In the days of the great emigration overland in 1849 and ‘50, the emigrants frequently found their wagons too heavily burdened, and were obliged to throw away or cache a large part of their loads. When they cached their goods, the Indians generally found them, as the work was almost always done carelessly and in haste, so that traces of it could be plainly seen. One old plainsman once described to me a cache which was made by a party to which he belonged.
“We found,” said he, “that we must lighten up our wagons; and so we concluded to stop a day or two, make a cache, and give our animals a chance to rest. We were near the Wind River Mountains, and Indians were not abundant. We had seen none for several days, and thought we could rely upon doing our work without their seeing us. We were in camp when we decided to make the cache, and at daylight next morning two of us started out to find a good place.
“About three miles off the trail we found a bluff that was quite steep towards a small river that we named Lost Ox River, because one of our oxen afterwards got into the quicksand and was drowned. We thought this bluff would be a good place for a cache, as we could throw the dirt into the river and have it washed away. The bluff was hard and dry, and would keep things from spoiling.
AN EXTENSIVE CACHE.
“We drove the train into the valley, at the foot of the bluff, and then went to work. We made a hole about three feet square, and as many deep, and then we hollowed out a space as large as a good-sized room. We did not drop an ounce of dirt around the opening, but threw it all into the river. We spread blankets and sacks all around the opening, and laid a row of them from the hole to our camp, so that the ground wouldn’t be trodden up.
“Then we lightened our wagons of everything we could spare. There were bundles of goods, extra clothing, saddles, chains, boots, and everything we thought it possible to do without. When the hole was full, we put the stump of a tree into the opening, and scattered leaves and rubbish around it, so that nobody could possibly see that the earth had ever been disturbed.
“It took us three days to make the cache. Our mules and oxen had gathered strength, and we moved on, with a good prospect of getting through to California.
“But things grew worse instead of better. When we got into the alkali plains our oxen died off fast, and we had to throw away something every day. With so much bad luck it was quite natural that we should get into rows among ourselves, and the upshot of it was, that we separated. Some of us were discouraged, and wanted to go back; and we did go back.
“Four of us took our rifles, and each picked out a riding mule to carry us to the Missouri River. We had two pack mules, and thought we could somehow manage to get through. We had a hard time of it, stranger, and didn’t get farther than Laramie, where we broke up, and concluded to try our luck at anything that turned up.
“When we got to where we left the trail to make our cache, I told the boys we had better go and see if it was all right. Three of us went there, and left the other to take care of the animals.