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Pack
Train Life & Routines
Frederick
Wislizenus was a German Doctor who traveled one year in the wilderness
West as a tourist. He arrived in Westport, Missouri in mid-April, 1839 intending to accompany the pack train to
the Rendezvous
to be held at Green River that year. While
in
Westport he purchased a horse to ride and a mule for his baggage.
Here is his description of life and routine in the pack train as
reported in his book:
“On
May 4th the different parties who were to join the expedition
met for their first night camp at Sapling Grove, about eight miles from
West Port…. My first day’s
journey began under evil auspices, for I had not yet learned to pack my
mule. The usual way of doing
it is this: The baggage is
divided into two equal parts, each part firmly bound up, and hung by loops
on either side of the yoke-shaped pack saddle.
The whole is further fastened by the so-called “lash rope,” of
stout buffalo leather, which is first wound around the barrel of the
animal, and then in diamond shaped turns as firmly as possible around the
pack. My baggage weighed 150
to 200 pounds, a quite ordinary load for a mule; but I had not divided the
burden properly, so that I had to repack repeatedly on the road.
It was well toward evening when I reached the camp, where the
others already had arrived. Our
caravan was small. It
consisted of only twenty-seven persons.
Nine of them were in the service of the Fur Company of
St. Louis
(Chouteau, Pratte & Co.), and were to bring the merchandise to the
yearly rendezvous on the Green River.
Their leader was Mr. Harris
[Moses “Black” Harris],
a mountaineer without special education, but with five sound senses, that
he well knew how to use. All
the rest joined the expedition as individuals.…. The Fur
Company transported its goods on two-wheeled carts, of which there were
four, each drawn by two mules, and loaded with 800 to 900 pounds.
The rest put their packs on mules or horses, of which there were
fifty to sixty in the caravan. Our
first camp, Sapling Grove, was in a little hickory wood, with fresh spring
water. Our animals we turned
loose to graze in the vicinity. To
prevent them from straying far, either the two fore feet, or the fore foot
and hind foot of one side are bound together with so-called “hobbles.”
In order that they may easily be caught, they drag a long rope of
buffalo leather (trail-rope). At
night stakes (pickets) are driven into the earth at some distance from
each other, and the animals are fastened to them by ropes.
After we had attended to our animals, and had eaten our supper, we
sprawled around a fire, and whiled away the evening with chatting and
smoking; then wrapped ourselves in our woolen blankets, -the only bed one
takes with one-and slept for the first time under our little tents, of
which we had seven. At dawn,
the leader rouses the camp with an inharmonious: “Get up! Get up! Get
up!” Every one rises. The
first care is for the animals. They
are loosed from their pickets and allowed an hour for grazing.
Meanwhile we prepare our breakfast, strike our tents, and prepare
for the start. The animals are
driven in again, packed and saddled.…..
We proceed at a moderate pace, in front the leader with his carts,
behind him in line long drawn out the mingled riders and pack animals.
In the early days of the journey we are apt to lead the pack
animals by rope; later on, we leave them free, and drive them before us.
At first packing causes novices much trouble on the way.
Here the towering pack leans to one side; there it topples under
the animal’s belly. At one
time the beast stands stock still with its swaying load; at another it
rushes madly off, kicking out till it is free of its burden.
But pauseless, like an army over its fallen, the train moves on.
With bottled-up wrath the older men, with raging and swearing the
younger ones, gather up their belongings, load the beasts afresh, and trot
after the column. Toward
noon
a rest of an hour or two is made if
a suitable camp can be found, the chief requisites being fresh water, good
grass, and sufficient wood. We
unload the beasts to let them graze, and prepare a mid-day meal.
Then we start off again, and march on till toward sunset.
We set up the tents, prepare our meal, lie around the fire, and
then wrapped in our woolen blankets, commit ourselves to our fate till the
next morning. In this way
twenty to twenty-five miles are covered daily.
The only food the animals get is grass.
For ourselves, we take with us for the first week some provisions,
such as ham, ship-biscuit, tea and coffee.
Afterwards, we depend on hunting.
Such are the daily doings of the caravan.”
"My
two pack mules were very gentle, but would kick off their packs sometimes.
My two loads consisted of beaver traps and a small top pack — a choice
load, not likely to turn over like dry goods. As I was a green hand my
mates assisted me a great deal, and I was always thankful to them for it."
and
"Now
hard times commenced. At first the mules kicking off packs and running
away was amusing for those who were all right, but mighty disagreeable for
the poor fellows who were out of luck. I had my share of this, but it was
not to be compared with the troubles of some of my comrades. This kind of
kicking up lasted three or four days in full blast; it finally subsided,
yet there would be a runaway almost every day."
Written
in early to mid May 1833 by Charles Larpenteur in Forty
Years a Fur Trader. The pack train had just set out from the
settlements, and the mules and horses were still untrained to the pack
saddles. At this time Larpentuer was a young man going on his first
trip up to the mountains as a hired hand with the pack train Sublette and
Campbell were taking to supply the Rocky Mountain Fur Company at the Rendezvous
of 1833. The image below is a sketch by Alfred
Jacob Miller based on his trip to the Rendezvous
of 1837.
The mules and
horses usually needed to be broken to the harness or pack saddle at the
beginning of every trip. Lewis Garrard describes one way of breaking
mules for the wagons prior to setting out on the Santa Fe Trail in 1846
(Reference).
"The way
the mules were broken to wagon harness would have astonished the
“full-blooded” animals of
Kentucky and other horse-raising states exceedingly.
It is a treatment none but hardy Mexican or scrub mules could
survive. They first had to be
lassoed by our expert Mexican, Blas, their heads drawn up to a wagon
wheel, with scarce two inches of spare rope to relax the tight noose on
their necks, and starved for twenty-four hours to subdue their fiery
tempers; then harnessed to a heavy wagon, lashed unmercifully when they
did not pull, whipped still harder when they ran into still faster speed,
until, after an hour’s bewilderment, and plunging, and kicking, they
become tractable and broken-down-a labor-saving operation, with the
unflinching motto of “kill or cure.”
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