Author Archives: nancyleek

It’s May 18th, so time to start following John Bidwell’s journal of the adventures of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party: May, Tuesday 18th 1841. Having waited at this place (2 miles W. of Kanzas river) 2 days, and all the Company being … Continue reading →

In five days after my arrival we were ready to start, but no one knew where to go, not even the captain. Finally a man came up, one of the last to arrive, and announced that a company of Catholic … Continue reading →

The adventures of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party didn’t officially start until John Bidwell was elected secretary on May 18th and began keeping his journal. Up until that point we can’t put a date on the various events that led up to … Continue reading →

No one of the party knew anything about mountaineering and scarcely anyone had ever been into the Indian Territory, yet a large majority felt that we were fully competent to go anywhere no matter what they difficulties might be or … Continue reading →

Our ignorance of the route was complete. We knew that California lay west, and that was the extent of our knowledge. Some of the maps consulted, supposed of course to be correct, showed a lake in the vicinity of where … Continue reading →

The Oregon-California Trails Association has just put out a new “This Day in History” video honoring “John Bidwell, Sapling Grove, and the Bidwell-Bartleson Party.” It’s a nice little video, about 5 minutes long. Worth your time. One note on the … Continue reading →

Every day for a week or more, wagons arrived with the same object in view. At last we took steps to see how many had arrived and found our numbers to be sixty-nine. Among those were about fifteen women and … Continue reading →