68th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--1995 Regular Session

NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
 { +  braces and plus signs + } .

 LC 2814

                     House Joint Memorial 6

Sponsored by Representatives MEEK, BAUM; Representatives CLARNO,
  JONES, LUKE, LUNDQUIST, MONTGOMERY


                             SUMMARY

The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.

  Proclaims 1995 as Year of Meek Cutoff Trail.

                         JOINT MEMORIAL
  Whereas 150 years ago, in the year 1845, Stephen Meek, the
older brother of the illustrious Joe Meek, was hired as 'wagon
pilot' by a large group of emigrants seeking a shortcut across
the middle of Oregon to the Willamette Valley; and
  Whereas some 200 wagons and 1,000 people turned off the primary
Oregon Trail at present-day Vale and followed Meek to the west
where no wagons had traveled before; and
  Whereas Samuel Parker entered in his diary on August 24, 1845,
'Tuck what is called Meeks cutoff,' and later added, 'a bad
cutoff for all that tuck it'; and
  Whereas Meek led the wagon train west through the Malheur
Mountains and the Harney Valley until the train arrived at
Wagontire Mountain where no water could be found; and
  Whereas the desperate emigrants turned north in an effort to
escape the desert and found life-saving water at Buck Creek and
the South Fork of Crooked River; and
  Whereas somewhere in their wanderings, members of the wagon
train reportedly found some gold nuggets, which led to the legend
of the fabled 'Blue Bucket' gold; and
  Whereas the wagon train struggled northward to Sherar Falls
where the emigrants were forced to winch their wagons over the
torrent of the Deschutes River; and
  Whereas the starving and exhausted emigrants finally reached
The Dalles in October, having suffered 23 known deaths and
probably many more; and
  Whereas the blazing of Meek's Cutoff led to later wagon roads
and the settlement of the eastern and central regions of Oregon;
now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  That we, the members of the Sixty-eighth Legislative Assembly,
proclaim 1995 as the Year of the Meek Cutoff Trail to honor the
sesquicentennial of its first crossing.
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