By 1864, emigrants approaching Boise City and its valley on the Oregon Trail had already traveled a little more than 1,600 miles with another 400 to go, enduring creaking, groaning wagon wheels, thick dust, and the slow progress of oxen. Reaching the river brought the shade of cottonwoods and waters so full of salmon that many travelers marveled at them in their journals. Some, captivated by a river valley they called beautiful in the extreme, remained and became Idaho's pioneers. The wagon wheels carried people and their dreams west, and each passing wheel left both a track and a lasting imprint on this part of the trail and its history.