I stopped here last September but they were closed, since I was close I tried again and this time they were open. I wasn’t sure what to expect, really not a museum, but interpretive; simulating an actual wagon train experience of the 1850s. The center is located in Montpelier ID which is a small town. When I arrived the town was really busy, it turned out that a large baseball tournament was happening that weekend. So the center was really busy and I believe it impacted their presentation since the groups were twice as large as normal.
They tell the story of life on the trail. 1. The beginning, getting your supplies. 2. Assigning duties 3. Daily life on the trail. 4. Getting to Oregon. With the large group, many people were interrupting the presenter which degraded their presentation and the experience. They told real stories of life on the trail from journals of the pioneers. Not many pictures, but one picture shows the wagon and a wheel above the wagon wheel, well this was for spinning a rug while walking along side the wagon. Remember the majority of people walked, it would be worse bouncing around in the wagon and there wouldn’t be room because of the supplies. They estimate 10-20% of the people perished on the trail, that’s roughly 10 graves every mile. The Oregon/California Trail would be the longest graveyard.
