Where their lives crossed.

47 people from the story of the trail, born between 1770 and 1840. Some met at a trappers' rendezvous, some at a fort on the Columbia, and one cut an arrowhead out of another's back. Here is each moment, with what came of it and where we found it.

89 moments · 61 meetings in person · every one with a source

The people

Choose one to follow their life

Every moment, in order

    1. 1803

    2. Clarksville, at the Falls of the Ohio

      and

      What happened
      Meriwether Lewis came down the Ohio River and joined William Clark at Clarksville, where Clark had been signing up men for the expedition.
      Why
      That summer Lewis had written to invite his old army friend to share the command, and Clark had answered that he would 'cheerfully join you.'
      What came of it
      On October 26 they set off down the Ohio together, and they led the Corps of Discovery to the Pacific and back by September 1806.

      They met in person. Source: National Park Service

    1. 1804

    2. Fort Mandan, in present-day North Dakota

      , and

      What happened
      At their winter camp beside the Mandan and Hidatsa villages, Lewis and Clark hired the trader Toussaint Charbonneau as an interpreter, and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, joined the expedition with him.
      Why
      Clark wrote that they hired Charbonneau to go with them and take one of his wives to interpret the Shoshone language.
      What came of it
      On February 11, 1805, Lewis wrote that she was 'delivered of a fine boy.' Two months later she set out west with the Corps, carrying her baby.

      They met in person. Source: The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (University of Nebraska)

    1. 1806

    2. St. Louis

      and

      What happened
      In August 1806 William Clark offered to raise and educate Sacagawea's son, Jean Baptiste, whom he called Pomp, and by 1811 the boy was living in St. Louis in Clark's care.
      What we know
      After her death Clark became the guardian of both her children, and he paid for Jean Baptiste's schooling.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Discovering Lewis & Clark

    1. 1812

    2. Fort Astoria

      and

      What happened
      Robert Stuart came to Astoria by sea in 1811 as a partner in John Jacob Astor's fur company, and Marie Dorion arrived overland early in 1812 with the company's overland party.
      What we know
      That June Stuart set out east with news for Astor and crossed South Pass on the way. No record says the two of them met.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Oregon Encyclopedia

    1. 1824

    2. South Pass

      and

      What happened
      Crow people told Jedediah Smith's small party of trappers about a low way over the mountains, and Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick led their men through South Pass.
      What came of it
      Smith's letters to St. Louis made the pass known, and it became the gateway the wagon trains used to cross the Rockies.

      They met in person. Source: National Park Service

    1. 1825

    2. St. Louis and the Rocky Mountains

      , and

      What happened
      James Beckwourth signed on as a free trapper with Jedediah Smith, William Ashley's new partner in the field, and set out west with him.
      What came of it
      He trapped for Smith and his partners until 1829, when he went to live with the Crow.

      They met in person. Source: Missouri Encyclopedia (Dictionary of Missouri Biography)

    1. 1826

    2. The Rocky Mountains

      and

      What happened
      William Sublette, Jedediah Smith and David Jackson bought William Ashley's fur business in the mountains and ran it together as Smith, Jackson and Sublette.
      What came of it
      In 1830 Sublette led the firm's wagons up the Platte to the rendezvous, and that summer the partners sold the business.

      They met in person. Source: Missouri Encyclopedia (Dictionary of Missouri Biography)

    1. 1827

    2. Bear Lake rendezvous, and St. Louis

      and

      What happened
      Back from his journey to California, Jedediah Smith wrote to William Clark, the government's superintendent of Indian affairs in St. Louis, to report on the country he had crossed.
      What we know
      Part of the letter was printed in a St. Louis newspaper that October.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Kansas Historical Society, William Clark Papers

    1. 1828

    2. Fort Vancouver

      and

      What happened
      After most of his men were killed on the Umpqua River, Jedediah Smith reached Fort Vancouver, and John McLoughlin took him in for the winter.
      Why
      Smith and two other survivors had lost their furs and gear in the attack.
      What came of it
      McLoughlin sent a party to recover Smith's furs and gear, and Smith gave him a copy of his map of the West.

      They met in person. Source: Oregon Encyclopedia

    3. The Rocky Mountains

      , and

      What happened
      Joe Meek began his fur-trade years as a greenhorn trapper for the firm of Jedediah Smith, David Jackson and William Sublette.
      What we know
      When the partners sold out in 1830, Meek went on working for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Oregon Encyclopedia

    1. 1830

    2. Wind River rendezvous

      , , and

      What happened
      At the 1830 rendezvous Jedediah Smith and his partners sold their fur business to five trappers, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Jim Bridger among them.
      What came of it
      The new partners named their firm the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. That same summer Smith's firm had brought the first wagons up the Platte to the rendezvous.

