e current was less swift, but the
shoals were numerous. More than once we were "hung up" on the bar, each
time uncertain how we should get off. No mishap resulted, except once
when a hole was jammed into the scow, and we thought we were "goners"
for sure; but we effected a landing so quickly that we unloaded our
cargo dry.

While I now blame myself for taking such risks, I must admit that I
enjoyed it. I was sustained, no doubt, by high hopes of coming out with
my "pile." But fate or something else was against me, for mining
ventures swept all my gains away "slick as a mitten," as the old phrase
goes. I came out over the rotten ice of the Yukon in April of 1901 to
stay, and to vow I never wanted to see another mine or visit another
mining country.

In two weeks after my arrival home my wife and I celebrated our golden
wedding. There was nothing but a golden welcome home, even if I had not
returned with my pockets filled with gold.

Since I was then past my allotted three score years and ten, it
naturally seemed that my ventures were at an end. But for many of these
years I had been cherishing a dream that I felt must come true to round
out my days most satisfactorily. I longed to go back over the old Oregon
Trail and mark it for all time for the children of the pioneers who
blazed it, and for the world. How that dream was made to come true is
the story to be told in the succeeding part of this book of pioneer
stories.

PART THREE

RETRACING THE OLD OREGON TRAIL

[Illustration: With the development of railroad construction it was
thought that roads would go out of use except for local communication.
But since the advent of motor vehicles, transcontinental highways have
again become of great importance. For many reasons it is highly
desirable that there should be good roads clear across the continent.
Two have been proposed, and in sections meet the requirements of a great
transcontinental highway; but neither is yet completed. One is the
Oregon Highway, which follows the old Oregon Trail. This is the route
over which Ezra Meeker traveled by ox-team in 1906 and on which many
monuments have been erected to commemorate the pioneers of the 1840's
and '50's. The other is the Lincoln Highway, shown by the lighter line
on this map.]

[Illustration: Out on the trail again.]

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A PLAN FOR A MEMORIAL TO THE PIONEERS

THE ox is passing--in fact, has passed. The old-time spinning