The Second Wagon Train to Pass Through Central Oregon
By Steve Lent, Crook County Historian
In 1853 Elijah Elliott was commissioned by Willamette Valley backers to go to the Malheur River crossing on the Oregon Trail and entice incoming wagons to follow him on a short cut route to the Willamette Valley on the Free Emigrant Road.
He was successful in convincing nearly 1,000 people in 250 wagons to take this fateful trail. Elliott had been promised by road commissioners that a route through the central Cascades would be completed by the time the wagons would arrive on the eastern slope of the Cascades. Unfortunately Elliott had never been on the Free Emigrant Road on which he was leading the wagons and the only previous wagons to cross the interior of Oregon was the A Terrible Trail of the Lost Meek Wagon Train of 1845.
The party traveled too far south in the vicinity of Harney and Malheur lakes and began to suffer hardships. Food was running low and people became demoralized. Some members of the party wanted to hang Elliott, but calmer heads prevailed.
The fall travel season was fading rapidly and the formidable Cascades remained ahead of them. By October 7, 1853 they had arrived at the Deschutes River near the present site of Bend. The road construction crew from the Willamette Valley actually had made it near the current site of Sunriver but as winter approached they headed back over the mountain and each group was unaware of their close proximity to each other.
After some scouting the wagon party discovered blazes of the trail and started over the Cascades. They became involved in a desperate situation and scouts were sent ahead to seek help. A massive rescue effort was organized in the Upper Willamette Valley and after much hardship the wagon train was brought to safety. The 1853 Wagon Train had avoided the terrible fate of the Meek Train of 1845 but had endured many hardships that curtailed further shortcut routes of the Oregon Trail through Central Oregon.