      They met in person. Source: National Park Service, Scotts Bluff handbook

    1. 1831

    2. St. Louis

      and

      What happened
      In 1831 four men from the Nez Perce and Flathead peoples came to St. Louis and visited William Clark, who had passed through their country with Lewis more than 25 years before.
      Why
      They had come, church writers reported, to ask about the white men's religion.
      What came of it
      A highly colored account of the visit, printed in a Methodist paper in New York in 1833, stirred the churches, and in 1834 the Methodists sent Jason Lee to Oregon. The same story moved Samuel Parker, who went west with Marcus Whitman the next year.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: National Park Service, Whitman Mission handbook

    1. 1832

    2. From Missouri to the Green River, and on to California

      and

      What happened
      Benjamin Bonneville took Joseph Walker west in 1832 as one of his two lieutenants, and in the summer of 1833 he sent him from the Green River with a party of trappers who went on to California.
      What came of it
      Walker's men crossed the Sierra Nevada that fall and came back east in 1834 by the pass that now carries Walker's name.

      They met in person. Source: WyoHistory

    3. From Independence to Pierre's Hole

      , and

      What happened
      William Sublette's fur caravan took Nathaniel Wyeth's party of New Englanders along from Independence, Missouri, to the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole, and Thomas Fitzpatrick rode out from the mountains to meet the caravan and traveled with it as far as the Sweetwater.
      Why
      Washington Irving wrote that not one of Wyeth's men except their leader 'had ever seen an Indian or handled a rifle.'
      What came of it
      In the battle at Pierre's Hole that July, Sublette was shot in the shoulder and Wyeth fought beside the trappers.

      They met in person. Source: Washington Irving, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville

    4. Fort Vancouver

      and

      What happened
      Nathaniel Wyeth reached Fort Vancouver on October 29, 1832, and wrote that John McLoughlin received him 'with the utmost kindness.'
      Why
      Wyeth had come overland to start a fur and salmon business, and he learned there that his supply ship had been wrecked.
      What came of it
      He spent the winter around the fort and went home in 1833. He came back in 1834 as a rival trader, and in 1837 he sold Fort Hall to McLoughlin's company.

      They met in person. Source: The Correspondence and Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth (1899)

    1. 1833

    2. Bonneville's fort on the Green River

      , , and

      What happened
      Nathaniel Wyeth met Benjamin Bonneville on the upper Snake River and went on to the 1833 rendezvous beside Bonneville's fort on the Green River, where Joseph Walker and Thomas Fitzpatrick were among about 300 traders and trappers.
      Why
      Wyeth wrote in a letter that meeting Bonneville gave him the chance to make up a hunting party jointly with him.
      What came of it
      Instead Bonneville sent Walker west toward California, and Wyeth went east with Bonneville's men and Fitzpatrick's trappers to the Bighorn River, then home by boat to raise money for a second try.

      They met in person. Source: The Correspondence and Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth (1899)

    3. From the Green River to California

      and

      What happened
      Stephen Meek, who had started out as a trapper under Captain Benjamin Bonneville, rode with Joseph Walker's party to California in 1833 and 1834.

      They met in person. Source: Joel Palmer, Journal of Travels, editor's notes (Thwaites, 1906)

    4. Hudson, Ohio

      and

      What happened
      Henry Spalding married Eliza Hart in Hudson, Ohio, where he was a student at Western Reserve College.
      What came of it
      Three years later the couple set out for Oregon as missionaries with Marcus and Narcissa Whitman.

      They met in person. Source: National Park Service

    1. 1834

    2. From Independence to Fort Hall

      and

      What happened
      Jason Lee and his nephew Daniel crossed the plains with Nathaniel Wyeth's trading party in 1834, along with the scientists Thomas Nuttall and John Kirk Townsend.
      What came of it
      At the new Fort Hall that July, Lee led a Protestant burial service for a man from a Hudson's Bay Company party who had been killed in a horse race. A few days later Lee went on ahead with that party.

      They met in person. Source: The Correspondence and Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth (1899)

    3. The Platte River road to the Green River rendezvous

      and

      What happened
      William Sublette passed Nathaniel Wyeth's caravan on the plains in May 1834 and reached that summer's rendezvous two days ahead of him.
      Why
      Wyeth was carrying goods the Rocky Mountain Fur Company had agreed to buy, and the first caravan to arrive would get the trade.
      What came of it
      On the way Sublette left men to build Fort William, the first Fort Laramie, and wrote on Independence Rock the date he got there. When Wyeth reached the rock on June 9, he added his own name.

      They met in person. Source: The Correspondence and Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth (1899)

    4. The rendezvous near Ham's Fork of the Green River

      and

      What happened
      At the 1834 rendezvous the partners of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Thomas Fitzpatrick among them, refused the goods Nathaniel Wyeth had brought for them under contract.
      Why
      The partners said they could not keep the business going and had broken up their company.
      What came of it
      Left with the goods, Wyeth went about 150 miles west to the Snake River and built a post to sell them, Fort Hall.

      They met in person. Source: The Correspondence and Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth (1899)

    5. Fort Vancouver

      and

      What happened
      When Jason Lee reached Fort Vancouver, John McLoughlin persuaded him to build his mission in the Willamette Valley instead of among the Flathead people far inland.
      Why
      McLoughlin thought the interior too dangerous, and several retired company men were already farming in the valley.
      What came of it
      Lee built his mission near present-day Salem that year.

