Thursday, August 13, 2009

Living History










































































































As a girl growing up I was fascinated with all things pioneer, from Little House on the Prairie to the Oregon Trail computer game (ah, the good old days when computers were new and exciting school tools LOL). Honestly I should have taken more advantage of living right in the middle of all the history. Boise was a stop on the Oregon Trail and there are historical markers all over the place. But of course, in the busyness and craziness of modern life you tend to overlook the things that are right under your nose. I happened to randomly hear that this year would be the last time they would reenact the Three Island Crossing river crossing in Glenn's Ferry, Idaho and I thought that we had a parental responsibility to take our kids. It ended up becoming a whole family Saturday outing and a fun time was had by all. We had to get their quite early to make sure we got seats and then there was a lot of waiting around. Luckily it was a very comfortable morning, as opposed to the 90+ temps earlier in the week. Allegra was so excited to get to wear her pioneer girl costume and she was quite a hit. We got to watch several horseback riders and a wagon pulled by two white Percherons cross the river. It was quite a complex process involving first the horses pulling the wagon through the shallower part of the water and then floating the wagon through the deep part (it was atually kind of scary - you could see the horses swimming against the current to get across; of course, being 2009 there was the modern convenience of police on jet skis hidden out of sight in case something happened - it was a safe crossing this year but apparently they've had problems in the past). Afterwards we toured the historical museum and then, after a picnic lunch and huckleberry ice cream we headed towards Bruneau sand dunes. They sure are funny, this great sand hills that are plopped down in the middle of nowhere. The kids absolutely loved them but I still feel like I'm finding sand in the car LOL.

2 comments:

Mom said...

That would have been fun to see, I guess when we come next time we should pay more attention to the historical markers, never really noticed them.......not saying much for being very aware of surroundings, lol!

Dry Land (in search of...) said...

Appreciate your post of "the crossing." My wife and I (retired teachers) were returning from a month in the midwest. On that particular day we decided to check out the Oregon Trail at Glenns Ferry and were immediately caught in bumper to bumper traffic. My wife hopped out of the motorhome and asked the people in front of us if they knew what was going on. They told us and added that they were late so we decided to turn around and come back another day, another trip. Too bad they won't be repeating the crossing though! I discovered your blog quite by accident. While at my travel blog I clicked on "next blog" and there you were.

You may be interested in our daughter's blog at www.reece99.blogspot.com/

Since we are Beaver fans we have visited Boise a number of times and while the outcome of the football games have not always been in our favor we have enjoyed Boise and the BSU fans.In fact we stayed at the hotel with the ice rink, very nice.

Some years ago friends and I did a 500 mile bicycle trip from Boise up into the Sawtooths, over to Idaho Falls, Jackson Hole, the Tetons and Yellowstone. Great country and good history!!!