We spent the late morning and afternoon investigating the historic sites in the Massacre Rocks area.
Ancient Waterfalls
The area is rich in geological history. Devil’s Gate Pass is all that remains of an extinct volcano. Ancient waterfalls that pour water into the Snake River from Lake Bonneville are just across the river from our camping site. Lake Bonneville covered much of what is today the state of Utah. The prehistoric Bonneville Flood shaped the landscape of the area, rolling and polishing huge boulders found throughout the area. For a time the flow was four times that of the Amazon River. It was the second largest flood in the geologic history of earth.
The Oregon Trail parallel the Snake River as the emigrants continued their journey west from American Falls.
Register Rock is home to a huge boulder that holds the signatures of Oregon Trail emigrants who stopped for the night before continuing on their journey.
We woke up at 6:00 AM to a cloudy sky but no rain. We skipped breakfast, made the coach ready for travel, hooked up the Hummer and hit the road for out next stop, Massacre Rocks. North of Salt Lake City, past any rush hour traffic, we had breakfast at the first available rest stop. Then it was on to the Flying J at Snowville, UT just before the Idaho border. Massacre Rocks is only 168 miles from Charlie’s. We arrive just a little past noon. Registered, dump the holding tanks, had lunch and then set up camp. The state park has an old farts half price discount Monday through Thursday so it is $10.61 a night with 50 amps electric and water.
The park is on the Snake River and as you can see, we have bird’s eye view of the Snake.
The name “Massacre Rocks” was coined during the 1920’s, after an Indian skirmish with 2 pioneer emigrant wagon trains on August 9, 1862.
The emigrant traffic on the Oregon Trail was well established by 1862. Most wagon trains were fairly small with only 10 to 15 wagons and a following of extra stock. There were many trains, usually only a few miles apart.
On August 9th in sequential order from Massacre Rocks back to American Falls were the Smart wagon train, the Adams Train and the Kennedy Train. The Smart Train was attacked first just a half a mile east of Massacre Rocks. The Adams Trained was attacked next as the Indians can upon it on way back to their camp. During the 2 attacks 5 white men were killed.
The next morning, August 10th, Captain Kennedy and 35 men started in pursuit of the Indians. They came upon the Indian camp just south of the present Indian Springs Natatorium location. They fought for about 3 miles as Captain Kennedy and his men tried to retreat. Two more of the white men were killed, several wounded and 2 were presumed dead.
This brought the total number of white men killed to 9 including those thought to be dead. Five of the men believed to be buried in the Massacre Rocks area are: A. J. Hunter and Masemo Lepi from the Smart Train; George Adams, Charles Bulwinkell and George Shepherd of the Adams Train.
On August 11th one of the missing men was found at the place of the first skirmish, but farther down the trail lying near a large rock. It is believed that this man was fishing for food when the attack begun on the Smart Train.
Finally, the wounded daughter of Captain Adams died the evening of August 11th and was buried the next morning, thus bringing the total number of emigrants killed to ten. The number of Indian fatalities if any is unknown.
Well we didn't make our scheduled departure from Charlie's today. It rain throughout the night and morning. The new forecast is for partly clouding skies tomorrow with a chance of afternoon thunder showers. There is a cold front coming through and at two o'clock it is still just 57 degrees.
The clouds have lifted somewhat and are starting to breakup. Enough so that the Hill Air Force Base air show is back on. A World War II P51 followed by two fighter jets just flew by. Charlie's is right across the highway from Hill so we will get to see some of the air show again today.
The extra day did give us some extra time to catch up on housekeeping chores both for the coach and the laptops plus we were able to sleep in this morning.
The new plan is to prepare the coach for departure this evening, get up early and hit the road to avoid the morning rush hour traffic. We will top off the fuel tank at the last Flying J 78 miles down the road and have breakfast there. That way we will have sufficient fuel to get us through the back country of Idaho and Montana and to the big city of Missoula, Montana.
We did plan a few extra days on this leg so we will still remain on schedule by reducing our stay by a day at Massacre Rocks.
Hopefully we will have better internet coverage on this leg then we did in southern Utah.
Ryan, our grandson, has graduated and the annual coach maintenance is completed so today was spent grocery shopping, doing the laundry, washing the windows and cleaning the coach in preparation for the next leg of our journey.
The next leg is a scenic loop up through central Idaho, north western Montana and then to eastern Montana & Idaho back to Hill Air Force Base. We will arrive back at Hill in mid July to spend time with our son and his family after his return from Afghanistan tour of duty.
Part of the route will take us along the overland route and camp sites that Lewis and Clark traveled on their expedition including the Bitterroot area that is now the Bitterroot National Forest.
Today was our grandson's graduation. Ryan graduated from Northridge High School with high honors and academies in Auto, Technology,Engineering and Computer Science. Ryan has been accepted at Texas A & M, College Station, Texas.
We arrived at Charlie's Service yesterday around noon. There were quite a few coaches at Charlie's and it took some juggling to get both Nancy & us into the lot.
In the evening we went to Jane's to collect our mail, Ashley and Ryan's laptops for me to work on and to see our new Afghan rug.
Today has been quite busy. I have 3 laptops going at once plus keeping up with the service technician. I am configuring Ryan's new laptop and rebuilding Ashley's laptop from scratch. Ashley is getting Ryan's old laptop and Ryan is getting a new laptop as his graduation present. Of course if Ryan doesn't graduate then he gets to keep his old laptop and Ashley becomes the proud owner of a new laptop.
The plan is to stay here through Saturday night and then continue our travel up through Idaho & Montana and then back to Utah for our son's return from Afghanistan.
Today was a short travel day from Torrey Utah to Nephi, Utah a distance of 146 miles. We refueled at the Flying J in Nephi and will spend the night at an RV Park about a mile from the Flying J. We have 117 miles to go to Charlie's Service in Sunset, Utah. By positioning at Nephi, we can travel through Salt Lake City between the morning and evening rush hours tomorrow.
We did have a windshield incident about half way. An oncoming truck threw a rock that put a combination bull's eye / star break. So this afternoon out came the windshield pro repair kit. It is the first time that I had to use it since our Alaskan trip several years ago.
Wednesday & Thursday we will have the coach annual service done and then Friday is Ryan's graduation day. At least we think he is going to graduate.
ng on their journey.
