Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosBend photographer Loren Irving works at Summer Lake, one of the areas where John C. Frémont camped in December 1843 en route south.
Photos courtesy Loren Irving
Sights once seen
Bend photographer to share his experiences and photographs after retracing the steps of the historic Frémont Expedition
By David Jasper / The Bulletin
Published: October 24. 2009 4:00AM PST“I’ve read in two different, very well-researched books that almost everyone who came on the Oregon Trail had two things with them,” says Loren Irving, of Bend. “One was the Bible, and the other one was the Frémont map.”
While not a historian per se, Irving just spent nine months engaged in an ambitious history project: “What I’ve done is, I’ve located all his campsites in Oregon,” he says.
Using explorer John C. Frémont’s published journal and coordinates, Irving has retraced, and beautifully photographed, each of the 33 campsites he believes Frémont used during his 34-day mapping trek from The Dalles south through Oregon on his second expedition in 1843, which took him directly through Central Oregon.
Irving, 65, will offer a PowerPoint presentation of his photos coupled with audio portions of Frémont’s journal entries at today’s John C. Frémont in Oregon in 1843 Symposium, which starts this morning at St. Helens Hall, part of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bend. The sold-out event is being sponsored by the Des Chutes Historical Museum.
Irving and experts such as Bob Graham, Dave Talbot, Ellen Waterston and Jarold Ramsey will offer their takes on Frémont’s life before, during and after his second expedition, as well as those who traveled with him: Kit Carson, Billy Chinook, Broken Hand Fitzpatrick and cartographer Charles Preuss, among others.
In his time, Frémont became internationally renowned as “The Pathfinder,” logging some 20,000 miles during seven scientific expeditions, according to Graham’s Web site, www.longcamp.com.
Frémont’s second expedition was an effort to map the Oregon Trail, the site explains: “Thirty-one year old Second Lieutenant John Charles Frémont’s second Topographical Expedition left Missouri in June of 1843, and, mapping the Oregon Trail, had traveled to Fort Vancouver. Intending to return to Missouri through the Southwest, he then turned south through Oregon and Western Nevada.”
The U.S. government was “really interested in getting their feet on the ground in the western part of the country. During this period of time, the idea of sea to shining sea sort of came out,” Irving says. “In order to do that, they needed to help people figure out how to get out to the Oregon Territory.”
Irving calls Preuss’ map from the trip “incredibly accurate.”
A copy of the map — as well as a Mylar overlay of the Oregon portion that fits over a modern-day map of the state — are perched in his cabin office, a dreamy, stove-heated space outside his home overlooking the Deschutes River, where earlier this week, Irving sat and discussed his work and his parallel travels.
“Because I live on the river, I’ve always wondered if (Frémont) came right by here. Wouldn’t it be fun to know?”
When he was asked by the museum if he had any photos, “I told them I’d be happy to take a shot at trying to locate these (sites),” he says. “I just got all excited.”
At his own expense, Irving, who made his living as a lumber wholesaler and has had a second career in landscape photography, traveled up and down the eastern flank of the Cascades.
“I think John C. Frémont, if he’s looking down, would be pretty amused that I put close to 3,000 miles on my pickup, just to see where he camped coming through here.”
There were 25 men on Frémont’s journey south through Central Oregon. It was no small party: 104 horses and mules and a small herd of cattle. The group departed The Dalles on Nov. 25, 1843. During the trip south, Frémont also brought along a three-man German artillery squad to operate the howitzer, a small cannon for defense.
Each day of Frémont’s trek, the group would break camp around 10 a.m. Irving guesses that the expedition traveled about 3 mph and covered 14-18 miles a day.
Cartographer Preuss “was kind of a character. He was really a city guy. He was not a camper guy, and believe me, this was quite a camp deal,” Irving says, chuckling.
Irving spent a day or two on the ground at each site in Oregon. He’d have liked to visit each one at the same time of year as Frémont, but got started on the project in the spring.
Part of the mystery of Frémont’s history here comes about because the longitudes Frémont reported were off by 15 miles, Irving explains.
Further, Frémont wasn’t able to record daily observations. But, says Irving, “wherever that latitude line crosses, all we have to do, as someone searching for it, is to locate whether it was on a stream” using Frémont’s journals, he says.
On Dec. 4, 1843, they camped at what is present day Shevlin Park. Though Frémont Meadow is to the rear of the Bend park, Irving has a hunch the group wouldn’t have traveled too far back, preferring instead to camp closer to where Aspen Hall is now located.
“And they tried to make a reservation at Aspen Hall, but parks and rec was booked out on weddings,” he jokes.
Wherever they were along the creek, the group witnessed a lunar rainbow, according to Frémont’s journal.
“This stuff down around Summer Lake is so interesting,” Irving enthuses. It was Frémont who named Summer Lake, in today’s Lake County, after coming upon its green banks after an arduous slog in several feet of snow up Winter Ridge, which he also named, explains Irving.
Frémont’s expedition had traveled “up this gentle slope, in ever increasing depth of snow, in increasingly bad weather,” Irving says.
In his PowerPoint presentation, Irving quotes Frémont’s journal entry about reaching Winter Ridge, to the west of Summer Lake, and spotting the lake below: “Not a particle of ice was to be seen on the lake, or snow on its borders, and all was like summer or spring. The glow of the sun in the valley below brightened up our hearts with sudden pleasure.”
Because the Frémont expedition spent just one night at all the campsites but one, archaeological evidence of their presence is plenty scarce. Still, Irving is confident is his conclusions and eager to discuss them, he says. He also expresses interest in doing something more formal with his project, such as creating an educational DVD.
“I’m not that interested in trying to make any money on it. I would direct at least some of those funds toward the Deschutes Historical Society,” he says.
As the crow flies, Irving and his wife live about a mile and a quarter from Shevlin Park. Irving says he can imagine Frémont sending a scout near his current home as the expedition determined its next route, which took them toward the Deschutes at Dillon Falls, on to the Sunriver area and Gilchrist.
“I would guess somebody came up on Awbrey Butte and took a look,” Irving says.
“Frémont is a big part of our history around here, I think,” he says. “His time in Oregon ... was a brief period, but you know, it was a very interesting trip.”
David Jasper can be reached at 541-383-0349 or at djasper@bendbulletin.com.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members. Sign up today!
blog comments powered by Disqus
