Travel on the Oregon Trail was dangerous. Many catastrophes could overtake immigrants. Near present day Soda Springs, it was an Indian attack that brought the end to one family.
The monument below marks the first grave in what became Fairview Cemetery. In the summer of 1861 a wagon train came through the area on its way to Oregon Territory. They camped overnight near Soda Creek. In the morning, when the train started out, one family stayed behind to search for horses that had gotten away. They were not successful and had to stay another night. It would be their last. Sometime during the night they were attacked. Both parents and five children were killed.
The next day riders from the wagon train came back looking for them, only to discover the massacre. One man, George Goodheart, told of their burial: "We then covered them all up with quilts, and took the upper sideboards and sawed them so they would fit across the wagon box. We put some across over the old Folks' faces and some over the children's faces at the foot. Then we got some willows from Soda Creek and cut them so as to cover the whole length of the wagon box. We then spread quilts over them, covered them with dirt, and set four formation rocks, one at each corner."
A monument company in Logan, Utah would later donate a marker for the grave. It lists no names from the nearly forgotten family.
The monument below marks the first grave in what became Fairview Cemetery. In the summer of 1861 a wagon train came through the area on its way to Oregon Territory. They camped overnight near Soda Creek. In the morning, when the train started out, one family stayed behind to search for horses that had gotten away. They were not successful and had to stay another night. It would be their last. Sometime during the night they were attacked. Both parents and five children were killed.
The next day riders from the wagon train came back looking for them, only to discover the massacre. One man, George Goodheart, told of their burial: "We then covered them all up with quilts, and took the upper sideboards and sawed them so they would fit across the wagon box. We put some across over the old Folks' faces and some over the children's faces at the foot. Then we got some willows from Soda Creek and cut them so as to cover the whole length of the wagon box. We then spread quilts over them, covered them with dirt, and set four formation rocks, one at each corner."
A monument company in Logan, Utah would later donate a marker for the grave. It lists no names from the nearly forgotten family.
RSS Feed