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ENLARGE
Wagon Trek 150 project manager Tom Marquette drives his team of mules while sitting with Helen Latimer, right, and Linda Baird as they prepare to depart from Drain Monday morning. They are near the start of a wagon trek from Yoncalla to Independence to celebrate Oregon's sesquicentennial.
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Wagon Trek 150 project manager Tom Marquette harnesses his team of mules while preparing to depart from Drain Monday morning.
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Lacomb resident Tom Marquette sports a belt buckle that reinforces the Oregon 150 theme.
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ENLARGE
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Wagon Trek 150 project manager Tom Marquette drives his team of mules while preparing to depart from Drain Monday morning. They are near the start of a wagon trek from Yoncalla to Independence to celebrate Oregon's 150th birthday.
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DRAIN — Like any other summer traveler, Lacomb resident Tom Marquette awakened Monday morning ready for another day on the scenic roads of Western Oregon. He had things to pack, plans to make, breakfast to eat ... mules to hitch.
OK, so perhaps Marquette's summer travel plans don't include continental breakfasts in the motel lobby and complimentary cable TV. That's because Marquette is hitting the trail in a covered wagon like the pioneers of yore in honor of the state's sesquicentennial celebration.
Marquette and his team started Sunday in Yoncalla, stopped over in Drain Sunday night, and drove to Pass Creek County Park in the Curtin area Monday. The team's ultimate destination is Independence.
Marquette says the trip is in honor of the original pioneers who settled Oregon and the 50th reunion of the “On to Oregon Cavalcade,” which paid homage to the pioneers by journeying from Independence, Mo., to Independence, Ore., in 1959. The 2,000-mile wagon trek took travelers five months to complete.
By contrast, Marquette's Wagon Trek 150! is covering 132 miles in about two weeks. The route will include parts of the historical Territorial Road and sections of the Applegate Trail. Marquette hopes to reach Independence by Aug. 14.
“On the 15th I will be picking up the remaining survivors of the Cavalcade, and we will be parading in Monmouth and Independence,” said Marquette, who has been planning this event for 16 years.
“Most of my ancestors came over in covered wagons one time or another .... I figure since they went to so much trouble to get us all out here that we should celebrate them doing that.”
In the interest of authenticity, Marquette converted a modern carriage into a covered wagon and wears a genuine buckskin outfit he made himself out of two elk and a deer.
Accompanying the seventh-generation Oregonian are Lacomb resident Helen Latimer; Kyle Herron of Albany and his mother, Linda Lu; and volunteer photographer Sapata Fofana-Dura.
Though Marquette is striving for authenticity, he is still taking advantage of such modern conveniences as cell phones, a laptop computer and a portable toilet. The latter amenity is being hauled behind a truck driven by Lacomb resident Helen Latimer, a longtime acquaintance of Marquette's.
“I'm the latrine queen, so I ride in that (pickup) with the air conditioner going in true pioneer spirit,” Latimer joked. “I never would have made it as a pioneer woman ... I'm afraid I would have been one of the graves along the way.”
Herron helps with the team. He met Marquette at a historical demonstration Marquette was giving in Scio, after which Marquette solicited his help on the trip. The 18-year-old said it took some practice to learn how to drive the team.
“It took me a while because I kept getting ‘right' and ‘left' mixed up, ‘cause you have to use ‘Haw' and ‘Gee,'” Herron said.
“Haw” tells the mules to go left, while “Gee” directs the team in the other direction.
Other commands Herron had to master include “Come over,” which tells the team to move just slightly in one direction; “Step,” which tells the mules to step but not to move the wagon; “Come around,” which signals them to make a 90-degree turn; and of course, the all-important “Whoa!'”
The team consists of mules Lizzy, 9, and Leslie, 8. Marquette also brought the mules' mother, a horse named Lily, but Lily trampled a bunch of their gear in the trailer on the Drain to Curtin leg, and kept calling to her kids, which got them all worked up.
“I brought her for a backup if we need her, but she's not worth it,” Marquette said. “They're just calling back and forth, and back and forth, and then the mules think they have to go back to her and she thinks she has to keep calling until they get to her.”
The travelers will cover between 6 and 18 miles a day, depending on the terrain and the distance between towns. Marquette said traffic Monday was fairly heavy on Highway 38, though most drivers were considerate and waited patiently until the wagon team could pull over.
