{"id":6431,"date":"2017-04-30T16:33:15","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T20:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/?p=6431"},"modified":"2017-04-30T16:33:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T20:33:15","slug":"a-pioneer-story-pioneer-days-part-5-across-the-plains-of-nebraska-to-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/a-pioneer-story-pioneer-days-part-5-across-the-plains-of-nebraska-to-denver\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pioneer Story: Pioneer Days, Part 5: Across the Plains of Nebraska to Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
By J. S. Fillmore (Library of Congress \u2013 Maps Division) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>Before leaving Plattsmouth, the little caravan experienced\u00a0 a terrific storm of wind and hail and rain.\u00a0 The wind felt as if it might overturn the wagons and the hail pelted them as they gripped the flapping ends of the wagon covers.\u00a0 The next morning they finished preparations for the start of their long journey across the plains.\u00a0 \u201cAnd so, with visions of a bleak, sandy desert wherein grew no tree or blade of grass, we started forth\u2026So on we go, following the Platte River, along whose banks we find, greatly to our surprise, abundant grass for the stock, and this was the desert of which we had read so much!\u201d<\/p>\n

After a week or ten days of monotonous travel the small group was joined by a party of 6 young Germans from Minnesota whose carts were quite different from the wagons of the Booth party and which Laura described.\u00a0 She also noted being passed by groups with swifter teams going in the same direction, and then by other groups heading back the way they had come (some without even setting foot in the mining regions of the mountains).<\/p>\n

Signs of Indians began to be sighted, the remains of campfires and pieces of broken equipment left behind.\u00a0 These were discovered to be Potawatomies, a quiet and peaceful tribe, who were very interested in the group\u2019s belongings and the Booth baby (Nettie).\u00a0 Laura noted that they rather enjoyed the novelty of meeting the Indians as a way to break up the monotony of travel, except for one problem.\u00a0 One of the Booth teams of oxen was young and very aware of the approach of any Indians (Laura thought because of their sense of smell but it isn\u2019t clear why she thought this).\u00a0 This young team took more and more dislike to the Indians and \u201cpersisted in plunging and tearing around at such a rate as to make it anything but pleasant to ride behind them.\u201d\u00a0 Blindfolding the animals was not found to help and the group had to pass right by \u201cnot stopping to parlay with these interesting specimens of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next, Laura remembered in the midst of this lonely terrain where they only had themselves and occasionally a small group of Indians, one day they saw a rider coming from afar.\u00a0 This lone rider was galloping as fast as his horse could go.\u00a0 The flap, flap of his saddle bags proclaims this the Pony Express\u201d but to be sure one of the group cried out the question.\u00a0 And \u201cas he rushes by without halting a moment the answer comes back, \u2018Pony Express\u2014six days and a half from San Francisco.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 The slow Booth caravan was said to be still four weeks from the halfway point to San Francisco when they encountered this rider.\u00a0 The Pony Express had recently been established to carry mail, messages, and newspapers from the West Coast to the East (early 1860).\u00a0 Soon afterward Laura notes they came to the location of Ft. Kearney, an old trading post and landmark on the road they were following (marked on the map above).<\/p>\n

As the group moved on from this point they again had a stream of travelers passing them, in both directions.\u00a0 By this time, they were about a week away from Julesburg, another landmark on the road.\u00a0 They hoped to reach it by the Fourth of July.\u00a0 Another brief diversion from the monotonous travel was described as the group of young men from Minnesota began to engage in a family quarrel.\u00a0 They got to the point that each wanted to dissolve the partnership they traveled in and go their own ways.\u00a0 This was not feasible however based on the number of carts and teams they had: there was no way of dividing the animals and if one group bought the other out there would be a party then stranded hundreds of miles from their destination.\u00a0 Finally some of the older men in the caravan were called on to arbitrate and the final solution was to go on as they had until they reached the end of the trip.<\/p>\n

The group reached Juleburg the evening before the Fourth of July.\u00a0 It was decided to celebrate the Fourth with a gun salute, having no fireworks with them and no place to acquire any.\u00a0 They would then travel only a short way and rest the remainder of the day.\u00a0 Taking a day of rest was apparently a topic of discussion among the travelers, some of whom wanted to always press on but the majority of the group appreciated a day to read and write and meditate (certainly Laura must have wanted such a chance).<\/p>\n

On the sixth of July the group again took to the road and continued toward Pike\u2019s Peak and Denver.\u00a0 A few days of travel brought them close enough to finally begin to see the mountains they were traveling toward, and to bring them within a few days of their goal.\u00a0 The Booths began to talk of Denver and speculate about its appearance and to wonder about finding houses.\u00a0 When they reached Denver they were surprised to see how scanty the vegetation was.\u00a0 \u201cAnd now the thot occurs, \u2018What will become of the stock?\u00a0 Where will they find sustenance?\u00a0 They cannot live in a country like this.\u201d\u00a0 The landscape around Denver was dry and barren, reportedly due to a drought.\u00a0 A ranch not far away was found which would take the animals.\u00a0 With no housing immediately found, the Booths left Denver for the outskirts and a little \u201ccity of tents\u201d where they found a place for their own tents.\u00a0 And here we will leave them for now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Denver in 1859
Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before leaving Plattsmouth, the little caravan experienced\u00a0 a terrific storm of wind and hail and rain.\u00a0 The wind felt as if it might overturn the wagons and the hail pelted them as they gripped the flapping ends of the wagon …<\/p>\n

A Pioneer Story: Pioneer Days, Part 5: Across the Plains of Nebraska to Denver<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[362,364,289,366],"class_list":["post-6431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-booth-family","tag-gold-rush","tag-laura-denman-booth","tag-pikes-peak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6431"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6438,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431\/revisions\/6438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}