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The Sagers Go West, part 7

© Mary Trotter Kion

For three long weeks of broiling days and cold nights the Sager children, along with the rest of the wagon train, struggled along the Snake River. Numerous smaller streams cut in from the south and they gouged deep cuts in the baked earth. Each of them had to be carefully crossed which meant that the wagons lurched down one embankment then crept up the opposite one, time after exhausting time. Anyone who could walk, did. Often oxen stopped walking. The plodding beasts could go no further and laid down and died.

Shoes wore thin then fell apart completely, leaving the travelers barefoot. Henry Sager, before his death, had always mended the shoes. Now there was no one to mend them, much less any time to do it. Clothing also wore out.

What food the party had ran dangerously low and was carefully rationed. And hurting the Sager children nearly more than anything, Bossy the cow went dry and stopped producing that form of nourishment. Then the most feared day yet arrived.

After passing through a gap in the cliffs the people could see the trail before them winding down to the Snake River toward the famed and feared Three Island crossing. It was one of the few places the Snake River could be crossed, and here the river widened to a thousand feet of rushing water. But because of the three islands, if a driver was very careful, and extremely lucky, the river could be crossed. And so the crossing began.

Crouched inside the wagon Catherine Sager could hear her brother John yelling, and Doctor Dagon swearing in German. The poor oxen were taking the brunt of both men's anxiety--yes, surely, by now young John Sager could be considered--a man. As Catherine held tight to her younger sisters, Matilda and Louise, she could feel the two-wheeled cart slipping sidewise as it lunged into the swirling river.

Water began to seep rapidly into the cart and Catherine urged her sisters to put their feet into her lap. The water was icy-cold around her own feet as she coaxed her sisters to be brave. Then the water began to drain away. They had reached the first island. But soon the cart was slipping and sliding and water was again pouring into the cart. Then, again, it drained away. The second island had been reached.

The third island was reached safely but here it was necessary to head the cart upstream. The exhausted oxen began to balk, refusing to go further. Brother John's yells became louder, combined with whacks of a stout stick across the flanks of the oxen. Doctor Dagon's German expressions became more intense and expressive. The commotion was such that those inside the cart were surely surprised when the wheels of the cart rolled onto dry ground at last.

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