      They met in person. Source: Oregon Encyclopedia

    1. 1835

    2. Bridger's trapping camp, Snake River country

      and

      What happened
      Kit Carson joined Jim Bridger's brigade in 1834 and spent the winter of 1834 to 1835 in his trapping camp.
      What came of it
      When Blackfeet stole the camp's horses in February 1835, Carson was shot through the shoulder and Bridger led thirty men after the raiders. Carson joined Bridger again in the spring of 1838.

      They met in person. Source: Kit Carson's autobiography

    3. Green River rendezvous

      and

      What happened
      At the summer rendezvous of trappers and traders, Marcus Whitman cut a three-inch iron arrowhead out of Jim Bridger's back.
      Why
      Bridger had carried it for three years, since a fight with the Blackfeet. Whitman, a doctor, had come west that year to look for mission sites.
      What came of it
      Whitman went back east from the rendezvous to gather a mission party, and returned the next year with his wife.

      They met in person. Source: Samuel Parker's journal (1838), pp. 80 to 81

    4. Green River rendezvous

      and

      What happened
      Kit Carson and Marcus Whitman were at the same rendezvous, where Whitman's companion Samuel Parker wrote down Carson's duel with a trapper called Shunar.
      What we know
      No record says the two men met. It is a moment when their paths ran through the same small camp in the mountains.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Samuel Parker's journal (1838), pp. 83 to 84

    1. 1836

    2. Angelica, New York

      and

      What happened
      Marcus Whitman and Narcissa Prentiss married on the evening of February 18, 1836, and set out for Oregon the next day.
      What came of it
      They worked side by side at their mission at Waiilatpu until both were killed there in 1847.

      They met in person. Source: HistoryLink

    3. The Platte River road to the Green River rendezvous

      , , , and

      What happened
      The Whitmans and the Spaldings caught up with Thomas Fitzpatrick's fur caravan on May 26, 1836, and traveled under its protection to the rendezvous.
      Why
      Crossing the plains alone was risky, so missionaries went west with the traders' yearly caravan.
      What came of it
      Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding crossed South Pass with the caravan on July 4.

      They met in person. Source: National Park Service, Scotts Bluff handbook

    4. The Continental Divide, at or near South Pass

      , , and

      What happened
      The Whitmans and the Spaldings crossed the Continental Divide together on July 4, 1836, at or near South Pass.
      What came of it
      Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding were the first known white women to cross the Continental Divide.

      They met in person. Source: HistoryLink

    5. Fort Vancouver

      , , , and

      What happened
      John McLoughlin met the Whitmans and the Spaldings at the gate of Fort Vancouver on September 12, 1836.
      Why
      The missionaries needed supplies and somewhere to stay while the men chose the sites for their missions.
      What came of it
      Narcissa and Eliza stayed at the fort for almost eight weeks, then left on November 3 to join their husbands.

      They met in person. Source: HistoryLink

    1. 1840

    2. Lapwai mission, in present-day Idaho

      and

      What happened
      Spalding baptized Old Joseph, leader of the Wallowa band, in 1839, and later baptized his children, among them a son born early in 1840 whom he named Ephraim and who was probably the future Chief Joseph.
      What we know
      Old Joseph later broke with Spalding and took his people home to the Wallowa Valley.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Alvin M. Josephy Jr., Nez Perce Country (University of Idaho Library)

    3. Waiilatpu mission

      , and

      What happened
      On his way to settle in the Willamette Valley, Joe Meek stopped at Waiilatpu and persuaded Narcissa Whitman to take in his little daughter, Helen Mar.
      What came of it
      Helen Mar lived with the Whitmans for seven years. She was very sick with measles when the mission was attacked in November 1847, and she died in captivity soon after.

      They met in person. Source: National Park Service

    1. 1841

    2. From the Kansas River to Soda Springs

      , and

      What happened
      Thomas Fitzpatrick, guiding Father De Smet's missionaries west, led the first emigrant company, John Bidwell among them, as far as Soda Springs.
      Why
      Bidwell wrote that without an old mountaineer along, their meetings with Native people 'would certainly have been disastrous.'
      What came of it
      At Soda Springs the missionaries turned north, and Bidwell's group went on toward California.

      They met in person. Source: John Bidwell, Echoes of the Past

    3. Waiilatpu mission

      , and

      What happened
      Jim Bridger sent his six-year-old daughter, Mary Ann, to live and study with the Whitmans in 1841.
      What we know
      She lived through the attack of November 29, 1847, as a captive, and died in Oregon City a few months after her release.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: National Park Service

    4. Sutter's settlement on the Sacramento River

      and

      What happened
      John Bidwell reached Sutter's settlement on November 28, 1841, and wrote that Sutter received him and his companions 'with open arms.'
      Why
      Sutter had heard that an overland party was somewhere in California and had twice sent men out with food to find them.
      What came of it
      In January 1842 Sutter hired Bidwell, the start of about four years in his service, first at Fort Ross and later at Hock Farm and the fort.

