On the twenty-third of May the team arrived at St. Joseph, Missouri, a
point where many pioneers had outfitted in early days. While public
sentiment there was in hearty accord with the work of marking the trail,
yet plainly it would be a hard tug to get the people together on a plan
to erect a monument. "Times were very tight to undertake such a work,"
came the response from so many that no organized effort was made.

[Illustration: The ox-team pioneer of 1852 tries the airplane trail in
1921.]

The committee of Congress in charge of the bill appropriating fifty
thousand dollars to mark the trail, by this time had taken action and
had made a favorable report. Such a report was held to be almost
equivalent to the passage of a bill. So, all things considered, the
conclusion was reached to suspend operations, ship the team home, and
for the time being take a rest from the work. I had been out from home
twenty-eight months, lacking but five days; hence it is small wonder
that I concluded to listen to the inner longings to get back to home and
home life. On the twenty-sixth of May I shipped the outfit by rail from
St. Joseph to Portland, Oregon, where I arrived on the sixth day of
June, 1908, and went into camp on the same grounds I had used in March,
1906, on my outward trip.

As I returned home over the Oregon Short Line I crossed the old trail in
many places. This time, however, it was with Dave and Dandy quietly
chewing their cud in the car, while I enjoyed all the luxuries of an
overland train.

I began vividly to realize the wide expanse of country covered, as we
passed first one and then another of the camping places. I was led to
wonder whether or not I should have undertaken the work if I could have
seen the trail stretched out, as I saw it like a panorama from the car
window. I sometimes think not. All of us at times undertake things that
look bigger after completion than they did in our vision of them. We go
into ventures without fully counting the cost. Perhaps that was the
case, to a certain extent, in this venture; the work did look larger
from the car window than from the camp.

Nevertheless, I have no regrets to express or exultation to proclaim.
The trail has not yet been fully or properly marked. We have made a good
beginning, however, and let us hope the end will soon become an
accomplished fact. Monumenting the old Oregon Trail means more than the
mere preservation in memory of that great highway;