Pathway to the "Garden of the World"
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 45° 41.680 W 121° 20.572
10T E 629019 N 5061459
This is one of 13 historical markers in a special kiosk, devoted to the history of the Oregon Trail, and located at the Memaloose Park Rest Area on the south side of Interstate Highway 84 about 3.1 miles east of Mosier, Oregon.
Waymark Code: WMG9YJ
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 02/03/2013
Views: 4
Pathway to the "Garden of the World"
Excitement filled the air May 22, 1843 as nearly one thousand Americans left Missouri toward new lives in the Oregon Country. During the next two decades more than 50,000 people emigrated to a land of abundance; a land that Abigail Scott, emigrant of 1852, called the "Garden of the World."
The Oregon Trail was more than two thousand miles through what Riley Root, emigrant of 1848, called "Landscape without soil!" The fragile landscape's ability to sustain life eroded as numbers of emigrants increased and privation, illness and death became constant companions. Emigrants endured an extremely wearisome road and by the time they reached this portion of the trail, with the journey's end in sight, many would soon switch their teams from the wagon to the plow.
We lay last night about 3 miles above the mouth of Big Sandy Creek on the opposite of the river, which was out stopping place. We landed this morning at our destine place and to our great joy found the rest of our company with the mules safely over the Cascade Mountains. We remained here several days to rest and dry out and counsel where to lay our claims and after returning our acknowledgments to that Beneficent Being who alone can preserve through which we have passed, and having all got through this terrible wilderness alive, I bring my journal to a close in the Valley of Willamette.
Henry Allyn
September 6, 1853
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