Nampa or bust!

This article ran first in the Camas Courier. Thank you to Eric Larson, my editor at the Times-News, who worked on it with me first. I'm happy to report that several wagons have since rejoined Dell, and a few outriders have saddle up, too.

Wagon train down to one wagon, for now

By Amy Ballard

FAIRFIELD — A wagon train that left Montpelier July 9 with six wagons and 10 outriders had shrunk to one man in one wagon when it arrived in Fairfield for a weekend rest.
Wagon master Dell Mangum, the sole remaining member, said Sunday that he hopes former participants will rejoin him farther along the trail.
The wagon train is sponsored by the Oregon-California Trails Association, which will host its 2008 national convention at the Nampa Civic Center Aug. 4-9.
The route Mangum plotted for the wagons follows portions of the original Oregon Trail and the Jeffrey-Goodale Cutoff, which passes near Fairfield.
Mangum, 64, said the group hit trouble in the desert near Craters of the Moon National Monument.
“Some people thought I scheduled extra-long days,” he said. “That’s probably true.”
He added that staying off the main highways made for some unforeseen mileage not reflected in an atlas. “All the twists and turns made for a long day,” he said.
Planners originally hoped for as many as 75 wagons, but Mangum said rising gas prices hindered some people from making the trek to Montpelier to join up.
Camping in the harsh terrain and having to carry water some distance proved hard for some wagon train participants, too. All but Mangum decided to head home to rest their horses and shower.
“There were no hard feelings,” Mangum said. He expects the others to rejoin him in Mountain Home on Wednesday.
There have been many high notes along the road. Boy Scout Troop 77 of Eagle accompanied the wagon train from Arco to Champagne Meadows to earn their 20-mile hike badges. Mangum said seven out of 13 hikers made the full 20 miles.
“It has been great,” he said. “As soon as you get talking to people about the Oregon Trail or the Jeffrey-Goodale Cutoff they get real excited.”
Driving the back roads of central Idaho also gives ample opportunity for thought, Mangum said. Aside from observing the many birds and other wildlife that cross his path, he muses about the pioneers who made the journey before him to pass the time.
“How in the world did they make the trail?” he said he wonders and writes in a journal of the trip. “How did they find the trail in all the rock piles?”
Mangum’s two shire horses pull an updated version of the old covered wagons — complete with rubber tires — that Mangum designed and built.
Several communities along the route held potlucks for wagon train participants. In Fairfield, residents turned out Sunday for a Chamber of Commerce breakfast but were disappointed to learn only one wagon had come in.
The event drew a profit, chamber member Wes Fields said Monday, but the turnout was disappointing.
“If there’d been more wagons I think there would have been more of a turnout,” he said.
Between potlucks, Mangum subsists on sandwiches, canned goods, and fresh apples brought from home or bought along the way.
Despite his determination to finish the course, Mangum admits such journeys are trying.
“I’m not tough enough to have been a pioneer!” he exclaimed.