At the end of each hot and dusty day on the trail, Marquette hopes to swap pioneer stories with the locals in each of the towns they visit.
“The public is invited to come and visit us and hear a little bit about Oregon Trail history or Applegate Trail history,” Marquette said. “I could talk for five days and never shut up about it.”
• You can reach reporter Christian Bringhurst at 957-4230 or by e-mail at cbringhurst@nrtoday.com.
OK, so perhaps Marquette's summer travel plans don't include continental breakfasts in the motel lobby and complimentary cable TV. That's because Marquette is hitting the trail in a covered wagon like the pioneers of yore in honor of the state's sesquicentennial celebration.
Marquette and his team started Sunday in Yoncalla, stopped over in Drain Sunday night, and drove to Pass Creek County Park in the Curtin area Monday. The team's ultimate destination is Independence.
Marquette says the trip is in honor of the original pioneers who settled Oregon and the 50th reunion of the “On to Oregon Cavalcade,” which paid homage to the pioneers by journeying from Independence, Mo., to Independence, Ore., in 1959. The 2,000-mile wagon trek took travelers five months to complete.
By contrast, Marquette's Wagon Trek 150! is covering 132 miles in about two weeks. The route will include parts of the historical Territorial Road and sections of the Applegate Trail. Marquette hopes to reach Independence by Aug. 14.
“On the 15th I will be picking up the remaining survivors of the Cavalcade, and we will be parading in Monmouth and Independence,” said Marquette, who has been planning this event for 16 years.
“Most of my ancestors came over in covered wagons one time or another .... I figure since they went to so much trouble to get us all out here that we should celebrate them doing that.”
In the interest of authenticity, Marquette converted a modern carriage into a covered wagon and wears a genuine buckskin outfit he made himself out of two elk and a deer.
Accompanying the seventh-generation Oregonian are Lacomb resident Helen Latimer; Kyle Herron of Albany and his mother, Linda Lu; and volunteer photographer Sapata Fofana-Dura.
Though Marquette is striving for authenticity, he is still taking advantage of such modern conveniences as cell phones, a laptop computer and a portable toilet. The latter amenity is being hauled behind a truck driven by Lacomb resident Helen Latimer, a longtime acquaintance of Marquette's.
“I'm the latrine queen, so I ride in that (pickup) with the air conditioner going in true pioneer spirit,” Latimer joked. “I never would have made it as a pioneer woman ... I'm afraid I would have been one of the graves along the way.”
Herron helps with the team. He met Marquette at a historical demonstration Marquette was giving in Scio, after which Marquette solicited his help on the trip. The 18-year-old said it took some practice to learn how to drive the team.
“It took me a while because I kept getting ‘right' and ‘left' mixed up, ‘cause you have to use ‘Haw' and ‘Gee,'” Herron said.
“Haw” tells the mules to go left, while “Gee” directs the team in the other direction.
Other commands Herron had to master include “Come over,” which tells the team to move just slightly in one direction; “Step,” which tells the mules to step but not to move the wagon; “Come around,” which signals them to make a 90-degree turn; and of course, the all-important “Whoa!'”
The team consists of mules Lizzy, 9, and Leslie, 8. Marquette also brought the mules' mother, a horse named Lily, but Lily trampled a bunch of their gear in the trailer on the Drain to Curtin leg, and kept calling to her kids, which got them all worked up.
“I brought her for a backup if we need her, but she's not worth it,” Marquette said. “They're just calling back and forth, and back and forth, and then the mules think they have to go back to her and she thinks she has to keep calling until they get to her.”
The travelers will cover between 6 and 18 miles a day, depending on the terrain and the distance between towns. Marquette said traffic Monday was fairly heavy on Highway 38, though most drivers were considerate and waited patiently until the wagon team could pull over.
At the end of each hot and dusty day on the trail, Marquette hopes to swap pioneer stories with the locals in each of the towns they visit.
“The public is invited to come and visit us and hear a little bit about Oregon Trail history or Applegate Trail history,” Marquette said. “I could talk for five days and never shut up about it.”
• You can reach reporter Christian Bringhurst at 957-4230 or by e-mail at cbringhurst@nrtoday.com.
