Burnt River Canyon

This was one of the toughest  and most lamented stretches of entire Oregon Trail.  The following quotes are from the Weatherby Rest Area interpretive kiosk put up by the Oregon Trail Coordinating Council (OTCC), headed by Jim Renner.

"The river takes its name from the blackened and burnt appearance of the hills and mountains on either side of it, and the frequent burnings on them. They are mostly covered with dry bunch grass. this often gets on fire, burning for miles and days together. One of these burnings is insight of us today. It is on the opposite side of the river from us, or I should feel alarmed. "(Esther Belle McMillan Hanna, 1852)

Burnt River Canyon
OAG = DeLorme's Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer
MOT = Franzwa's Maps of the Oregon Trail
OTR = Franzwa's Oregon Trail Revisited

     Here I'd like to thank Jim Renner of the Oregon Trail Coordinating Council for his encouragement and help in gathering quotes. I partook quite liberally of his generosity and am in his debt for many of the quotes on these pages. Most diary entries record the trek from Farewell Bend to Flagstaff Hill as taking 3-4 day and crossing Burnt River 8 or 9 times.
        The next stop, Pleasant Valley, was not necessarily remarked as such by the emigrants, but Jim Tompkins has sent a picture of an OCTA convention hike in 1993. His remarks suggest it was very dry.