      They met in person. Source: John Bidwell, Echoes of the Past

    1. 1842

    2. A Missouri River steamboat

      and

      What happened
      Kit Carson met John C. Frémont on a steamboat on the Missouri River and was hired to guide his first expedition.
      What came of it
      Carson guided Frémont's expeditions of 1842, 1843 to 1844 and 1845 to 1846, and Frémont's published reports made him famous across the country.

      They met in person. Source: WyoHistory

    3. Fort Laramie

      and

      What happened
      Thomas Fitzpatrick reached Fort Laramie with Jim Bridger, and that year's emigrants hired him to guide them as far as Fort Hall.
      Why
      War parties were out along the road ahead, and the emigrants were afraid to go on alone.
      What came of it
      Frémont, who came through soon after, wrote that he had no doubt the emigrants owed their lives to Fitzpatrick.

      They met in person. Source: Frémont's Report (1845)

    4. Green River

      , and

      What happened
      At the Green River the emigrant company of 1842 split, and when its guide, Thomas Fitzpatrick, stayed with those turning their wagons into pack saddles, Lansford Hastings's wagon group hired Stephen Meek in his place.
      Why
      Fitzpatrick had guided the company from just past Fort Laramie, and Meek had been through the country ahead as far as Fort Hall.
      What came of it
      Hastings's group went on to Fort Hall and Oregon, and he told the story in his Emigrants' Guide of 1845.

      They met in person. Source: Lansford Hastings, The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California (1845)

    5. Oregon

      and

      What happened
      Stephen Meek, Joe Meek's older brother, came to Oregon with the emigrants of 1842, two years after Joe had moved there from the mountains.
      What we know
      Both were known as storytellers, and one of Stephen's tales was of a Rocky Mountain belle whose hair was eighteen feet long.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: H. H. Bancroft, History of Oregon, vol. 1 (1886)

    6. Oregon City

      and

      What happened
      Soon after reaching Oregon, Lansford Hastings went to work as John McLoughlin's agent at Oregon City, handling his dispute over the land at the falls and drawing up deeds for lots in the new town.
      Why
      A Methodist missionary at the falls was challenging McLoughlin's claim to the site.
      What came of it
      In May 1843 Hastings left Oregon at the head of a party bound for California.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: H. H. Bancroft, History of Oregon, vol. 1 (1886)

    7. Oregon City

      and

      What happened
      Stephen Meek was the first person to pick a building lot in Oregon City, the town John McLoughlin was laying out at the falls of the Willamette.
      What we know
      When a Methodist missionary claimed the spot and tried to stop him building, Meek reported it to McLoughlin, adding to the quarrel over who owned the falls.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: H. H. Bancroft, History of Oregon, vol. 1 (1886)

    1. 1843

    2. Big Springs, near the emigrants' starting camp

      and

      What happened
      Peter Burnett met Marcus Whitman at a meeting of the emigrants at Big Springs, where the company adopted its rules for the journey.
      What came of it
      At Fort Hall, Whitman told the doubting families they could take their wagons through, and he piloted them as far as the Grande Ronde.

      They met in person. Source: Peter Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (1880)

    3. The trail west, and later San Francisco

      and

      What happened
      Peter Burnett and Jesse Applegate crossed the plains together with the great emigration of 1843.
      What came of it
      In 1872, nearly 24 years after they had last seen each other, Applegate walked unannounced into the Pacific Bank in San Francisco, and once Burnett recognized his old friend, he wrote, they 'embraced like brothers.'

      They met in person. Source: Peter Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (1880)

    4. The trail west

      and

      What happened
      Marcus Whitman traveled with the emigration of 1843, which included Jesse Applegate's cow column, and from Fort Hall went ahead to mark the wagon route.
      Why
      Whitman was on his way back to his mission and knew the country ahead. He found the emigrants a Cayuse guide, Stickus, for the Blue Mountains.
      What came of it
      Applegate later wrote that no one helped the emigrants of 1843 more than Dr. Whitman.

      They met in person. Source: Jesse Applegate, A Day with the Cow Column in 1843

    5. Sutter's Fort (New Helvetia)

      and

      What happened
      Lansford Hastings's party from Oregon reached John Sutter's settlement of New Helvetia, and Hastings wrote that Sutter gave every one of them all the help in his power.
      What came of it
      Hastings went back east in 1844 to write his guidebook, which praised California and Sutter's welcome to newcomers.

      They met in person. Source: Lansford Hastings, The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California (1845)

    6. St. Vrain's Fort, on the South Platte

      , and

      What happened
      Frémont found Thomas Fitzpatrick and the main party waiting at St. Vrain's Fort on July 23, 1843, together with Kit Carson, who had brought ten mules.
      Why
      Fitzpatrick was the expedition's guide and had charge of its supplies while Frémont scouted ahead with a lighter party.
      What came of it
      Frémont split the party again, and Fitzpatrick took the heavy baggage along the emigrant road to meet him at Fort Hall.

