Thread by @prchovanec

Ready to depart along the Oregon Trail from its starting point at Independence, Missouri.

For the next two weeks, this will be the route my son and I will follow (with the exception of a short trip tomorrow up to St. Joseph, the other starting point for the Trail).

The county courthouse in Independence, Missouri - the central portion of which was built in 1836 - was the gathering point for wagon trains leaving along the Oregon Trail, which began in 1843.

Independence was the starting point for three trails - to Oregon, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico - because it was the farthest point westward on the Missouri River that could be reached reliably by steamboat.

The Steamboat Arabia Museum in downtown Kansas City displays artifacts recovered from just such a steamboat that snagged a branch and sank a bit further up the Missouri River in 1856.

The Arabia was lost under tons of mud and forgotten as the course of the river shifted, until a local family located and recovered it in 1988.

The wooden stern of the boat remained largely intact, including the rudder.

So were the boilers and steam engine that powered the boat's massive paddle wheel.

Heck, they even found the rogue tree stump that sank that boat in the first place.

But the real treasure they discovered was the boat’s cargo: thousands of everyday items being shipped to the American frontier. Plates, bottles, metalware, hardware, tools, shoes and boots.

Clothing, almost perfectly preserved for over a century. Keys, door knobs, nails. All the commerce that connected the industrializing coast to the Western frontier.

Even 150 year old pickles still in their bottles.

Specialty items like a set of printer's type for a frontier newspaper. Bottles of writing ink for letters back home. Colorful buttons and beads for trade with the Indians. In short, everything you might stock up on when departing in your wagon on Trail west.

The amazing part is, these aren't replicas. They're actual items from the past, almost miraculously preserved. If not for the boat's accident, these articles would have followed the trails west, with the emigrants.

Meanwhile, we're following the Trail on its initial curve to the south, out of Independence.

The Trail passes right beside the Bingham-Waggoner mansion, built in 1852 by the owner of the local flour mill, and later purchased by a local artist famed for his images of the western frontier.

The flour mill itself now houses the National Frontier Trails Museum. Though it is temporarily closed due to COVID, the museum holds the largest archive of letters and diaries written by the emigrants along the Trail.

By wagon, the Oregon Trail took 5-6 months, making 10 or so miles a day. Obviously we can't afford that pace, and our initial wagon ride will only take us the first few miles.

It's worth noting that the wagons on the Oregon Trail were drawn either by oxen or mules, not by horses. We have mules today. Though these hybrids cannot reproduce, they combine the size and strength of horses with the stamina and canny intelligence of donkeys.

Some further miles south of Independence (and now in our car), we pass the Rice-Tremonti Home. Built in 1844, many emigrants reported receiving a warm welcome and fresh food there. The cabin to the right were the slave quarters, as Missouri was a slave state.

Cave Spring Park, a few miles further on, often served as the first day's campsite. When we got there this morning, we were greeted with a summer thunderstorm, so we didn't go venturing to see the spring itself.

But a few miles to the southeast, at the corner of 85th and Manchester, the grass-covered ruts of the Trail were just visible, making their way up this slope through the surrounding vegetation.

And soon, to the south of modern-day Kansas City, we reached the first river crossing, a relatively easy ford across the Blue River. From here, the wagon trains turned west, out of Missouri and into Kansas.

We, however, won't be following the route straight into Kansas, but will head north tomorrow along the Missouri River to St. Joseph, the other starting point of the Oregon Trail - as well as the starting point of the Pony Express.