[or-roots] Rain

[Cecil Houk]

1846 saw a lot of my ancestors on the Oregon Trail.  Mary Munkers relates
the
weather in an Diego tonight.  FROM:
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~cchouk/oregon_trail/crossing/



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from
CROSSING THE PLAINS IN 1846
AS TOLD BY Mrs. MARY  ELIZABETH MUNKERS ESTES
       Of those long weary months I cannot clearly tell.  I know it was
April when we started and October when we reached the place that was to be
our home in Oregon.  Sometimes we stopped several days in camp where we
found plenty of water and good grazing and while the teams rested and fed
up, the men fixed up the wagons and helped the women wash and prepare food
for the next drive ahead.  Then there were days we toiled over the arid
plains till far into the night to reach the life-giving water that was a
necessity to us and to our trains.  The children of the company walked many
many miles....sometimes I think I walked half of the way to Oregon!  Some
days it was very hard to find fuel enough for our camp fires.  Many a time
our simple meals were cooked over a fire of buffalo chips and sage brush.
The weather did not cause as much trouble.  I recall but one real storm.  It
was on the Platte River in Nebraska.  We were in camp on the bank of the
river when it came on.  The wind blew a hurricane!  Thunder roared and
lightening flashed!  It was a dark as Egypt.  The rain poured like it was
being emptied from buckets.  I will never forget that night!  Every tent was
blown down.  No one was seriously hurt, though a babe was narrowly missed by
a falling tent pole.  The men chained the wagons together to hold them from
being blown into the river.  Our camp belongings were blown helter skelter
over the country around about and our stock was stampeded 'till it took all
the next day to get them rounded up.


  from soggy San Diego