The Overland Experience

In the mid-1800’s, the vast semi-arid grassland stretching eastward for hundreds of miles was known as the Great American Desert, an unfamiliar and often inhospitable landscape for emigrants bound for Oregon or California. Their diaries recorded both hope for a new life and the hardships of the trail, including dust and fatigue, scarce drinking water and firewood, cholera and smallpox outbreaks, violent thunderstorms, accidents involving wagons and animals, and separation from loved ones. Reaching Scotts Bluff gave travelers a sense of accomplishment because they had crossed the plains and completed the first third of their journey. John H. Clark wrote on May 29, 1852, of widespread sickness on the road, with companies waiting for people to recover or die while passenger trains rarely waited. Near Scotts Bluff in 1853, Phoebe G. Judson wrote that landmarks marked progress and relieved the monotony, like milestones on the journey of life with one fewer left to pass. On July 1, 1853, Thomas Flint wrote of alkali water in pools that harmed sheep, numerous creek and slough crossings, a severe hailstorm, and the inability to build a campfire because the buffalo chips were wet and there was no wood. On May 12, 1854, Sarah Sutton wrote of wind, cold, and rain, difficulty making a good fire, trouble from mixed cattle, and the constant noise of men shouting and cattle bawling and bells rattling.

Gering, Nebraska · United States