WESTWARD HO, BUT EAST FOR US

Oregon, natch, is proud of its pioneer heritage and the stalwarts who survived the grueling six-month wagon train journeys from Missouri.  We headed SE out of Pendleton, through great terrain

 

on our way to Baker City, started in the Gold Rush days of the 1860’s as the “Queen City of the Mines.  It became a cultural oasis in the emptiness of Eastern Oregon, despite also boasting 24-hour saloons, gambling dens, dance halls, and brothels.  There’s an historic district, but frankly, Baker City is just not very photogenic.  Our rv park, however, got right into the swing of things.

The big attraction hereabouts is the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, an interesting place despite the tongue-twister name. 

Loni told me that she’s been fascinated with the pioneer wagon trains since she was a girl.  Who knew?  The Center is a few miles out of town, built on a hill with a commanding view in all directions, and its grounds encompass still-visible evidence of the original wagon route.  In the picture below, there’s a road running slightly upward.  At the left is a dirt pullout.  Just to the right of that is a darker line that descends from the road.  At the bottom of that you can barely see a faint, horizontal, dirt-colored line running smack across the center for a ways, ending at the dirt splotches on the right.  That’s part of the Oregon Trail.  It’s not parallel twin tracks, but rather a swale depression where thousands of wagons rolled in their predecessors’ wheelprints.  They have footpaths (foreground) to get down to the route, but we didn’t want to invest the time (an hour each way) just to see depressed earth up close.  I have a good imagination.

Inside, the center has a bunch of dioramic displays which are typically cheesy,

but they did have excellent displays of photos, maps, journals, artifacts, etc. that told the pioneer story (are they having fun, yet?),

and it definitely was worth the stop.  Outside, they had a wagon circle, which were all replicas except the one broadside on the left in this photo;

 

this one was an original that actually had made the trip.  Amazing that it has survived this long.  The original RV?

That was it for Baker.  Loni’s looking eastward here, down at the road towards our next stop at the Idaho border:  Hell’s Canyon.