Utter Disaster on the Oregon Trail tells the following facts about the greatest emigrant disaster on the Oregon-California Trails. In 1860 on the South Alternate Route of the Oregon Trail in the Snake River Country of present day Idaho and Oregon - a rare instance when Indians not only attempted but maintained a successful attack on encircled emigrant wagons. Attacks on the Utter wagon train and then on the survivors resulted in the greatest loss of life to an emigrant train and to the attacking Indians, of any encounters. Survivors' starvation camp on the Owyhee River and eventual rescue by an army expedition commanded by Captain Frederick T. Dent. Discovery of the Van Ornum massacre- "the bodies gleaming in the moonlight" by a fast-moving dragoon force led by Lieutenant Marcus A. Reno (later with Custer at Little Big Horn). Two year attempt to rescue children held captive by the Shoshoni as the U.S. Army disintegrated at the onset of the Civil War.
218/Softbound/Charts/Illustrations/Maps/Photographs
Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
Book
Nomenclature Sub-Class
Other Documents
Nomenclature Class
Documentary Objects
Nomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication Objects
Search Terms
Trails, Oregon Trail, Indian Interaction, Utter Wagon Train Massacre, Shoshone, Native American
