HYSTERICAL JOURNEY TO HISTORIC PLACES

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SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

Woke up this morning to a rather cool and dreary day. A light mist was falling from the clouds and persisted for about 30 miles northward from Cheyenne. The skies remained dark and threatening all day, but did not get serious about rainfall until I returned to within 30 miles of Cheyenne from the eastward on my way back from a sort of loop up through Glendo, Guernsey, Fort Laramie, and Torrington. Breakfast was at Village Inn. I settled on the Low Fat Mediterranean Omelet, with the low fat yogurt and granola sprinkles, and three whole grain pancakes. Hungry again by mid-afternoon, but there was no place to eat anywhere during the 84 mile drive back down Highway 85 from Torrington. Subway was for supper. I had to go pick up a prescription from Walgreens soon as I got back to Cheyenne, and had to go pee real bad, but the damn Walmart had closed their public restrooms for the day. Had to walk down the block and across the street to the Subway to use the restroom, and then decided to have a six inch BMT with provolone on toasted wheat bread with all veggies except lettuce. The lettuce was brown. I got a sack of crunchy Cheetos too, and my fingers got all orange so I wiped them on my pants leg and now my pants are orange too. I visited half a dozen exotic sites today. I broke out a long sleeve shirt for tomorrow. Probably it will be back up into the 90s again. Wyoming is a crazy place.

WESTWARD EXPANSION

The notion, known as Manifest Destiny, that America should extend from sea to shining sea took full sail in 1846 when President James K. Polk took office. To clear the way war was declared on Mexico, the Donnor Party made its hungry way into California, and overland settlement to Oregon began in high earnest. There was talk of setting our northern boundary with Canada at the latitude of 54 degrees and 40 minutes north. It was the southern boundary of the Russian land claims in North America. The British, through the Hudson Bay Company, had established a tenuous hold to much of the Pacific Northwest from Fort Vancouver near the mouth of the Columbia River. Polk did not want to fight the British at the same time we were fighting Mexico so a treaty was negotiated with Britain that set the international boundary with Canada at 49 degrees north. It was a fair compromise. The Mormons had just been kicked out of Missouri and Illinois and were hunkered down on the prairie in Iowa with their new leader Brigham Young. What they wanted was to move into country out west in Mexico where nobody else would ever want to live. Problem was the Mormons were destitute. President Polk agreed to help them on their way by raising a Mormon militia battalion to serve in the Mexican War. The Mormon Battalion donated their entire clothing allowance to Brigham and that supplied the funds for the first small group to head west in 1847. They followed the Oregon Trail up the North Platte and the Sweetwater Rivers and across the Rockies at South Pass then found the Green River and promptly got lost. They did find Jim Bridger’s trading post and he advised them to settle in the Salt Lake Valley, told them how to get there, and suggested that they follow the trail made by the Donnor Party who passed that way in 1846. The route to Salt Lake was found by the intrepid Donnors but somehow became known as the Mormon Trail. The Mormon Battalion was allowed to select their own company officers, there were four of them, and those officers were allowed to bring their plural wives and children. Those four officers had 21 wives and 52 children; the rag tag soldiers all wore civilian clothes because money for their army clothes was sent back to Brigham. The Mormon Battalion went down the well-worn Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico, then down the Rio Grande to Mesilla. From there they stumbled their way westward to San Bernardino Springs and the San Pedro River, then north to the Gila River and down to Yuma. The War with Mexico was about over with by time they arrived in San Diego to do scut work for General Kearny. Gold was discovered in California in 1848 and the Mormon Battalion stayed to get their share of it. When they mustered out of the army they had stopped tithing and Brigham became worried. He sent a man named Egan from Salt Lake across Central Nevada to California to try and find out why the tithes stopped. Egan’s route would eventually become the western part of the Pony Express Trail and later Highway 50. The California Gold Rush took off in 1849 originally following the Oregon Trail to Fort Hall in Idaho and then connecting to the Humboldt River to cross Northern Nevada and over Donnor Pass to Sacramento. From South Pass a couple of shorter routes to California were soon found. One of them connected to the Humboldt from the Bear River, and Lander’s Cut Off came into Northern California in the area of Susanville. The Spanish Trail came through Utah and across the Mohave Desert into Southern California. It was a wintertime route that was pioneered by Jed Smith before he got killed by the Comanche at Wagon Bed Spring. Another route came into California across the Siskiyou Mountains from Oregon. People could also enter California by sea from eastern ports around Cape Horn and plenty of sailors from the China Trade or off of whaling expeditions jumped ship in San Francisco. Jumping ship was so common in San Francisco that the ships were often stranded. New crews were obtained by drugging landsmen from waterfront saloons. When the poor devils woke up they were already at sea on their way to China. The Western United States was populated by hundreds of thousands of settlers who travelled across the country in covered wagons over those immigration routes. During the mid-1850s there arose need for rapid mail service to the west and the Butterfield and the Central Overland stage coach routes were built, to be followed in 1860 by the Pony Express Trail. When the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 most of that covered wagon traffic stopped. The interior of the country was populated through a measure called the Homestead Act that gave 160 acres of free land to those willing to settle and build farms.

