SOBERING THOUGHTS ON THE OREGON TRAIL

     As the summer tourist season draws to a close, it is amazing how fast time can fly.  It was just yesterday that school was letting out and the high school seniors were graduating.

     Tomorrow is the last day of our full time hours.  We go to winter hours that are reduced and we don't see very many of the traveling public.  

     Our center is on an actual Oregon/California Pioneer Encampment Site, called the Clover Creek Encampment.  We have preserved a portion of the campsite and restored it to the year 1852. 

     On our living history tour guests become a part on a simulated wagon train headed west, guided by a living breathing Wagon Master.  Along their journey they meet people who help them along their way.

     In the Clover Creek Encampment Site, one young newly wed girl of 16, Mr. Carpenter talks about her skills as a seamstress and quilter.  She is saddened to use her quilts as burial shrouds for the dead and dying on the trail.

     I my self is a quilter, and have modern technology such as quilting machines and sewing machines to help me complete my quilts in a timely fashion.  I can not imagine having to bury someone in my quilts!  

     I would be willing to share  my quilts with any one in need, but it would be hard knowing that dirt would be piled upon the quilt or rocks piles upon the quilt.  It would be even harder to see it ripped apart by wild animals devouring the dead.

     We are very lucky today to have the things we have.  We are blessed with many time saving devices.  But do we still give willingly of the things we hold dear to help others? 


www.oregontrailcenter.org