      They met in person. Source: Frémont's Report (1845)

    7. Fort Walla Walla

      and

      What happened
      Frémont found the Applegate party at Fort Walla Walla, building boats to take their families down the Columbia River.
      What came of it
      Near The Dalles the river drowned Jesse's son Edward and his nephew Warren. Frémont wrote the loss into his report, and the Applegates resolved to find a safer road, which they opened in 1846.

      They met in person. Source: Frémont's Report (1845)

    8. Fort Vancouver

      , and

      What happened
      John McLoughlin supplied Frémont's expedition with food, stores and boats at Fort Vancouver.
      Why
      Frémont was refitting for his winter journey home, which took him south and over the Sierra Nevada into California.
      What came of it
      Frémont paid with United States government bills. He also saw the fort giving that year's emigrants food and clothing on credit. One of them, Peter Burnett, had arrived a day or two before him, and McLoughlin and James Douglas advised him to bring his family down and settle in the lower country.

      They met in person. Source: Frémont's Report (1845)

    1. 1844

    2. Sutter's Fort, California

      , , and

      What happened
      John Bidwell first met Frémont when the expedition came down out of the Sierra Nevada to Sutter's Fort on March 6, 1844.
      Why
      Frémont's men were worn out and short of food after crossing the mountains in winter.
      What came of it
      Frémont and Kit Carson had ridden in ahead of the others. The next morning John Sutter sent fresh horses and food back for the men left in the mountains, and later sold Frémont about 60 mules, 25 horses and cattle for meat.

      They met in person. Source: John Bidwell, Echoes of the Past

    3. The Old Spanish Trail, and the Great Basin

      , and

      What happened
      In May 1844, on the Old Spanish Trail, Joseph Walker overtook John C. Frémont's expedition, with Kit Carson among its men, and Frémont made him the guide.
      Why
      Walker had seen signs on the trail that a party of whites was ahead and rode with eight men across the desert to catch up.
      What came of it
      Walker and Carson stayed behind together at Bent's Fort that July. In 1845 Walker guided part of Frémont's next expedition across the Great Basin, with Carson again along.

      They met in person. Source: Frémont's Report (1845)

    4. Fort Vancouver

      and

      What happened
      When De Smet's ship reached Fort Vancouver on August 5, 1844, John McLoughlin and his wife were waiting on the shore to receive him, the new Jesuits and the sisters who had sailed with them.
      What came of it
      The party stayed at the fort for eight days, then went up the Willamette to start a mission.

      They met in person. Source: Canadian Catholic Historical Association, Report 1941-42

    5. Waiilatpu mission

      , and

      What happened
      Captain William Shaw went ahead to the Whitman mission, and when the Sager orphans arrived in their cart he called Narcissa Whitman out to meet them and persuaded Marcus Whitman to keep all seven.
      Why
      The children's dying mother had asked that they not be separated.
      What came of it
      The Whitmans raised them for three years, and Catherine became Narcissa's closest companion in the house.

      They met in person. Source: Catherine Sager Pringle, in S. A. Clarke, Pioneer Days of Oregon History, vol. 2 (1905)

    6. Waiilatpu mission

      and

      What happened
      Jim Bridger's daughter Mary Ann was already living with the Whitmans when the Sager children came, and she and Catherine grew up there together as foster sisters.
      What we know
      Mary Ann was in the kitchen when the mission was attacked on November 29, 1847, and ran around the house to tell the others.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Catherine Sager Pringle, in S. A. Clarke, Pioneer Days of Oregon History, vol. 2 (1905)

    7. Waiilatpu mission

      and

      What happened
      Joe Meek's daughter Helen Mar, whom Narcissa Whitman had raised since she was small, was one of Catherine's foster sisters at Waiilatpu.
      What we know
      Helen, already very sick with measles, died in captivity in December 1847, three days after Catherine's little sister Louisa.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: National Park Service, Whitman Mission handbook

    8. Near Fort Vancouver

      and

      What happened
      George Bush and the Simmons party spent their first winter near Fort Vancouver, where they received help and temporary work from John McLoughlin.
      Why
      Oregon's provisional government had barred Black settlers, and the group would not settle anywhere Bush could not.
      What came of it
      McLoughlin also gave them a letter of introduction to the company's post at Nisqually, and in the fall of 1845 they moved north to Puget Sound.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: National Park Service

    1. 1845

    2. Near Soldier Creek, just past the Kansas River crossing

      and

      What happened
      Joel Palmer's emigrant company met to elect its officers and chose Stephen Meek as pilot over a rival who wanted $500 in advance.
      Why
      Meek, an old mountaineer who had once been through to Fort Vancouver, offered to guide them for $250, with only $30 paid before they set out.
      What came of it
      Palmer kept to the main road that fall, while about 200 families followed Meek on his cutoff from the Malheur River and were lost for weeks in the desert.

      They met in person. Source: Joel Palmer, Journal of Travels (1847)

    3. Oregon City and Fort Vancouver

      and

      What happened
      Jesse Applegate went to John McLoughlin privately and persuaded him to bring the Hudson's Bay Company into Oregon's provisional government.
      What came of it
      McLoughlin and James Douglas agreed in a letter of August 15, 1845.

