Between 1840 and 1850, more than 50,000 emigrants traveled west on the Oregon Trail, and at Deadman Pass, then known as Crawford Hill, they faced one of the most difficult stretches through the Blue Mountains. The trail was not a single pair of ruts but often spread across valleys and plains for miles, while in the mountains emigrants searched for shortcuts and easier grades, leaving wagon scars and trenches that still mark the route down this edge of the Blue Mountains. After days on rough, sidling, stony, and crooked roads, emigrants descended toward the Umatilla River, where they camped among valleys filled with Indian ponies and horses. Travel overland to the Pacific Coast had once depended on mountain men, fur traders, missionaries, and hired guides, but by the early 1850s many wagon trains relied on veteran emigrants as pilots or captains and enforced strict discipline that could provoke resentment. Crossings of the Blue Mountains usually came in August, September, and October, bringing hazards from fallen timber early in the season and snow later on, while the steep, difficult road exhausted people, weakened livestock, and left many wagons abandoned. From the brow of the mountain, emigrants could see a broad horizon, the valley below, and the distant snow-capped Cascade Range, even as the dry and dusty Columbia Plateau still lay ahead.