In 1906, at the age of seventy-five, Ezra Meeker began a journey east from his home in Puyallup, Washington, to retrace the route of the Oregon Trail over which he had originally traveled in 1852 with his wife and young son. Traveling with a wagon and ox team, he sought to perpetuate the memory of the Old Oregon Trail and honor the pioneers who made it and saved the Old Oregon Country for American rule. During this trip he began placing stone markers on the trail because he feared its story and route were being forgotten. He spoke to numerous school groups and encouraged the raising of funds for monuments honoring the pioneers, and the cities of Parma, Boise, Twin Falls, American Falls, Pocatello, Soda Springs, and Montpelier responded by funding local monuments. In Boise, nearly 1,200 pupils contributed funds and more than 3,000 people attended the dedication of the monument on the Statehouse grounds. Meeker continued past the end of the trail to Washington, D.C., where President Theodore Roosevelt greeted him and pledged support for keeping alive the memory of the pioneers' achievements and values. In 1910, Meeker undertook another journey along the Oregon Trail to accurately map the route used by thousands of emigrants, a task that took nearly two years. In 1921, he traveled the trail again by truck, train, and airplane. In 1926, he founded and became the first president of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, which persuaded Congress to authorize the coinage of six million Oregon Trail Memorial half-dollars to be sold at one dollar apiece, with proceeds to erect additional monuments along the trail. Congress passed the bill and President Calvin Coolidge signed it into law on May 17, 1926. Many local groups in Idaho sold the coin and raised enough money to erect Idaho-shaped stone monuments with a bronze replica of the coin inserted into them, and a number of these monuments still stand in Idaho communities. Meeker's preservation efforts resulted in the identification and preservation of many segments of the Oregon Trail in Idaho as well as related trail sites. When he died at the age of ninety-seven, he was preparing for yet another cross-country trip, still believing that the pioneers, their trail, and their efforts needed further public attention, but the seed had been planted.