Old oregon trail

[sixshot]

The small western town of Soda Springs, Idaho sits right in the middle of the old Oregon Trail. In the 1800's settlers, miners, immigrants, gamblers & thrill seekers traveled west to seek their fortune & the chance to own land. The trip took months & when arriving in Soda Springs, called the Oasis of the West because of the many cool, clear springs in the area, they would stay for several days, resting stock, repairing wagons, buying much needed supplies & sampling the whiskey in the local soloons.
Soda Springs was a wild, dangerous town with robbery & killings taking place almost every night. There were several houses of ill repute scattered throughout the town & the many soiled doves never had to get out of bed to go to work.
After a few years many of the town folk had grown tired of the daily shootings & the government sent the army to Soda Springs to build a fort, they also had to deal with many attacks from the indians. This photo is just west of town by the old site where the fort was built.

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This is one of the last remaining structures located just outside fort Connor, it was an old livery stable.

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On the side of the livery stable was a corral & in the shadows was an old wooden floor with feed boxes mounted on the side of the stable.

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This is a sign about 5 miles from town along the Oregon Trail. A wagon load of settlers were camped here for the night & were attacked by a band of indians, several of the settlers were killed & are buried 1/4 mile south of this sign.

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The mountain in the background is called Soda Point, it used to be called sheep point, the old trappers & buffalo hunters said there were hundreds of bighorn sheep along the rocky cliffs. They were killed out when domestic sheep were brought into the area from disease.
Some of these old settlers were real craftsmen, even after all these years you can see the fit of the hand fitted logs.

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This is my Ruger 327 maggie with a set of my Amboyna Burl stocks.

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Some old machinery behind one of the logs homes built along the Oregon Trail, many hopes & dreams were won & lost here, there are many unmarked graves in the area.

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More to follow later.

Dick

[Olevern]

Great photos and history. thanks
vern

[41 mag fan]

Dick,we got a feller on here thats from Soda Springs also I think.
regardless those are some really cool, neat pics. I love history, and things like these pics just seems to strengthen it.

back when I was 12yrs old, my father took me onto Green Mtn in Wy. There was a trappers cabin way back in the mtn. The trapper had molded limbs and nailed onto the cabin of 1892. Inside was a pair of boots and an old pair of coveralls, hanging on a hook. When touched the turned into dust. There was an old desk, with a drawer, when that had a book in it, the field mice had made into nests over the decades.
I wish I had stayed out there, and not moved back to Il, with my mother.......hindsight is greater than foresight

[TJF1]

Those are some great pictures thanks.

[popper]

At least the yuppies haven't painted it or torn it down. I was near Thermopolis (as a kid) went to pet a baby bison (not good idea) and tripped over a rock stacked grave marker. Left quite an impression on me as a youngster, about the 'wild' west. Gramma went to school in a mud hut, Gramps was an Indian agent. They didn't tell may stories though - wish they had. That huge family bible with all the history got lost someplace. Anyway, Majors had a house in KC, the trail started in Independance, went over westport by the mission school (Shawnee indian) and on through Neb. Think the only history my Gkids will get is the progress of the IPhone. Shame.

[hiram1]

Soda Springs, Idaho.i wonder if the spring is still running there.it was soooooooo cool when i was a kid.and as a kid i just had to drink some of it. lived in rupert for 13 years

[runfiverun]

Dick is from soda also.

there are actually about 10 memebers of the sight that live in soda.
the spring is still there [hooper springs, it's a park now]
the geyser is still there too.
my house used to sit down where the old town was,where the reservoir is now.
but was moved to where it is now in 58'.

just north of town you can still see tracks [ruts] from the wagons and several old homesights from the early settlers [along with some very small cemetary's [15-20 people]
one ghost town was settled by people from iceland. [in about 1858 or so]
and the town of chesterfield has several old buildings they give tours through in the summertime.

[41 mag fan]

RFR,
I knew there was someone on here who showed they were from Soda Springs.

