Baker County is on the Idaho border and a hell of a long ways away. What is famous in Baker County? Baker City is THE most famous place in the county. In most circles. Like the circles not in Baker County. And what sticks with me is Baker City changed its name to Baker and then back to Baker City. And once upon a time there was a job I briefly considered applying for there so I looked at real estate on the web for about a week before deciding that was a step I don't need to make.
I visited the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on a rainy cool day in June. The prior night we got pretty wet from camping in the rain. While that was an unpleasant experience on the whole, being cold and damp sure put the trials and tribulations of those pioneer travelers into perspective. They traveled in all sorts of weather for 6 months with all of their worldly possessions for a land claim in Oregon. Initially the settlers got land in the Portland area but each year they had to travel further south to get to their claim. Crossing rivers with oxen and carriages was a major risk. Carriages overturning, children crushed under the wheels, diseases to take you down were rampant. Kind of puts driving behind a slowpoke in a different category of bad day, don’t it?
The most interesting fact from the interpretive center was very few New Englanders made the trek. They were content at home, I guess.
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