After the Wagons Left: Life in Eastern Oregon After the Oregon Trail

[00:00:01]Most people know the story of the Oregon Trail.

[00:00:04]But what happened after the wagons passed by?

[00:00:08]On February 3rd, 1924, a blizzard swept across Sherman County.

[00:00:13]The midwife couldn't reach the Eaton ranch.

[00:00:17]So Bill Eaton's father delivered his son himself.

[00:00:20]Years later, Bill joked, "For dad, it was no problem. Delivering a baby wasn't much different from delivering a lamb."

[00:00:31]This is the story of what came after the Oregon Trail.

[00:00:42]Decades earlier, wagon trains crossed these hills on their way west.

[00:00:58]Years later, eager for land, settlers began arriving by the hundreds.

[00:01:03]One of those families was the Eatons.

[00:01:07]The ranch stood in a place called Lick Skillet in southwestern Sherman County.

[00:01:13]Bill's father described it as an area so poor, they licked the skillet clean.

[00:01:19]This was the world Bill Eaton was born into.

[00:01:32]On most mornings, Bill knew exactly what to expect. April 17, 1930, was not one of those mornings. Bill and his brother Bob were still asleep when Casey Holmes, the midwife they knew well, walked into their room.

[00:01:50]"Hi Casey, what are you doing here?"

[00:01:53]She didn't explain anything.

[00:01:55]Just help them dress in their best clothes, white shirts, wool knickers, Sunday shoes.

[00:02:03]"This isn't Sunday," Bill protested.

[00:02:06]They were led into the living room.

[00:02:07]Their father had turned an egg crate into a small bassinet. And inside was a baby.

[00:02:15]"This is your little sister, Janet."

[00:02:18]"My little sister!

[00:02:20]Well, I'll be darned."

[00:02:30]Inside the kitchen, Bill's mother, Louise, carried on traditions handed down through generations.

[00:02:38]She baked bread from a yeast starter that had crossed the plains with the Eaton family decades earlier.

[00:02:45]Bill grew up believing no one could make bread like his mother.

[00:02:49]Perhaps, he thought, it was because of that starter she guarded so carefully.

[00:02:56]Bill also spent long hours riding beside his father on the tractor.

[00:03:01]As they worked in the fields, Karl Eaton told stories.

[00:03:05]He talked about his time in the army during the first World War.

[00:03:10]And the months he spent in France.

[00:03:16]Years later, Bill could still remember those stories, and the French words his father brought home with him.

[00:03:24]"Please." "Shut the door." And, when necessary, "Shut your mouth."

[00:03:31]Life on the ranch didn't pause for winter.

[00:03:34]Cows still had to be milked. Animals still needed feeding. Winter mornings were the hardest.

[00:03:42]Hands would go numb within minutes of stepping outside.

[00:03:47]They would warm their fingers beneath the cow's udder before they could milk.

[00:03:50]The milk was separated.

[00:03:52]The hogs got the skim milk.

[00:03:55]The thick cream was saved for oatmeal and for Louise's cooking. Money was scarce across Sherman County during the Depression.

[00:04:03]But Bill's family believed that if you had enough to share, you shared it.

[00:04:17]Louise would put a kettle of stew on the stove for a struggling family.

[00:04:21]Bill would harness Old Whitey to the buggy.

[00:04:25]And away they would go to deliver it.

[00:04:46]One summer at a church picnic near the Deschutes River, where Oregon Trail emigrants once crossed on their way west, Bill followed the older boys toward a cliff.

[00:04:58]At first it looked simple. But the climb didn't stay simple for long.

[00:05:03]The others stopped before the top.

[00:05:05]Bill didn't. Higher and higher, until the ground fell away, and the hillside narrowed into loose rock and dust.

[00:05:14]Then he looked down.

[00:05:26]The excitement was gone in an instant.

[00:05:29]There was no easy way back. And looking down didn't help either.

[00:05:33]So he called out.

[00:05:35]His father looked up from below and said, "Just take your time."

[00:05:41]It was all he needed to hear.

[00:05:43]One careful step after another.

[00:05:46]Slowly, he made his way back down until he reached the ground.

[00:05:53]Later in life, Bill wondered why he remembered that moment so clearly.

[00:05:58]Today, a rescue might involve helicopters and rescue teams.

[00:06:02]But in those days, Bill had to find his own way down.

[00:06:06]Looking back, he believed the lesson was bigger than the cliff itself. His father taught him that he could do it.

[00:06:22]When Bill was six, he joined his brother and walked a mile and three quarters up the hill to the Buckley Schoolhouse, a one room schoolhouse.

[00:06:31]Bill remembered the Buckley Schoolhouse as one of the good parts of growing up.

[00:06:37]One teacher taught every grade from 1st through 8th in a single room.

[00:06:42]Her name was Lucy Ruggles.

[00:06:45]The children called her Grandma Ruggles.

[00:06:49]Grandma Ruggles boarded at the Eaton house for some time.

[00:07:08]After Bill's first year, the Buckley School closed.

[00:07:12]The era of one room schoolhouses was coming to an end.

[00:07:30]Bill still walk the mile and three-quarters to catch the school bus, then rode the bus 15 miles into Grass Valley on a dirt road.

[00:07:39]In the winter time, the trip became quite gruesome with deep ruts in the ice and snow.

[00:07:49]Bill rode the bus to Grass Valley school for five years.

[00:08:07]In 1935, the family left the ranch and moved to Grass Valley.

[00:08:24]For Bill, the new house seemed almost unbelievable.

[00:08:27]It had electricity and plumbing.

[00:08:30]Things he had never known in Lick Skillet.

[00:08:33]He would flip the light switch, trying to see the moment the bulb came on.

[00:08:37]And he was fascinated by the indoor plumbing, watching the water disappear with the pull of a handle.

[00:08:55]But while Bill was discovering a new world, the old one was slipping away. The debt remained.

[00:09:01]His father tried to hold on, but he couldn't.

[00:09:04]In 1936, the bank took the farm.

[00:09:33]Most people know the story of the wagon trains that cross this country.

[00:09:38]Bill Eaton's story is what came next.

[00:09:41]The pioneers pass through.

[00:09:44]Others came back.

[00:09:45]Bill Eaton spent only a few years there. And in the end, it is the memories that endure.