Meek Cutoff 1845: The Route Toward Harney Valley | Lost Cabin Mine

Where the Sage Keeps the Story Part IV: The Hollow, the Divide, and the Valley

Following the 1845 Meek emigrants from the South Fork Malheur toward Harney Valley.

Somewhere beyond the South Fork Malheur, the emigrants climbed through timbered hills and came upon a valley so broad that Jesse Harritt estimated it stretched thirty to fifty miles from north to south.
He could not determine its length.
The country ahead offered grass, water, and easier traveling ground after days of difficult passage through the mountains. Yet the journey from the divide to the lake would leave behind another mystery: a stretch of country whose recorded distances are not easily reconciled with the most direct modern route.
In the previous part of this investigation, we followed the old wagon-road evidence through the McEwen and Visher Creek country. The road offers one possible approach toward the higher ground separating the South Fork Malheur drainage from Harney Basin.
Now the emigrants' own accounts give us a way to examine where they might have crossed and where they emerged on the other side.

From the South Fork to the Springs

On September 3, 1845, Jesse Harritt recorded seven miles of travel before camping along the South Fork Malheur River. The following day, his company advanced eleven miles and stopped in a deep hollow supplied by numerous springs (Harritt, 1845, as reproduced in McNary, 1934).
James Field described difficult, rocky travel near the head of a small branch of the South Fork, with cedar and tall pines near the higher ground before a hollow (Field, 1845).
The descriptions point toward increasingly broken country, where tributary valleys rise toward the divides west of the South Fork.
Our working eastern entrance lies in the South Fork country, where a passage toward the McEwen and Visher Creek drainages could have offered a way into those hills.
The old wagon ruts remembered along Visher Creek provide a reason to examine this approach. During a 1975 Harney County Historical Society tour, Walt McEwen described traces approximately four miles up Visher Creek, slightly apart from the later road alignment (Harney County Historical Society, Oral History No. 149, 1975).
The age of those ruts has not been established. They may belong to later freight travel, and nothing in the oral history identifies them as part of the 1845 emigrant route.
Still, the country surrounding them offers a possible setting for the September 4 journey.
A hollow with reliable springs, grazing, and room for wagons would have been a valuable stopping place before crossing the higher ground.
Whether such a hollow can be found at the correct traveling distance along this proposed corridor remains to be determined.

Over the Divide

Snow-dusted sagebrush and low hills separated by a shallow saddle beneath a clear blue sky in eastern Oregon — Low hills and open country in eastern Oregon, where natural passages offer possible routes through the surrounding high ground

On September 5, Harritt described a gradual ascent through a mountain covered with pine and cedar. Beyond the summit, the landscape opened westward. His company descended into the valley, traveled another five miles, and stopped beside a small stream shaded by willows. The day's total was twelve miles (Harritt, 1845, as reproduced in McNary, 1934).
Eli Casey Cooley recorded a similar change in country on September 4. His company traveled through rough, timbered ground, crossed what he called the main divide, and continued toward a broad valley before camping beside a small drain (Cooley, 1845).
The accounts belong to different companies and cannot automatically be placed on the same ground. But both describe a passage from higher, timbered terrain into a wide valley.
West of the McEwen and Visher Creek country, the land rises toward the divides separating the South Fork drainage from waterways leading into Harney Basin.
A possible continuation would carry the wagons toward the upper Crane Creek country, eventually reaching one of the openings along the eastern side of the basin.
Crane Creek Gap is a geographical passage worth considering, although no continuous 1845 wagon road has been established between upper Visher Creek and the gap.
Another nearby saddle may have offered a more suitable crossing.
The route must account for the twelve miles recorded that day, including the descent and five miles of travel beyond the valley's edge.

A Valley Larger Than Expected

On September 6, Harritt continued fourteen miles through the open country.
He described rich soil, abundant grass mixed with sage, and mountains to the north carrying pine and cedar. The valley appeared thirty to fifty miles wide, although he could not judge how far it extended (Harritt, 1845, as reproduced in McNary, 1934).
Lawrence McNary later interpreted this broad landscape as Crane Prairie, the plateau east of Malheur Lake. He believed the country could have appeared to the emigrants as an immense valley (McNary, 1934).
That interpretation offers a useful comparison for our proposed crossing.
If the emigrants emerged from the higher country east of Harney Basin, they may have encountered the open plateau and basin landscape described in the diary.
The exact point where they came out remains uncertain.
A crossing near Crane Creek Gap is one possibility. A passage farther north may also deserve consideration, particularly when the remaining travel distances are examined.

