Oregon Trail at Whitman Mission
Posted by: 
Volcanoguy
N 46° 02.436 W 118° 27.791
11T E 386785 N 5099599
The Whitman Mission was a regular stopping place on the Oregon Trail from 1843 to 1847.
Waymark Code: WM8KR0
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 04/15/2010
Views: 11
A segment of the Oregon Trail passes through Whitman Mission National Historic Site. Along the trail there is a history sign and a covered wagon. Text of the Sign:
This was the Oregon Trail. Travelers who made it this far usually drove on to settling places farther west, after stopping for food, medicine, and a brief rest . . . .
. . . But for seven children who arrived here in October 1844, it was a tearful homecoming. Their parents, Henry and Naomi Sager, had died on the 2,000 mile (3,200 km) journey from Missouri. The six oldest children, shepherded by a kindly doctor from their wagon train, pulled up here with the dilapidated remains of their wagon after seven arduous months on the trail. When Mrs. Whitman greeted them with a smile, the children thought she was “the prettiest woman we had ever seen.”
The Sager b aby arrived several days later with another family, and the Whitmans, who had lost their only child five years earlier, adopted all seven.
The 1847 Indian attack three years later made the Sager girls orphans again. Among the killed were Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and the two Sager boys, John and Francis. The victims are buried together at the Great Grave.