the wagon trails

The wagon trails, Santa Fe, Oregon & California, all started in Independence for about 20 years until Westport was built which is 20 miles further west. For 20 years, the courthouse square was the starting point for all the families heading west, at one point there were 26 blacksmiths hammering away. Imagine the noise! and the mud. You probably knew, but the Santa Fe Trail ran both ways, it was 900 miles and wagons were going both ways, that isn't true of the other two trails, they were only one way @ 2000 miles. There was a wonderful, litlte Frontier Museum here, the only reason I came here, so the boys could read about this history. It had a descriptive story about the Donner Family, sad, the snow arrived early and killed most of the pioneers. Check out below, on the rocking chair story. unbelievable!