Every family's vocabulary includes quips and comments known only to them and of meaning only to them. In Glenn's family, one such quote is "The pioneers did it, why can't we?" uttered by a young sister Gayle who really wanted to go to the cabin at Sand Lake in winter -- despite there being no furnace at the time!
I thought about that comment last Saturday, August 8, when Glenn and I with friends Barry and Dixie Smith drove three hours to Glenn' Ferry, ID and the Three Island State Park. The 24th annual (and advertised as the last to be) reenactment of the pioneers crossing the Snake River was being held.
We planned to partake in the "pioneer breakfast" being served from 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m., so we departed Inkom at 6 o'clock in the morning. Upon arrival around 9:00 a.m. we saw throngs and throngs of people. Got in line for breakfast where the menu started out being scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon and pancakes with beverage . . . deteoriated rapidly due to sell-out crowds to eggs and pancakes . . . and disappeared completely about 10 people in line ahead of us!!
Shut out of breakfast, we turned to the booth selling hamburgers and hot dogs (presumable for lunch), but the lines there were horrendous as well. So, we settled for a piece of homemade pie ($2.00 for a slice of homemade wild berry pie was a steal) and a cup of coffee.
Off to the riverbank to watch the show. The photos here are courtesy of friend Dixie whose camera had a longer focal length and whose position was better.
The volunteer actors came down the Oregon Trail on the opposite bank, and worked their way across the river. This point was probably the most-used Snake River crossing on the entire trail. Three small islands in the middle of the river, low water during late-August and early-September made it the best, if not ideal, place to cross in the trek toward Oregon and California. Due to lack of volunteers and difficulty finding wagons, et cetera, this crossing was promoted as the last reenactment to be held.
Although we got shut out of breakfast, it was a good thing we tried to eat it! Many, many conversations we overheard later indicated the turn out for this 'last' time was so huge that they got tied up in traffic and missed the whole thing!
After, we toured the Oregon Trail Interpretative Center within the state park, stopped at a local vineyard for an art show and had a great lunch at Jaker's in Twin Falls.
The entire venture took nearly 12 hours and 300 round-trip miles of driving; the actual reenactment took 12 minutes. But it was very cool to see how the pioneers braved the Snake River and risked their lives to get across in their journey west.
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