Salvete Omnes,
Archive World Library has a number of works on or about dr Friedrich Adolph Wislizenus. German-American medical doctor, somewhat a revolutionary, American diplomat and traveler, who in 1839 made a journey along the Rocky Mountain Fur Company caravan to the Rocky Mountains.
The journey produced a journal or sketches in German, published in 1840 in St. Louis, that was published in English by the Missouri Historical Society in 1912.
I would like to point your attention to the chapter on the caravan or the daily activities of this outfit going west from Sapling grove, 80 miles from West Port, a border village not far from Chouteau's Landing in Missouri in April 1839.
The caravan, led by mountain man Harris, included 27 persons, including two women, wives to two missionaries, the 3rd missionary was single. They had 4 two-wheeled carts drawn by two mules.
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| saddlin' the pack saddle on the mule |
We learn that first they let the animals graze - to prevent them from straying far they hobbled them (details on page 30), each animal drag a long rope of buffalo leather - a trail-rope.
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at night the horses and mules were fastened to stakes (pickets) by their trail-ropes.
the caravan moved with the leader with his company carts in front, the line behind him with riders and pack animals
this way the caravan covered 20 to 25 miles daily across the western prairies...
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Valete
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