      They met in person. Source: Bancroft, History of Oregon, vol. 1

    4. The south side of Mount Hood

      and

      What happened
      Joel Palmer's company caught up with Sam Barlow's seven wagons, and on October 11 Barlow, Palmer and a man named Lock went ahead together to look for a way over the main ridge.
      Why
      Boats down the Columbia from The Dalles were few and costly, and both men hoped to reach the Willamette Valley by land.
      What came of it
      Snow stopped the wagons that fall, but Barlow opened the route as a toll road in 1846.

      They met in person. Source: Joel Palmer, Journal of Travels (1847)

    5. Sutter's Fort, California

      , and

      What happened
      Frémont came back to Sutter's Fort with Kit Carson while John Bidwell was running it, and asked him for mules and supplies.
      What came of it
      By Bidwell's own account the meeting went badly.

      They met in person. Source: John Bidwell, Echoes of the Past

    6. Sutter's Fort

      , and

      What happened
      In January 1846 Lansford Hastings and John Bidwell laid out a town for John Sutter on the Sacramento River, a few miles below the mouth of the American River, and called it Sutterville.
      Why
      Hastings had ridden into Sutter's Fort on Christmas Day 1845, and Sutter kept his party there through the winter.
      What came of it
      Sutterville never grew, and after the gold discovery Sacramento City, laid out in 1849 nearer the fort, took its place.

      They met in person. Source: John Bidwell, Echoes of the Past

    1. 1846

    2. Tualatin Plains

      and

      What happened
      Peter Burnett, who farmed on the Tualatin Plains in the 1840s, called Joe Meek 'my neighbor and friend.'
      What came of it
      Burnett remembered Meek as 'a most genial, kind, and brave spirit' who liked to stretch his mountain stories.

      They met in person. Source: Peter Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (1880)

    3. Springfield, Illinois

      , and

      What happened
      The Reed family and the families of George and Jacob Donner left Springfield together in mid-April 1846, bound for California.
      What came of it
      On July 20, at the Little Sandy River, the company that chose the Hastings Cutoff elected George Donner its captain, and it has carried the Donner name ever since.

      They met in person. Source: Sangamon County History (SangamonLink)

    4. Near Fort Laramie

      and

      What happened
      In The Oregon Trail, Francis Parkman retold a story he heard near Fort Laramie of James Beckwourth leading young Crow warriors against a Blackfoot war party some years before, and he wrote of Beckwourth with open scorn.
      Why
      A Dakota man named Paul Dorion told him the story as they rode to a nearby trading post, and Parkman wrote that so many others confirmed it that he came to believe it.
      What came of it
      No record says the two men ever met, and Parkman noted only that Beckwourth had been in St. Louis the summer before.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Francis Parkman, The Oregon Trail

    5. Washington, D.C., and the Mormon camps near Council Bluffs

      and

      What happened
      In June 1846 Polk agreed that 500 Mormon men could serve in the war with Mexico, and on July 1 an Army officer brought his request to Brigham Young's camps near Council Bluffs.
      Why
      Polk wrote in his diary that he hoped to win the Mormons' loyalty as they moved west and keep them from taking sides against the United States.
      What came of it
      Close to 500 men enlisted, and on July 20 the Mormon Battalion set out for Fort Leavenworth and the long march to California.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: National Park Service, Mormon Pioneer Trail historic resource study

    6. Sonoma and southern California

      and

      What happened
      John Bidwell joined Frémont at Sonoma in July 1846 and took a commission as a second lieutenant in his California Battalion.
      What came of it
      He later served as quartermaster for the force that retook Los Angeles.

      They met in person. Source: John Bidwell, Echoes of the Past

    7. Little Sandy River

      , and

      What happened
      A letter from Lansford Hastings, promising a shorter and better road to California and offering to wait at Fort Bridger to lead them, turned the Donner and Reed families, Tamsen Donner and young Virginia Reed among them, toward his new cutoff.
      Why
      Most of the travelers were delighted, but a fellow emigrant wrote that Tamsen Donner was 'gloomy, sad, and dispirited' that the men would trust a man they knew nothing about.
      What came of it
      Hastings did not wait at the fort, and the cutoff proved more than 100 miles longer than the main trail.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: J. Quinn Thornton, Oregon and California in 1848, vol. 1, pp. 142 to 143

    8. Fort Bridger

      and

      What happened
      James Reed bought fresh cattle from Jim Bridger and his partner, Louis Vasquez, and wrote home that Bridger had told him the new cutoff was 'a fine level road, with plenty of water and grass.'
      What came of it
      Reed learned later that friends had left letters at the fort warning him off the cutoff, and that Vasquez, who wanted the new route traveled, had kept them.