FORT LARAMIE

In 1834 the Hudson Bay Company was looking to expand their interests farther inland so they built a trading post on the Snake River in Idaho and called it Fort Hall. A French Canadian named La Ramie then came from Fort Hall to build another post at the confluence of the North Platte River and the Laramie River. Neither post met trade expectations because they were difficult to supply. Hudson Bay sold Fort Hall to the American Fur Company, and William Sublette of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company bought La Ramie’s post and flipped it over to American Fur in 1837. When the California Gold Rush took off it became necessary to protect travel along the California/Oregon/Mormon Trail so the army bought Fort Laramie in 1849 from American Fur. In Wyoming there is a major town called Laramie in Albany County, Cheyenne is in Laramie County, there is a place called Laramie Peak, there is the Laramie River, and there is Fort Laramie. Very few people even know what La Ramie’s first name was or what might have become of him. In any event Fort Laramie was vital to western expansion. It was situated about halfway and provided the needed supplies and wagon repairs so that the settlers could continue their journey west. All five routes passed through it as did the telegraph line. Without Fort Laramie manifest destiny would have stalled out before it got started.

GRATTAN FIGHT

Some Mormons came through Fort Laramie in August of 1854. They were on their way going down to join Brigham Young in the Land of Deseret as they had begun calling Utah. One of those Mormons had an old tired cow that was so footsore that she just could not manage another step and lay herself down beside the trail to go ahead and die. She had walked the hooves completely off her feet. A Sioux by the name of High Forehead found that decrepit old beast and saw that it could not be saved and decided to end her misery by killing her and serving her to his friends as a tasty supper. The Sioux were at Fort Laramie for their annuities, but as usual the promised distribution was being held up by graft and inefficiency. With each passing day the Sioux were becoming more and more displeased. The annuities were offered as compensation for the endless wagon trains that were disrupting the peace and tranquility of the happy hunting grounds. Meat was now scarce upon them where it used to be plentiful. High Forehead was a Miniconjou visiting relatives in the Brule camp lead by Conquering Bear, who was the big cheese among Sioux leaders at the time. Conquering Bear knew that killing the cow was in violation of the annuity agreement made at Horse Creek in 1851. Conquering Bear rode up to Fort Laramie on August 19, the morning after the cow was killed to offer a good horse as restitution for the cow. The Mormons of course held out for more. Fort Laramie was under command of a weak link named LT Hugh Fleming. He was just two years out of West Point and quite inexperienced. When the Mormons declined the offer of the horse Fleming decided to send an even more inexperienced officer named LT John Grattan to the Brule camp to arrest and punish High Forehead. As a godlike army officer with a year of service Grattan was completely full of himself. He gathered up a sergeant, a corporal, a civilian interpreter named Lucien Auguste, 23 privates, 2 musicians and 2 artillery pieces. By the time the party set out both Grattan and Auguste well into their cups and each fed off of the bravado of the other. Red Cloud followed along behind them with a group of Ogallala fighting men to prevent trouble. At the Bear Bordeaux trading post near the Brule camp Conquering Bear again offered restitution for the cow but the offer was again ignored; Grattan and Auguste were still drinking and both of them were mean drunks. The soldiers went into the camp to take High Forehead, but he was a guest in that camp was under their protection. He would not be given up. Both Grattan and Auguste had become abusive and threatening as talks went forward. Grattan ordered a shot fired from one of his cannon and when that failed to intimidate he shot Conquering Bear. That did it. Grattan was killed and Auguste fled for his life to the wagon road but was overtaken and killed along with a private. The soldiers panicked and tried to escape, but every one of them was slaughtered. When his body was recovered Grattan had been shot 24 times. One arrow went completely through his skull. Conquering Bear died that night. Over the next couple of days both the Bordeaux and Chouteau Trading Posts were ransacked and robbed. At Fort Laramie LT Fleming hunkered down and cowered like a rat. He requested that Bear Bordeaux recover the dead soldiers and bury them. The Grattan Massacre was the first of many stones cast by the army at the Sioux until Big Foot’s camp was annihilated by machine gun fire at Wounded Knee in 1890.

