Article 6: Fatal missteps, Part 1: Freak Accidents on the Westering Trailsĭevil’s Gate, near Independence Rock in south-central Wyoming, is a deep, V-shaped cleft cut through a granite ridge by the Sweetwater River.As was common practice, a mother of that party had stirred together a pan of bread dough in the morning and set it to rise in the wagon during the day. On Big Mountain, less than 20 miles from the city, his group overtook a party of “apostates” – former Mormon converts who had abandoned their church and were leaving the Mormon realm. Joel Hills Johnson started along the trail in April 1857, on his way to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Article 5: Mother’s Mortal Mistake: Freak Accidents on the Westering Trails.

That’s what happened to six-year-old Salida Jane Henderson, called “Lettie,” while she camped with her family in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. An overdose causes the victim to stop breathing, lapse into coma, and die. Today it is available in the US only by prescription, but in the 19th century it was an inexpensive patent medicine used to quiet agitated minds, ease fever and pain, and relieve diarrhea. Laudanum is a tincture made from powdered opium, morphine, and codeine.

Article 4: Child’s Play: Freak Accidents on the Westering Trails.

A brilliant bolt splits the air with a deafening crr-ACK, followed by momentary silence and then a violent, crashing boom that makes the living earth tremble. Sunshine dims to darkness as growling, green-black clouds pile overhead, flickering with lightning.

Article 3: Thunder Road: Freak Accidents on the Westering Trailsįirst comes a sudden stillness, then an unexpected cool breeze.

There being no doctor nearby, Bryant reluctantly agreed to examine him. The child, eight or nine years old, survived but desperately needed medical attention. But somewhere along Nebraska’s Platte River, a little boy from another party had gotten his leg crushed under wagon wheels.

Article 2: Trust Me, I’m a Doctor: Freak Accidents on the Westering TrailsĮdwin Bryant, traveling overland to California in 1846, had only briefly studied medicine, and he never claimed to be a physician.

Starving men desperately filled their empty bellies with anything they could chew- rotting livestock lying trailside, boiled bits of leather, and plants, some poisonous. Long before reaching the mines, most companies ran out of food. Lassen’s Cutoff turned out to be 200 miles longer than the established routes, extending the trip by weeks. In 1849, many companies of gold seekers decided to follow the Applegate Trail to a new cutoff, said to be a quicker way to the goldfields.

Article 1: Can I Eat This: Freak Accidents on the Westering Trails.

Sweetwater cool breeze