Western history is way to cool. Someday my wife will break out her fortune so we can retire and travel to all the places like Soda Springs and other prominent places that has a history and a story to it.

[Blacksmith]

There is history almost everywhere. In some places you just have to dig deeper to find it.

[Guesser]

I was born in Soda, my aunt still owns the original homestead out NE of town just north of the Trail Canyon. My father owned the whole north side of Rabbit Knoll. The geyser is a great tourist attraction, the natural carbonation in Hooper Spring is not nearly as strong as it was when I was a kid. Soda Springs Idaho has a lot of history. I remember when the saw mill was running and the stock yards shipped thousands of head of sheep and cattle from Soda by UP railroad. I remember sitting at a grade crossing in town watching the passenger trains go by. My favorite store was Stockmans Supply, run by Cobby Rude. Long time ago!!!
Monsanto Chemical Co. wasn't even a vision yet. Times change; fast!!!

[MT Gianni]

Guesser, I worked with Frank Jugelard's daughter for 7 years. Their old place near Trail Canyon was one of the prettiest places on the planet.

[Guesser]

I remember the Jugelard herds of sheep, 1000 in a band that were trailed out of Trail Canyon and in from Rasmussen Valley to be shipped on the train, if I remember right they wintered in Nevada. My dad helped dig, repeat dig, the wells in Dry Valley back in the 30's and then he was a range rider for the Caribou Cattlemans Association two summers when he was in high school. He graduated from Soda Springs High in 1937. Anyone still living in Soda, ask around about Albert Beus or Al Hopkins, or Earl Gunnel. Ask about Wes Maughns gas station and garage on 30 across from the park or Whitehead Ford dealership, or Tipton Motors or Horsley Lumber yard.
Yeah, ask around, the old timers, there's still a few.

[sixshot]

Guesser, I've shot lots of ground squirrels out that way & a fair number of badgers, its some beautiful country, lots of meadows with hundreds & hundreds of cattle grazing. The sheep are on national forest ground & they are still everywhere you go.
The Jugelard place is still there, pretty as ever. NBA player Karl Malone tried pretty hard to buy it & add to his holdings at the Trail Canyon Lodge, but they wouldn't sell. Karl wanted it for hunting rights. Karl eventually sold out.
The new owner of Trail Canyon Lodge is in prison for federal fish & game violations. He'll be there for a while, it was his second offense. A wife & 2 little girls are trying to keep it afloat while he's away.

Dick

[MtGun44]

Lots of history out there.

I live on the other end of the trail. We are located within 50 yds of the old Santa Fe trail,
and the Oregon, California and Santa Fe all ran together here at the beginning, only one
day out of Westport. By the time they had run a hundred miles they started separating
out, but they were pretty much just westward bound here a thousand miles from the coast.

Lots of history out there, some places in KS and WY you can still easily see the old Santa Fe
or Oregon/California (South Pass) trails ruts.

My cabin in southern Colorado is near Ft. Garland, commanded by Kit Carson, mostly still intact
and set up as a tourist attraction. Worth a bit of time if you are in the area.

Bill

[MT Gianni]

Guesser, in Frank Jugelard's latter years he wintered many of his bands on the Arco desert E of Gooding.

The Old wagon tracks are visible from the # 7 tee box @ the golf course. There was a picture shown from there in an old National Geographic in the 80's.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Thanks a lot for the pictures sixshot. I really enjoyed looking at them. I like to visit the remains of old abandonded ettlements but I have to admit, ghost towns more often that not, get me spooked, especially if the wind picks up.

[sixshot]

Many of the sheep men haul their sheep to Rupert for the winter. Roscoe Rich was the last one to trail them all the way from Soda Springs to Rupert, now his son hauls them.
I spent a day with Roscoe a year before he died & I never laughed so hard in my life, he was a life time sheep man & had more stories than Hemingway. He didn't know it but I had my video camera on him all day as we visited his sheep camps north of town, I gave the video to his family, I'm sure they are glad to have it, as he died a short time later.

Dick