Wednesday, 21st. Descended Big Sandy about 15 miles and again encamped upon it — no grass, had a little rain this evening but not enough to lay the dust.
There’s a little grass in this picture, but you can see that beyond the margins of the river there is no grass at all. Grass was the fuel that powered the wagon train — the travelers would not get far without grass for the animals.
Caption from WyoHistory.org:The Big Sandy ‘is a flat-running stream over a sand bottom,’ former mountain man James Clyman wrote in 1846. Here, the river winds about a mile downstream from the Oregon Trail crossing at present Farson, Wyo. Randy Brown photo.
goldfields 