Barb and Dave's Western Tour: October 2007

The Oregon Trail ended - surprize! - in Oregon, in the Willamette River valley, in the northwest part of the state. This is the End of the Trail Museum.

Intrepid pioneers

Manifest Destiny sounds a bit Politically Incorrect nowadays, but it was one reason for people to go west. The others, mainly, were economic opportunity, wanderlust and just plain excitement.

Here's how they went: You could get to St Louis by rail or steamboat; buy what you needed, and get lots of good advice, find a group to travel with, and start out first thing in the spring.

There were other trails, like the Mormon Trail, which ended in Utah, and the California Trail, which branched off around eastern Idaho.
If you were lucky and energetic, you'd just make it to Oregon, or wherever, by the time winter set in. Had to keep moving, though...

One of the people already there was John McLoughlin, head of the Hudson's Bay Company operations there. He was nicer than he looked - most welcoming and helpful to the new immigrants. This welcoming got him in trouble with the Company, who wanted everybody else to stay out so as not to interfere with their fur trade; eventually he was forced into retirement.

George Abernethy owned a farm nearby. He let folks stay the winter on his farm for free; but he did have the only general store in the area, so he did all right.

On to Portland, Oregon; every city seems to have a Japanese Garden. They claim this is one of the very best. A Zen Garden:

and a lake. The bridges are humped in the middle so that demons can't cross them. (But if they stay on the same side of the bridge, isn't that bad for the people who are on that side?)

A waterfall.

Another small air museum: what with Boeing being out here and all, there was a lot of flying done in the early days. And then, with the Second World War, a lot more.

People could actually fly in this little thing. It's called a Baby Great Lakes, and is not quite 14 feet long. Less than some cars.

Fort Vancouver, where the aforementioned John McLoughlin ran the Hudson Bay Company's operations. They built a fort around their trading post just in case anybody thought about making trouble. Like for instance the Russians, over at Fort Ross.

Some of the various furs they collected. Beaver was the biggest, but otter, bear, mountain lion - they'd take anything.

And weigh them

And compress them in a press

And bind them in a bundle. These, for shipping by sea, weighed about 140 lbs.

And, keep track of all of them. The price they paid, in shillings and pence, multiplied by the number of pelts, equals the total due in pounds, shilling and pence. They didn't need Sudoku to keep their minds busy.

The labor force: They had to grow all their own food, as well as equipping and maintaining the fort.

Local Klickitat Indians did plowing etc, and got 4-8 lb/year in trade goods.

French Canadians and Metis (French-Indian mixed blood) were laborers and got 17-24 pounds.

Hawaiians were good at keeping the pigs; they got about 17 pounds/year.

Scots and Orkney Islanders did various things, They got 30-40 pounds/year.

On to Portland, which is near the mouth of the Columbia. A Chinese Classical Garden, done in cooperation with Portland's sister city of Suzhou.

A lot of the rocks were gotten from Lake Tai, near Suzhu. Note the holes in them:

A Moon gate.

Grand Reception room for important dignitaries

A Scholar's study - also very well done but not as ornate.

This panel indicates a scholar lives here: There's a fan, to indicate he has time to fan himself because he doesn't have to work; paper, a brush, a horsetail.

A scholar's garden should always have a waterfall. This one is called "1000 Ravines in Mist".

In downtown Portland: A Greek restaurant. As I was taking the picture, a girl stopped to tell us how wonderful the restaurant was (we tried it, and it was pretty good). Several times, people volunteered to help us out if we even looked a little undecided. The advice was usually right, too - not always the case in other cities.

Street people. Mostly young; don't know where they spend the night.

Playing hackysack. They were really good.

Paul Revere

Another Paul Revere

Very flexible for a statue.

It turned out that Alaskan Airlines was inaugurating service from Portland to Boston.

There were lots of statues along the streets. Sealions

Otters

Signs: Gentle Dental

Then, the Oregon State Fair, in Salem: The BBQ was pretty good...

A small temporary garden

This is a special class of bonsai called Down Bonsai.

Barb with a decorate-it-yourself pot. Turned out pretty well.

The usual stuff they have at fairs: pigs

Goats

Goats' milk, they informed us, has smaller fat globules than cows' milk, which makes it tolerable for some people who can't drink cows' milk.

Cows: I thought you weren't supposed to be around the rear end of cows and such, in case they kicked...

And some new wrinkles since I grew up back in Ohio: Longhorn cattle

Lllamas

They were selling llama wool blankets - very soft and nice-feeling. The Pendleton people weave the blankets; unfortunately they have to add about 30% sheep wool to make the yarn strong enough for the power looms they use.

Rabbits

And flop-eared rabbits, which are a different breed.

Emus

Dog Agility Trials: On command, the dog has to go througha series of tunnels, ramps, pylons etc, stopping at particular points until told to go on. They say the dogs love it. Pretty good exercise for the owners, too.