Transportation
3
From the early 1840s to 1865, the Oregon-California Trail was the most important route for settlers traveling west. Wagon trains camped at the Iowa, Sac and Fox Mission to take advantage of the spring and the blacksmith. In the late 1840s, thousands of fortune seekers bound for the California goldfields followed. In 1854, John Clark wrote, “Here we find a Smith to mend our broken waggon (sic), also we see here a large farm under excellent cultivation with store & schoolhouse where they teach the young indians & learn the old ones how to raise corn. This is a beautiful spot indeed; land rich & rolling, scattered trees, & small groves in the distance. Many fine looking indians here.” The Iowa Point-Fort Leavenworth Trail can be seen on the mission grounds before it joins the St. Joseph Road, a spur of the Oregon-California Trail, and the trails merge a quarter mile to the south.
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