Kansas River is noted in our volume xiv, p. 174, note 140.—Ed.
[13] For the Kansa Indians see our volume v, p. 67, note 37; also our volume xxviii, p. 140, note 84. Wyeth notes their village in his Oregon, our volume xxi, pp. 48, 49.—Ed.
[14] For this stream see De Smet's Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 197, note 74.—Ed.
[15] This was probably a local publication of the journal or notes of William Gilpin, who went to Oregon with Frémont's party in 1843. Gilpin was a Pennsylvanian, appointed cadet at West Point in 1834. Two years later he became lieutenant in the 2nd dragoons, and saw frontier service, resigning from the army in 1838. He accompanied Frémont as far as the Dalles of the Columbia, and passed the winter of 1843-44 in the Willamette valley, returning overland to the states in 1844. As an intelligent observer his reports on the Oregon country were much sought (see Niles' Register, lxvii, p. 161). Gilpin afterwards served in the Mexican War, and earnestly urged the building of a Pacific railway. In 1861 he was appointed first territorial governor of Colorado, in recognition of "his services as an explorer of the Great West," and lived until 1894.—Ed.
[16] Stephen Hall Meek was a brother of Colonel Joseph Meek so well known as an Oregon pioneer (see our volume xxviii, p. 290, note 171). Stephen began his career as a trapper under Captain Bonneville in 1832, and accompanied Joseph Walker to California in 1833-34. He was in the Willamette valley in 1841, where he purchased of Dr. John McLoughlin the first lot sold on the site of Oregon City. In 1842 he guided the emigrant caravan from Fort Laramie. His unfortunate experience in attempting a "cut off" with a party of emigrants in 1845 (related post by Palmer), discredited his abilities as a guide. At the time of the gold excitement (1848-49) he returned to California, where he made his later home in Siskiyou County.—Ed.
[17] Little is known of Dr. Presley Welch save as related by Palmer—that he was from Indiana, was chosen captain of the caravan, and was without authority after the formation of the independent companies. H. H. Bancroft (History of Oregon, i, p. 612) notes that he was candidate for governor in 1846. George H. Himes, assistant secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, writes to the Editor: "In all my efforts to make a roll of Pioneers by years, I have not so far been able to find anything about Dr. Welch; hence I conclude he either left the country at an early date or died soon after his arrival here."—Ed.
[18] For this stream see our volume xxi, p. 149, note 20. Townsend also describes the same Kansa village, ibid., pp. 148, 149.—Ed.
[19] The Big Vermillion is now known as the Black Vermillion, an eastern tributary of the Big Blue, in Marshall County, Kansas. The usual crossing was near the site of the present town of Bigelow. Bee Creek is a small stream in Marshall County. The Big Blue is noted in our volume xiv, p. 185, note 154; also in our volume xxi, p. 142, note 15.—Ed.
[20] For a biographical note on Colonel Stephen W. Kearny see our volume xvii, p. 12, note 4. In the summer of 1845 the general of the army ordered Kearny to take five companies of dragoons and proceed from Fort Leavenworth via the Oregon Trail to South Pass, returning by way of the Arkansas and the Santa Fé Trail. The object was both to impress the Indians, and to report upon the feasibility of an advanced military post near Fort Laramie. Leaving their encampment May 18, they were upon the Little Blue by the twenty-sixth of the month. See report in Senate Docs., 29 Cong., 1 sess., 1, pp. 210-213. This was the first regular military campaign into the land of the Great West, and strongly impressed the Indians of that region. Kearny's recommendations were against the establishment of a post because of the difficulty of supplying it—advising instead, a biennial or triennial campaign similar to his own.—Ed.
[21] By the "Republican Fork of Blue River" Palmer intends the stream known usually as the Little Blue. Republican River, farther west, is an important branch of Kansas River, and for a portion of its course nearly parallels the Little Blue. The Oregon Trail, however, followed the latter stream, and the distances given by Palmer preclude the possibility of a detour via the Republican River. The name of this stream, as well as that applied by Palmer to the Little Blue, is derived from the tribe of Republican Pawnee, for which see our volume xiv, p. 233, note 179.—Ed.