December 20, 2022
This is the Place! There are about 77,000 wild horses, or mustangs, roaming the western US. To control their numbers, the Bureau of Land Management periodically rounds them up into corrals, like this one on the outskirts of Rock Springs. Horses evolved in North America, spreading to Asia and Europe before going extinct here at […]
December 20, 2022
Crossing the Continental Divide. Passing through downtown Casper, Wyoming, early the next morning. Fort Caspar (yes, slightly different spelling than the town) was the migrants’ last stop before departing the North Platte River, which they had been following for over a month. The small military cemetery at Fort Caspar, Wyoming. Fort Caspar originated as a […]
December 20, 2022
Over Scotts Bluff and Into Wyoming. As we arrived in the outskirts of Scottsbluff, we came across the grave of Rebecca Winters. A Mormon emigrant, age 50, she died here in 1852 of cholera. Her husband Hiram chiseled her name into an iron wagon tire, which still stands over her final resting place. Always good […]
December 20, 2022
Following the Platte River. The Platte River is wide and shallow, and looks like it should be easy to cross. But the waters hide deadly quicksand. The Oregon Trail migrants followed the southern bank, while the Mormons and later transcontinental railroad, joining from Omaha, followed the northern bank. More signs of trouble along the Oregon […]
December 20, 2022
Across the Plains to Fort Kearney. We’ve left St. Joseph and are following the Pony Express – and the Oregon Trail – west across the Missouri River into Kansas. The corn fields of northeast Kansas, along the Oregon Trail. Following the Pony Express into Seneca, Kansas. Asking myself if I need crop insurance. Seneca, Kansas. […]
December 20, 2022
On to St. Joseph. Railroad cars beside a grain elevator outside Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City has long been a major transportation hub in the center of the country. Before departing it entirely, we paid a visit to the TWA Museum at the airline’s former corporate headquarters at Charles B. Wheeler Airport just outside of […]
December 20, 2022
Starting out from Independence, Missouri. Ready to depart on the Oregon Trail? In August 2021, this was the route my 11-year-old son followed (with the exception of a short trip up to St. Joseph, the other starting point for the Trail), on a road trip that took two weeks. The county courthouse in Independence, Missouri […]
September 17, 2018
For those of you who’ve followed my #100yearsago tweets, this should be a familiar name: the Isonzo River, scene of repeated, grinding, futile battles between the Italians and Austrians in the First World War. The Isonzo River cuts its way through a steep mountain valley in the Julian Alps to the north, exiting around Gorizia, […]
September 19, 2018
Klagenfurt is the capital of the modern state of Carinthia, in southern Austria. Statue of the 18th Century Austrian Empress Maria Theresa in Klagenfurt, Austria Klagenfurt was founded in 1246 by Bernhard von Spanheim, Duke of Carinthia But the story of Klagenfurt, and Carinthia, goes back much farther in the mists of time. According to […]
September 16, 2018
Before it was transferred to Italy after World War I, Trieste – on the Adriatic Sea – was the main port city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a major center of shipping and commerce, and the self-conscious grandeur the Austrians tried to achieve there is obvious. My hotel in Trieste, the Excelsior, was one […]