 The Jackson County, Oregon, 4-H has planned a reunion for the weekend of 13/14 June 2009 in the Jacksonville area, as part of the Jackson County celebration of Oregon's sesquicentennial. The Ezra Meeker Historical Society has been asked to bring the Meeker wagon.
While Ezra Meeker, an 1852 Oregon Trail traveler and the so-called “savior of the Oregon Trail,” cannot be definitely documented as having traveled or marked the Southern or Applegate Road, he spent one quarter of his life preserving and marking the Oregon Trail as he knew it. The Ezra Meeker Historical Society has as its mission preserving our local history and its links to the Oregon Trail.
Prior to his 1906 Old Oregon Trail Monument Expedition, Ezra Meeker rebuilt several wagons out of parts of earlier ones. The actual wagon he took on his expedition is in the Washington State Historical Society Museum; we have the other.
To celebrate the centennial of the Old Oregon Trail Monument expedition, the Ezra Meeker Historical Society and the Oregon California Trails Association (OCTA) sent a joint expedition from Puyallup, Wa, to St Joseph, MO, where our arrival in St Jo coincided with the 2006 OCTA Convention. The expedition traveled the length of the Oregon Trail with 12 people, two oxen and a covered wagon. We stopped at 22 locations where we offered a program featuring the oxen and wagon, and presentations about and "by" Ezra Meeker. These events were viewed by hundreds of people, and many more crowded around our caravan wherever we stopped.
Our group traveling to Jacksonville will be smaller. We will take the wagon, but we will not travel with oxen, although we are always happy to share set-up space with oxen. We have a commitment from an actor who portrays "Ezra Meeker" to travel with us, and we will bring a presentation about Meeker’s efforts to mark the Oregon Trail. Total presentation time, including wagon set-up and tear down would be about three hours
This trip is planned around the need to be in Jacksonville on the weekend of June 13/14, therefore our available days in other places cannot be weekends. With that in mind, we offer for your consideration our program at a few key locations, both coming and going. Certainly, one of those places could be Oregon City, and another might be at the end of the Southern or Applegate Road, near Dallas. We will schedule as many as we can in the time available, first come, first serve.
We are not expensive but neither are we free. We will be happy to stop and perform for a contribution to our gas expenses.
Point of Contact for this project is Andy Anderson, President of the Ezra Meeker Historical Society, 253-845-4502, or historyandy@comcast.net
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