Big Hill ~ Montpelier, Idaho, USA
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 42° 19.335 W 111° 17.845
12T E 475493 N 4685599
This Human Migration Monument is part of a life-size diorama on the southwest side of the National Oregon/California Trail Center at 320 N 4th Street in Montpelier, Idaho.
Waymark Code: WMG8G6
Location: Idaho, United States
Date Posted: 01/28/2013
Views: 3
In the early days of the California/Oregon Trail, prior to the construction of the Lander Cut-Off in Wyoming and Idaho or use of the Hastings Cutoff in Utah and Nevada, Big Hill southeast of Montpelier posed one of the most daunting obstacles east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diorama illustrates what descending the steep grade might have entailed. The marker, excerpted from another marker at Big Hill about four miles south, reads:
Big Hill
On their way west to Oregon and California
emigrant wagons often crossed high ridges
in order to avoid gullies and canyons.
When he came in 1843, Theodore Talbot noted that
"he had to cross a very high hill, which is said to be the
greatest impediment on the whole route from the United States
(over 200 miles east of here) to Fort Hall (over 120 miles further west).
The ascent is very long and tedious, but the descent is still more abrupt and difficult."
Many wagons had to be let down by ropes tied to trees that have disappeared long ago.
From the marker at Big Hill located about four miles south along US Highway 30.
This marker has been provided by the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust,
the Idaho Humanities Council, and the Idaho Historical Society.