      They met in person. Source: James F. Reed's letter from Fort Bridger, July 31, 1846

    9. The new southern route into Oregon

      and

      What happened
      Past Fort Hall, Tabitha Brown's train was one of three or four that followed Jesse Applegate's new southern road into Oregon.
      What we know
      The road was longer and rougher than promised, and she did not reach Salem until Christmas Day.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: National Park Service

    10. Black Rock, at the south end of the Great Salt Lake

      and

      What happened
      Sent ahead by his company, James Reed caught up with Lansford Hastings at Black Rock, and Hastings rode part of the way back with him and pointed out a way over the Wasatch Mountains from a summit.
      Why
      A note from Hastings, found stuck in a sagebrush near the head of Weber Canyon, had offered to come back and lead them by a shorter and better way than the canyon.
      What came of it
      Hastings went back to the companies he was guiding, and the Donner Party spent most of August cutting a road through the Wasatch along the line Reed had blazed.

      They met in person. Source: James F. Reed's account (1871), reprinted in Pen Pictures from the Garden of the World (1888)

    11. Sutter's Fort

      and

      What happened
      Banished from his company, James Reed reached Sutter's Fort, and Sutter gave him the mules and supplies he asked for to carry back to the emigrants.
      Why
      Reed's wife and children were still with the wagons, and their food was running out.
      What came of it
      Deep snow turned Reed back in the mountains, and at Sutter's suggestion he went on toward San Francisco to raise more help.

      They met in person. Source: Pen Pictures from the Garden of the World (1888), with James Reed's own account

    12. California

      and

      What happened
      Back in California after leading the first wagons over his cutoff, Lansford Hastings served as captain of Company F in Frémont's California Battalion in the war with Mexico.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: H. H. Bancroft, History of California, vol. 3, Pioneer Register (1885)

    13. Winter Quarters, on the Missouri River

      and

      What happened
      On his way back to St. Louis, De Smet stopped at the Mormon camp at Winter Quarters, where Brigham Young and the other church leaders questioned him at length about the Great Basin.
      Why
      The Mormons were planning their move west and wanted to hear from people who knew the country.
      What came of it
      De Smet wrote that the country he described "pleased them greatly," and in July 1847 Young led the first Mormon company into the Salt Lake Valley.

      They met in person. Source: BYU Studies, Finalizing Plans for the Trek West

    1. 1847

    2. Near the head of Bear Valley, Sierra Nevada

      and

      What happened
      Walking out with the first relief party, Virginia Reed, her mother and her brother James met her stepfather leading the second relief party in, after months apart.
      What came of it
      Reed pushed on to the lake camp and brought out his two youngest children, Patty and Thomas, who had been too weak to go with the first party.

      They met in person. Source: Diary of the First Relief and Virginia Reed's letter of May 16, 1847, in Donner Party Diary

    3. Alder Creek camp, Sierra Nevada

      and

      What happened
      When James Reed's relief party reached the Donner camp at Alder Creek, Tamsen Donner would not leave her husband, George, who was too ill to travel.
      What came of it
      Reed's men took out three of Jacob Donner's children and left what food they could spare and a man to care for those who stayed.

      They met in person. Source: James F. Reed's account (1871), reprinted in Pen Pictures from the Garden of the World (1888)

    4. The Mormon Trail

      and

      What happened
      Brigham Young's pioneers had studied Frémont's reports and carried his maps as guides on the way west.
      What we know
      They checked them as they went. On May 20, 1847, William Clayton noted that Frémont's map was not altogether correct.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: National Park Service

    5. The White House

      and

      What happened
      Jessie Benton Frémont brought Kit Carson to meet Polk, and Carson handed him a long letter from Frémont about the quarrel among the American commanders in California.
      What came of it
      Polk talked with Carson again that night, and the next day the Cabinet decided to send him back to California with dispatches.

      They met in person. Source: The Diary of James K. Polk, vol. 3 (1910), pp. 52 to 54

    6. Little Sandy River

      and

      What happened
      Brigham Young's pioneer company met Jim Bridger near the Little Sandy River and camped with him for the night.
      Why
      Young's party wanted to hear about the Salt Lake Valley and the route to it before they went on.
      What came of it
      Less than a month later the company reached the Salt Lake Valley and settled there.

      They met in person. Source: William Clayton's journal

    7. Waiilatpu mission

      and

      What happened
      A few days before the attack on the Whitman mission, Spalding arrived at Waiilatpu with his ten-year-old daughter, who had gone to school there with Catherine and the other children.
      What came of it
      Spalding was away on the Umatilla when the mission was attacked on November 29 and escaped home to Lapwai, while his daughter was held captive with Catherine until the end of December.

      They met in person. Source: Catherine Sager Pringle, in S. A. Clarke, Pioneer Days of Oregon History, vol. 2 (1905)

    1. 1848

    2. Washington, D.C.

      and

      What happened
      Frémont, under arrest for refusing General Kearny's orders in California, called on Polk at the White House in September 1847, and in February 1848 Polk ruled on the court-martial that had found him guilty.
      Why
      Polk wrote that he was not satisfied the evidence showed mutiny, but agreed that Frémont had disobeyed orders.
      What came of it
      Polk approved the sentence of dismissal but cancelled the penalty and restored Frémont to duty, and Frémont turned down the pardon and resigned from the Army.