The Crooked River of September 6

Harritt recorded that his company camped on a stream he called Crooked River.
He described it as a small watercourse flowing south, with willows growing along its banks (Harritt, 1845, as reproduced in McNary, 1934).
This was not necessarily the Crooked River known today in central Oregon.
McNary interpreted Harritt's September 6 Crooked River as a minor stream flowing south from the northern side of the basin toward Malheur Lake. The modern Crooked River farther west belongs to a later portion of the emigrants' journey (McNary, 1934).
The name gives us a historical clue, but the stream itself has not been securely identified.
For our proposed route, the September 6 campsite would need to stand beside a south-flowing drainage somewhere between the eastern or northeastern basin and the approach to Malheur Lake.
It must also fall fourteen wagon miles from the preceding campsite and sixteen miles from the lake.
Those distances offer a way to test possible waterways rather than selecting one simply because it flows in the correct direction.

The Thirty-Five Miles to the Lake

A lightly snow-covered dirt road stretches into open eastern Oregon sagebrush country beneath a clear blue sky, with distant hills along the horizon. — A road stretching across eastern Oregon's open sagebrush country. The emigrants' recorded mileage offers clues to their possible passage toward Malheur Lake.

The following day, September 7, Harritt recorded sixteen miles over level ground. His company crossed another small stream before camping along the northern margin of a large lake (Harritt, 1845, as reproduced in McNary, 1934).
McNary identified the lake as Malheur Lake.
The recorded journey creates an interesting geographical problem.
On September 5, the emigrants traveled five miles after descending into the broad valley. They continued fourteen miles on September 6 and sixteen on September 7.
Together, those distances amount to approximately thirty-five miles of travel after entering the valley.
The shortest modern approach from Crane Creek Gap to the northern Malheur Lake area is considerably less.
That does not necessarily eliminate the gap. Wagons may have followed water, avoided difficult drainage crossings, or traveled around ground unsuitable for their animals.
The historical shoreline also requires consideration. Malheur Lake has expanded and contracted over time, and the northern margin encountered in 1845 may not match the lake shown on a modern map.
But the missing mileage cannot be explained merely by assuming the emigrants wandered.
A proposed route needs to follow practical terrain and account for the recorded distances without forcing the evidence.
One possibility is that the wagons entered the open country farther north than the most direct gap crossing. Another is that they followed a longer course through the eastern basin before turning toward the lake.
Neither has yet been demonstrated.

Where They May Have Entered and Where They Came Out

Our investigation now has two broad geographical areas to examine.
The first is the South Fork Malheur country, where the emigrants may have turned toward the McEwen and Visher Creek drainages.
This provides a possible eastern entrance into the hills, with later wagon-road evidence supporting the existence of travel corridors through portions of the landscape.
The second is the eastern edge of Harney Basin, where the upper Crane Creek country and the passages near Crane Creek Gap offer possible exits from the higher ground.
Between them lies the crossing that must satisfy the September 4 spring hollow, the September 5 timbered ascent, and the descent into the broad valley.
Beyond the crossing, the route must reach a south-flowing stream and then the northern shore of Malheur Lake within the distances Harritt recorded.
McNary's reconstruction provides one historical interpretation of this country. The later documentary research of Charles Hoffman and Bert Webber offers additional material for comparing the emigrants' movements and the accounts that followed them (McNary, 1934; Hoffman and Webber, 1992).
Our proposed McEwen passage remains an alternative to be tested against those records and the landscape itself.

The Road Ahead

The old wagon ruts along Visher Creek do not establish the emigrants' route. The spring-filled hollow has not been identified, and the exact crossing into Harney Basin remains uncertain.
But the diaries give us a sequence of places to look for: the South Fork, the springs, the timbered divide, the broad valley, Crooked River, and the lake.
The distances between them are just as important as the descriptions.
In Part V, we will put a proposed route across that country, beginning along the South Fork Malheur, continuing through the McEwen and Visher Creek corridor, and seeking a practical crossing toward the Crane Creek drainage.
From there, we will examine a possible course across the eastern or northern Harney Basin toward Malheur Lake, including stretches where no surviving wagon road has been identified.
The route will have to stand on the geography, not merely resemble a line on a map.
And somewhere along the journey remains the question that has drawn treasure hunters into this country for generations: whether the gold remembered in the Lost Blue Bucket story was found before the emigrants ever reached the lake.
For now, the wagons are still somewhere between the divide and the valley.

Part V will follow where they might have gone.

← Previous: Part III: An Old Road Through the South Fork Country

Sources:
Cooley, Eli Casey. *Diary*, 1845.
Field, James. *Journal*, 1845.
Harritt, Jesse. *Overland Diary*, 1845. Reproduced in McNary, 1934.
Harney County Historical Society. *AV-Oral History No. 149: Historical Society Tour*, 1975. Remarks by Walt McEwen concerning the old wagon road along Visher Creek.
Hoffman, Charles S., and Bert Webber. *The Search for Oregon's Lost Blue Bucket Mine: The Stephen Meek Wagon Train of 1845: An Oregon Documentary*. Webb Research Group, 1992.
McNary, Lawrence A. “Route of Meek Cut-Off, 1845.” *Oregon Historical Quarterly*, Vol. 35, No. 1, March 1934.