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           CROSSING THE PLAINS

              DAYS OF '57


  A NARRATIVE OF EARLY EMIGRANT TRAVEL
          TO CALIFORNIA BY THE
             OX-TEAM METHOD

                  BY

          WM. AUDLEY MAXWELL



         COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
          WM AUDLEY MAXWELL



       SUNSET PUBLISHING HOUSE
         SAN FRANCISCO MCMXV



[Illustration: "They started flight" (See page 119.)]




CONTENTS



                                                                  PAGE

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS                                             VI

  FOREWORD                                                         VII

  CHAPTER I. Forsaking the Old, in Quest of the New. First
           Camp. Fording the Platte                                  1

  CHAPTER II. Laramie Fashions and Sioux Etiquette. A Trophy.
           Chimney Rock. A Solitary Emigrant. Jests and Jingles     13

  CHAPTER III. Lost in the Black Hills. Devil's Gate. Why a
           Mountain Sheep Did Not Wink. Green River Ferry           31

  CHAPTER IV. Disquieting Rumors of Redmen. Consolidation for
           Safety. The Poisonous Humboldt                           49

  CHAPTER V. The Holloway Massacre                                  62

  CHAPTER VI. Origin of "Piker." Before the Era of Canned Good
           and Kodaks. Morning Routine. Typical Bivouac.
           Sociability Entrained. The Flooded Camp. Hope Sustains
           Patience                                                 76

  CHAPTER VII. Tangled by a Tornado. Lost the Pace but Kept the
           Cow. Human Oddities. Night Guards. Wolf Serenades.
           Awe of the Wilderness. A Stampede                        97

  CHAPTER VIII. Disaster Overtakes the Wood Family                 116

  CHAPTER IX. Mysterious Visitors. Extra Sentinels. An Anxious
           Night                                                   123

  CHAPTER X. Challenge to Battle                                   133

  CHAPTER XI. Sagebrush Justice                                    144

  CHAPTER XII. Night Travel. Arid Wastes to Limpid Waters          160

  CHAPTER XIII. Into the Settlements. Halt                         170





ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                  PAGE

  "They started flight"                                   Frontispiece

  "Fording the Platte consumed one entire day"                      11

  "Wo-haw-Buck"                                                     14

  "From our coign of vantage we continued to shoot"                 21

  Chimney Rock                                                      22

  "One melody that he sang from the heart"                          27

  "Hauled the delinquent out"                                       30

  "The wagons were lowered through the crevice"                     38

  Bone-writing                                                      57

  "With hand upraised in supplication, yielded to the impulse
  to flee"                                                          67

  Jerry Bush, 1914                                                  72

  Nancy Holloway, 1857                                              74

  The Author, twenty years after                                   100

  A Coyote Serenade                                                109

  "Van Diveer's advantage was slight but sufficient"               136

  "A sip from the barrel cost fifty cents"                         146

  "'Stop,' shouted the Judge"                                      156

  "'Melican man dig gold"                                          173

  Pack-mule route to placer diggings                               175





FOREWORD


Diligent inquiry has failed to disclose the existence of an authentic
and comprehensive narrative of a _pioneer_ journey across the plains.
With the exception of some improbable yarns and disconnected incidents
relating to the earlier experiences, the subject has been treated
mainly from the standpoint of people who traveled westward at a time
when the real hardships and perils of the trip were much less than
those encountered in the fifties.

A very large proportion of the people now residing in the Far West are
descendants of emigrants who came by the precarious means afforded by
ox-team conveyances. For some three-score years the younger
generations have heard from the lips of their ancestors enough of
that wonderful pilgrimage to create among them a widespread demand for
a complete and typical narrative.

This story consists of facts, with the real names of the actors in the
drama. The events, gay, grave and tragic, are according to indelible
recollections of eye-witnesses, including those of


                                                 THE AUTHOR.

  W. A. M.,

    _Ukiah, California, 1915._





CROSSING THE PLAINS

DAYS OF '57




CHAPTER I.

FORSAKING THE OLD IN QUEST OF THE NEW. FIRST CAMP. FORDING THE PLATTE.


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