      They met in person. Source: The Diary of James K. Polk, vol. 3 (1910)

    3. The White House, and Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania

      and

      What happened
      Joe Meek crossed the continent in the winter with a small party, carrying the news of the Whitman killings. On May 26, 1848, as a relative of Polk's wife, Sarah, he called on the president and handed him the Oregon legislature's plea for a territorial government and for protection in the war that had followed.
      What came of it
      The news moved Congress. After the Oregon bill passed in August, Polk made Meek the new territory's marshal and gave him Governor Joseph Lane's commission to carry to Lane in Indiana.

      They met in person. Source: The Diary of James K. Polk, vols. 3 and 4 (1910)

    4. Washington, D.C.

      and

      What happened
      On the day he signed the Oregon bill, Polk appointed Peter Burnett one of the justices of the new territory's supreme court.
      What we know
      Burnett had already gone to the California gold fields, and when his commission reached him there in the spring of 1849 he turned it down because he needed to earn money to pay his debts.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Peter Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (1880)

    5. Sutter's Fort and Sacramento City

      and

      What happened
      Peter Burnett came down from the mines to Sutter's Fort in December 1848 and became lawyer and agent for John Sutter's son, who now held the family's land.
      Why
      Sutter had signed his property over to his son that October to keep one creditor from forcing a ruinous sale.
      What came of it
      Selling lots in the new Sacramento City, Burnett had paid off every debt of Captain Sutter's that he knew of by the middle of August 1849.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Peter Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (1880)

    1. 1851

    2. Horse Creek, near Fort Laramie

      , and

      What happened
      Washakie led a Shoshone delegation of about 80 men to the treaty council near Fort Laramie, and his friend Jim Bridger traveled with them.
      Why
      The United States had called the nations of the plains together to agree on boundaries and on safe passage for the emigrant road.
      What came of it
      The council was Thomas Fitzpatrick's idea. Bridger's old partner in the fur trade, now the Indian agent for the upper Platte, sat on it as one of its two commissioners. An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 people gathered. The Shoshone had not been invited and were not asked to sign.

      They met in person. Source: WyoHistory

    3. Horse Creek, near Fort Laramie

      , and

      What happened
      At the 1851 treaty council, Commissioner David Mitchell asked De Smet and Jim Bridger, with help from the traders, to draw a map of the tribes' homelands, since no one knew the country better.
      Why
      The treaty was meant to set boundaries between the nations of the plains and keep the emigrant road safe.
      What came of it
      Thomas Fitzpatrick, who had guided De Smet west in 1841, sat with him under the center arbor as the council's other commissioner.

      They met in person. Source: WyoHistory

    1. 1852

    2. Utah Territory

      and

      What happened
      In 1852 Washakie appealed to Brigham Young, then governor of Utah Territory and its superintendent of Indian affairs, for land reserved for the Shoshone.
      What we know
      In 1854 Young wrote to Washakie asking to meet him.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: WyoHistory

    3. Bush Prairie, near Olympia

      and

      What happened
      Ezra Meeker wrote that in the hungry winter after the great emigration of 1852, George Bush shared his whole crop with newcomers, telling them to 'return it when you can.'
      What we know
      Meeker used the story to show how wrong it was that the law would not let Bush own his land.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Ezra Meeker, Pioneer Reminiscences of Puget Sound (1905)

    1. 1853

    2. Fort Bridger

      and

      What happened
      In 1853 Brigham Young sent armed men to Fort Bridger, and Bridger fled.
      What we know
      In 1855 the Mormons took over the fort under a sale signed by Bridger's partner, Louis Vasquez. Bridger always said he had been forced out.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: WyoHistory

    3. Big Laurel Hill, on the Barlow Road

      and

      What happened
      The Knights crossed the Cascades on the toll road Sam Barlow had opened in 1846, and on September 10 Amelia wrote that Big Laurel Hill was like a train of wagons and cattle "passing through a crooked chimney."
      What we know
      A week later the family camped near Milwaukie, with their journey almost over.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: Diary of Amelia Stewart Knight, Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association for 1928

    1. 1855

    2. Walla Walla Valley

      and

      What happened
      Fifteen-year-old Joseph rode with his father to the Walla Walla treaty council, where Joel Palmer, Oregon's superintendent of Indian affairs, and Governor Isaac Stevens of Washington Territory asked the tribes of the Columbia Plateau to give up land.
      Why
      Settlers were moving inland, and Palmer and Stevens wanted the tribes on reservations with fixed boundaries.
      What came of it
      The Nez Perce treaty, signed on June 11, kept the Wallowa Valley inside the reservation, until a new treaty in 1863 cut it out.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: HistoryLink

    1. 1866

    2. The Bozeman Trail

      and

      What happened
      In 1866 Jim Bridger guided Army troops up the Bozeman Trail to build the forts that Red Cloud's warriors fought to close.
      Why
      The road, a shortcut to the Montana gold fields that left the Oregon Trail in present-day Wyoming, ran through Lakota hunting grounds, and Red Cloud's followers saw it as a breach of their treaty.
      What came of it
      No record says the two men met. In 1868 the Army gave up the forts.

      Linked, with no recorded meeting. Source: National Park Service, Bighorn Canyon