lour louis for oregon pioneering the way for the thousand thousands of men and women who set tied the pacific states on dec 29 1830 ezra meeker was born who carried over into our day clay a personal memory of this historic epoch the oregon trail memorial association which he founded and which includes men and wo ien la in all walks of life in all parts of the country has spon bored the movement to observe the period from april 10 to dec 29 of this year as the covered wagon centennial to recall the national significance of this centenary of the great westward t da do wh ch established american civilization across a continent therefore 1 I herbert hoover president of the united states do call upon our peo pie to employ this fitting occasion to corn com me the lives and deeds of the heroic pioneers she won and held the west in witness whereof I 1 have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the united I 1 states to be affixed dene at the city of wash agton this aist day of re bruvry in the year of our lord 1030 ard of the independence of the un tej st ss es of america the si signed ned HERBERT HOOVER 1 H 4 i H H H 11 H 1 l H 14 H 1 1 1 1 1 1 H M M 1 and determination for religious freedom sent the old sea viavi navigators acors from columbus to cartler cartier and hudson across the billowing atlantic in ships not so large as many a sailing yacht from 1492 to 1535 and 1610 we may explain that it was vas purely from trade motives the fur traders ed up the great lakes and down the ohio from 1660 to 1800 we may add it was the same lure of gain drew mis bourl and new york and baltimore traders to the foitl ills of the rot isles it was hard times from 1837 to 1857 forced men in a fever across the down to the pacific the fact remains the great racial move ment had gone round the world in a complete circle and the ent in spite of human mo tives low or I 1 agh had I 1 een a spiral up from the lower level of humai ity as a hunting and hunted animal to a spiritual rel irth both as to vision and daily living we ive may give the human motive any name behind the motive was a something greater than the races moved moed some call that something greater X some call it Y some call it Z borne some call it destiny some call it god his ills dominion had extended from ti tie e rh rivers ers to the ends of the earth As the culmination of that movement the over land arail stands without a parallel in racial his tory and that is why it is held in honor today so the oregon trail has an international signify cance as well as a strictly national one it Is probable that many americana americans do not even realize its natif tal significance TJ in view of the call for a nationwide observance Nance of the covered wagon centennial this year a statement by dr howard R driggs of new york lork university dent of the oregon ore on trail memorial association Is especially interesting to americans in parts of the country other than the territory which the trail traversed he ile sas we are prone to think of the old overland trail as a western trail it is no western trail at all except geographically historically it Is an eastern trail it was discovered and worn deep by Easterners who went nent west the west kiy I 1 remind iou ou Is simply the transplanted tran splinted east it is more it Is in a very real sense the blended north and south they sing a son song out av here the west begins frankly I 1 do not know where it begins but I 1 do know where it began it began on tl e shores of the atlantic the pathfinders who mapped and charted our far west came from every state east of the father of waters these heroes may I 1 repeat were native sons of all our older states I 1 isten to the names of just a few of tl cm em capt robert gray who by dis levering covering the columbia gave us our initial claim to the pacific Nort northwest hvest was a son of old rhode island le lewis als and dark clark the first to lead a band of americans across the continent and jim er vi aho ho as a boy trapper discovered the great salt lake were virginians wilson price hunt who led the Asto Ast nans orialis ove oveil ilant ani and capt zebulon pike of pike s peak fame were sons of new jersey edward ednard robinson wl 0 fighting under daniel boone was shot and scalped and left for dead on the bloody ground was as one of the three lit s who found the south pass the great gateway of the hockles jedediah strong smith the first to dare the great Ameil can desert and dr marcus whitman and his devota devot fed wife who gave their lives to carry christianity beyond the hockles were from old new york lork nat wyeth who built fort rort hill a place of refuge and help for weary eary emigrants emi giants lants to california and oregon was from massachusetts john c fremont the fL fearless arless pathfinder who by a dading stroke won on california was a son of old georgia A full roster of the heroes and hero nes who played significant parts in the winning inning of our debt adds luster to abnery one of the older states of the union t |