PORTUGEE PHILLIPS

Manual Felipe Cardoso was born on April 8, 1832 on the island of Pico in the Portuguese Azores. At the age of 18 he signed on with a whaling ship bound for California. In San Francisco he jumped ship, changed his name to John Phillips, and headed off to the gold fields. For the next 15 years mining broke his heart. On September 14, 1866 Portugee Phillips arrived among a party of 42 other miners at Fort Phil Kearny on the Bozeman Trail. He took a job hauling water to the fort. The Ogallala, Red Cloud, had taken the warpath to close the Bozeman Trail and drive the hated white men out of Montana. Captain Fetterman, as an intrepid and godlike army officer, had been boasting that he could take 80 men and ride through the entire Sioux Nation. On December 21, 1866 Fetterman was ordered to take 86 and ride to the relief of a party of wood cutters who were being attacked nearby, but he was not to let himself get out of sight of the fort. As Fetterman was about to ride out of the gate his commanding officer, COL Carrington, stopped him and once again advised him to maintain line of sight with the fort. If he could not be seen from the fort he could not be reinforced if need be. Fetterman ignored all warnings and against explicit orders arrogantly rode over the ridge. During the time it might take a hungry man to eat his lunch Fetterman’s entire command was massacred by Red Cloud and a thousand angry Sioux. The Fetterman Massacre severely weakened the garrison at Fort Kearny. That night a fierce prairie blizzard blew in and temperatures dropped to sub-zero levels. Portugee Phillips volunteered to carry news of the disaster to the telegraph at Horseshoe Creek Station. He was given a Spencer repeater and a hundred rounds of ammo and in company of Dan Dixon set off for Fort Reno. Portugee rode Carrington’s own blooded hose, Dandy. The two men safely reached Fort Reno on December23rd and were given further dispatches to carry by Col Henry Wessels for delivery Col Innis Palmer at Fort Laramie. They got fresh horses were joined by another rider named Robert Bailey, and started out for Horseshoe Creek Station arriving there at about 10am on Christmas Day. The telegrapher sent Carrington’s dispatches over the wire to Department of the Platte Headquarters in Omaha, and on to army headquarters in Washington. Dixon and Bailey stayed at Horseshoe Creek and Portugee continued on to Fort Laramie alone with the dispatches from Wessels to Palmer. He arrived about 11pm and disrupted the officers Christmas dance. It was a legendary trip of 236 miles during which several horses, including Dandy, were ridden to a frazzle. For their efforts both Portugee and Dixon were paid $300. On January 6 Portugee was given the best horse that was stabled with Troop F of the Second Cavalry and returned to Fort Kearny with the mail. He continued as a mail courier until Fort Kearny was abandoned in 1868 and then moved down to Elk Mountain and began supplying railroad ties to the Union Pacific. When that wore itself out he began hauling freight between Fort Laramie and Fort Fetterman. On December 16, 1870 Portugee married an Indiana girl named Hattie Buck in Cheyenne. They started right in raising children on a hay ranch up on the Chugwater. They sold the ranch in 1878 and moved to Cheyenne where Portugee died from an ailing kidney on November 18, 1883. Hattie buried him at Riverview Cemetery and then died herself 53 years later at the age of 94 in Los Angeles. When they buried her alongside Portugee in 1936 he probably didn’t even recognize her.

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Photos

WINDLASS HILL
This was the steepest place for wagons to get down on the whole immigrant trail. It is much steeper than it looks. Over the years a ravine has formed where there was once just wheel ruts.

OREGON TRAIL RUTS
Thousands of heavy wagons have carved these wheel ruts across a limestone outcrop on the south side of the North Platte River near Guernsey, WY.

COLD STORAGE
Thousands of immigrants passing along the trail have stopped to carve their names at Register Cliff near Guernsey. The trail has survived well into the 1900s. A guy started up a little store at Register Cliff to serve the travelling public. He dug a cave into the cliff for cold storage of fresh produce.

HORSESHOE CREEK STATION
It is a pity that nothing now remains of the Horseshoe Creek Station except this tawdry Mormon sign. The Mormons burned it down, but it was rebuilt by the Central Overland as Headquarters for the Sweetwater Division. Jack Slade enjoyed many jolly times here until he rerouted the stage line through Virginia Dale. It was then an important telegraph outpost.

INDEPENDENCE ROCK
Thousands of immigrants chiseled their names into the granite here. It was a good resting place for them because if they arrived here by 4th of July they had time to avoid being snowed in crossing the Sierras. It is still a Rest Highway along Hwy 287 up near Pathfinder Reservoir.

IMMIGRANTS CAMP
They could get their wagons repaired at the blacksmith shop at Fort Laramie and the immigrants could buy supplies from civilian traders here, but they had to camp on the other side of the river away from interference with the army.

MORMON COW
The landmarks have been obliterated since LT Grattan got his men slaughtered near this spot. The monument is located on the north side of Hwy 57 near Lingle a few miles southeast of Fort Laramie.

PORTUGEE PHILLIPS
This a monument at Fort Laramie that celebrates Portugee's heroic ride. There is another monument to Portugee up at Fort Kearny so this one is dedicated to the horse, Dandy, although Dandy never made it past Fort Reno.

JOHN PHILLIPS
Portugee's grave in Cheyenne. His wife Hattie is buried right beside him. Portugee isn't even his real name. Neither is John,and neither is Phillips. His real name was Manual Cardoso from the Azores.