Wagons, Ho!

Three Island Crossing State Park, near Glenn's Ferry, Id. The place where the pioneers crossed The Snake River on the Oregon Trail. There is so much history in this area and is a truly wonderful place to visit. Years ago, they began re-enactments of the pioneers, horses, oxen, and wagons fording the river and we went to that event this year. Watching from the banks along with thousands of other people, I could not possibly imagine what these brave people must have been feeling, let alone what the pioneers must have felt when they came up over the crest of that hill. It was a mixture of fear, disbelief, excitement, and awe at the skill it took to cross that river safely. It was a humbling and amazing experience. I will never forget it. Unfortunately, this was the last year of the re-enactment, so I feel particularly lucky that we were there to witness it.



As we were waiting for things to get started, we saw two men on horseback ride up to the edge of this ridge. They stood there, almost majestically, looking down at the waiting crowd, and then disappeared behind the ridge a few minutes later.

Soon after, we see the wagon and horses come up over the ridge and begin the descent down the trail towards the river.

A few minutes after entering the river, and at this point, they are still able to walk. The water is about thigh-high to the horses. They used the islands as stepping stones to get across.


From the last island to our side of the bank is where the horses actually have to swim and the wagon floats. It takes them down stream a ways before they can regain their footing, at which point, they walk back upstream to the bank. As soon as they reached the bank, cheers from the crowd erupted and there was a collective sigh of relief knowing that the crossing was a success and everybody was safely across. Amazing!!