Traces of a wagon train

All work and no play…. You know the rest.

While in college in 1955-59, I occasionally took some needed time off to go fishing, despite two jobs, a full college load of classes and being a husband and father.

I was located in Nampa, Idaho, and had found a good bass fishing spot, about 15 miles away, along the Boise River.

I kept my fishing gear in my car, so in an instant I was on the 20-minute drive to fish.

On one occasion I went by a house that had piled up some boxes with a “free” sign on them. I turned back, looked in the boxes and, along with a homemade chair, tossed them into my car.

I initially became interested when the boxes were filled with envelopes, some of them addressed to a Robert and Mary White, marked “Idaho Territory” and carrying postage stamps, canceled in 1877.

Idaho became a state July 3, 1890.

I initially became interested in the stamps for my collection, and later trading stock.

While going through the things in the boxes, I found a land grant certificate signed by President Abraham Lincoln.

I made a copy of the land grant original and took it back to the house where I had picked up the stuff.

A young couple had inherited the house and what was in it. I offered to return the homemade chair, and they stated that the chair likely made it to Idaho when their relatives came west on the wagon train.

They also stated that they were not interested in the envelopes, just what was in them.

I found one envelope that still had a letter inside and returned it to them.

They were interested in the letters for family reasons, but nothing else.

They thanked me for the original land grant, and that was my lone contact with the young couple. I have always wondered why they didn’t take an interest in the chair. I still have it, and am wondering what I should do with it.

A few years later, I read in the Boise paper that a reenactment of a typical wagon train was making its way through the Boise Valley.

My wife and I connected with it, and we were invited to the place where the wagons would be in the evening.

There, I told the wagon master of my find in that couple’s yard and described the chair to him. He stated that people often created items of furniture because they had to pack light.

This wagon train had followed one of the routes from St. Louis, and its members were nearly exhausted from the trip.

I have framed a number of the Idaho Territory envelopes.

The 1877 canceled stamps were 80 years old when I got them, and nearly 150 years old now.