The Awakening of the Desert

o the Wi

ter one cold, drizzly night in the early spring of 1866 by Captain Hill Whitmore, one of a party of six men

ept that of a single kerosene lamp, suspended from the ceiling near the stove; the gentle glow revealed within a small arc on either side of the room the lines of shelving filled with bolts of dry goods, but toward the front and the rear of the long room it was lost in the darkness

the plains with Whitmore the preceding year, and was now arranging to become his partner in a similar venture on a larger scale. Trader and adventurer by instinct, Wilson, as hi

front of the stove, while nervous little Paul Beemer, when not pacing back and forth between the counter

ing planned. Dan also was ever ready to consider any new venture. He had once crossed the plains to Pike's Peak, and had no present vocation.

s the proposition?

iefly stated, the project was to fit out a wagon train with the view of freighting from the Missouri River to the Coast. In the preceding year the

n California had more than once piloted such trains across the wide stretch of plains and mountains to the Pacif

tment of more capital which, if no mishap sh

as a signal for him to follow me, and we leisurely sauntered down into the shadows near the front of the store where, backing up against a counter, we were soon seated together on its top. We both knew, without exchanging a word, that we had some interests in common. Ordinarily, he was a genial and affable companion, but we both remain

and suggested the idea of something new to be discovered. The great American Desert was represented as extending hund

phers in A

pictures fil

blood-curdling, appellations peculiar to the nomenclature of the West, all were perhaps more familiar to the average American schoolboy than were the classic names which have lived through twenty centuries of history. In the imagination of youth, "Smoky Hill Fork," "Devil's Slide," and "Rattlesnake Hills" figured as pretty nearly what such terms naturally suggest. Along the

n would go?" asked Fr

e a harmonious triumvirate; but let's hear more of t

h it would be necessary to make, in view of the fact that no railroad had as

ezer. After we get beyond the Missouri River you will find no white peoples' homes until you strike the Mormon settlement in Utah, so we'll have to take along enough grub to feed us for several months;-of course we ought to kill some game on the way, which will

d, and a great number of travelers had been massacred. That year and the one to be described, are still mentioned in the annals of the West, as "the bloody years on the pl

es for arrows and spearheads in prehistoric Aztalan and in other places, visits to Bad Axe and to other scenes of conflict with Indians had been to me sources of keen delight. Over these battlefields there seemed to rest a halo of glory. They were invested with interest profound as that whi

g such an expedition was there enkindled any burning desire for warfare; it was the fascination of the wild life in prospect that tempted us most powerfully to share the for

uld swoop down upon us, but if I go, I shall feel as if I didn't get my

ehind an ample rock, with the aid of good long-range rifles, we would valiantly defend ourselves a

L

Mexico, and these at times might receive proper attention. Yea, there were some present who even expressed a desire to captur

ison, and had often been called upon by our Government to act as Indian interpreter, was said to be somew

w night" was the word that passed round as we went out

Frees, who had recently returned from the

y decision finally reached after a fu

three bo