Copied from The Life of Miles Goodyear, by Wayne LeRoy Venable, Master of Science Thesis for U of U, 1966. Pg 21-

Pg 21 – CHAPTER III, FORT HALL – When the missionary group prepared to set out once more on their journey, Miles decided to continue with them to Oregon.  All goods found unnecessary or that could be disposed of with small loss were left behind.  The Whitmans left their plow, blacksmith’s tools, and use-less kettles, learning these articles could be purchased at Vancouver from the Hudson’s Bay Company stores. Dr. Whitman was again advised to leave his wagons but persuaded the leaders of the new caravan to allow him to take one.

            Dulin, the man hired by the mission group in the east, elected to stay at the Rendezvous.  A new man was hired to take his place.  He was a negro named Hinds, who being ill, joined the group so Dr. Whitman could give him needed medication.  He proved of little service to the group.^1

            The party departed on July 18, 1836, making ten miles the first day.  The Hudson’s Bay group decided to make only one camp a day and to travel on Sundays, much to [EOP]

                                   1. Drury, op. cit., p. 78

Pg 22 – the disapproval of Narcissa, who found traveling in haste very tiring.^2  Captain Fitzpatrick had made two stops in a day during his voyage with the group and had allowed Sunday to be a day for the people and animals to rest.  They traveled directly south for some sixty miles, skirting the rugged Tetons immediately west of the site of the Rendezvous.  This brought them down the Green River to Ham’s Fork, near present day Kemmerer, Wyoming.  The route was very mountainous, making it difficult to travel with the wagon.  They ascended the steep hills at the head of Ham’s Fork, and traveled down the slopes into Bear River Valley.

            At the crossing of Smith’s Fork, a tributary of the Bear River, Mrs. Whitman became impatient at seeing her husband strain in attempting to take the wagon on.  She writes:

            Husband had a tedious time with the wagon today.  It got stuck in the creek this morning when crossing, and he was obliged to wade considerably in getting it out.  After that, in going between the mountains, on the side of one, so steep that it was difficult for horses to pass, the wagon was upset twice; did not wonder at this at all; it was a greater wonder that it was not turning somersaults continually.  It is not very grateful to my feelings to see him wearing out with such excessive fatigue, as I am obliged to.  He is not as fleshy as he was last winter.  Al the more difficult parts of the way he has walked, in laborious attempts to take the wagon.  Ma knows what my feelings are.^3

                                   2. Ibid., p. 73

                                   3. W. J. Ghent, The Road to Oregon (New York: Longmans Green and Co., 1929), p. 43

Pg 23 – As they reached Soda Springs in present day Idaho, the going got continually worse.  Even the flat lands beside the Bear River proved difficult.  William Gray said of the area: “I have thrice since traveled the same route, and confess I can not see how he did it, notwithstanding I was with him, and know he brought the wagon through.”^4  On August 3, 1836, the party arrived at Fort Hall.^5  The fort was located about twelve miles north of the present city of Pocatello, Idaho, on the south bank of the Snake River.

            Fort Hall, in 1836, was about sixty feet square, encircled by cottonwood logs, about twelve feet tall, set in the ground.  The stores and quarters for the men were located inside the stockade.  The buildings were made of hewed logs, with roofs, chimneys, and fireplaces of mud bricks.  There were no windows, except a square hole in the roof.  The stockade walls contained port holes for rifles in case of a hostile Indian attack.^6  This place was to become Miles Goodyear’s home for the next six years.

            Miles and the missionaries were hospitably entertained by Captain Joseph Thing, one of Wyeth’s men left in charge of the fort.  Dinner consisted of dried buffalo meat, turnips, and fried bread, made of coarse flour and [EOP]

                                   4. Gray, op. cit., p. 131

                                   5. Fort Hall was established by Nathaniel Wyeth in July, 1834, as a trading post.  In 1837, Wyeth sold the fort to the Hudson’s Bay Company.

                                   6. Oregon Pioneer Association, Transactions of the Nineteenth Annual Reunion for 1891 (Portland: A. Anderson and Co., 1893), p. 46

Pg 24 – water mixed, then fried in buffalo grease.  Many vegetables were brought from the garden and used to add a delicacy they had not enjoyed since leaving the states.  Narcissa recorded, “here we have stools to sit on – there [Fort Laramie] we had very comfortable chairs, bottomed with buffalo skin.”^7

            The usual shuffle of goods, and necessary preparation for the next leg of the journey was begun.  Marcus Whitman was again advised to leave his wagon but was unyielding in his desire to continue on to Oregon with it.  The doctor was told he would have to take the wagon apart and pack it if he calculated to get it over the deep, rugged, lava beds and canyons that lay ahead.  This sounded too much for Miles.  He was “determined, if the doctor took his wagon any further, to leave the company.”^8

            Miles probably realized that he was in the center of the mountain country, and that this was the land he had sought.  Captain Thing may have influenced his decision by showing him some hospitality, and may have offered him a job around the fort or a grubstake. To show their appreciation for his help, the missionaries gave him two horses, and the best outfit they could, for his services, and allowed him to remain or go where he might choose.”^9

                                   7. Ibid.

                                   8. Gray, op. cit., p. 121

                                   9. Ibid.

Pg 25 – Gray said Miles was the only member of the party that could be spared from the “crazy undertaking.”  He felt that Miles’s decision was influenced by “the stories he heard about the treatment he might expect, should he reach the lower Columbia.”^10

            Miles’s idea of personal liberty was unlimited.  Restraint and obedience to others were what he chafed under at home.  He was determined to be his own man and try his fortune in the mountains.

            Miles and the missionary party parted company on August 4, 1836.  They had traveled together some twelve hundred miles in ninety-five days, averaging about thirteen miles a day including the time spent at Fort Laramie and at the Rendezvous.

                                   10. Ibid.