Nearly all of the proposed route will be on County, BLM or Forest service roads and in a few places we will have to utilize State highways. However in many places these roads cover, cross or parallel the ruts left here over one hundred fifty years ago. We hope to bring to the publics attention that places like this still exist and should be preserved for the future generations to view. Hopefully from a wagon seat or the back of a horse.

We will be in communication with several area news agencies to provide information about the part that these trails played in the expansion of America, and that a large portion of the credit should go to the horse.

Check here for a list of travel dates.

We will start from Montpelier, Idaho on July 9th, and travel through Georgetown to Soda Springs. Then continue on through Chesterfield on the California / Oregon Trail and across the Fort Hall Reservation on Ross Fork Creek to the Fort Hall Festival Grounds near Interstate 15. With permission of the Shoshone Bannock Tribe, we will visit the Old Fort Hall Trading Post area and the Buffalo pastures in the Snake River Bottoms.

We will leave Fort Hall by crossing the Snake River at Ferry Butte and continue west out to the Jeffery/Goodale Cutoff then to the Big Southern Butte and around to OLD Arco. We have been invited to participate in the Arco Atomic Days Parade on July 19, 2008.

We will overnight at the same location where the Goodale Wagon Train camped at Champagne Meadows. With over 350 wagons they created a very narrow winding track along the edge of the Craters of the Moon. We will be able to drive, ride or walk on most of the trail through this area.

Travelers went across the hills behind Carey and over Bradley Summit, where several teams were needed just to pull one wagon up that steep grade. Participants will follow the Jeffery/Goodale trail through this area. We will turn north and continue through Gannett and turn west again across the Wood River Valley near Sun Valley to Rock Creek.

Then travel past the Moonstone Ranch and across the flats behind Fairfield to Castle Rocks where there are still grooves etched in the rocks by those thousands of iron-tired wheels. We will join the Mountain Home Historical Society, the Elmore County Historical Foundation and the Snake River Outpost No. 1811 of the Lucinda J. Saunders Chapter No. 1881, E Clampus Vitus for the Canyon Creek Stage Station Plaque Dedication & Social (more information). Travel around Little Camas reservoir to the Dixie Cutoff will take us to Tollgate Hill, Immigrant Road and then over 25 miles of up and downs called the Mayfield Road.

After we reach Blacks Creek road and cross under Interstate 84 near Boise, we will stop in Kuna. Our trails end in Nampa should be on August 4, 2008 in time for the OCTA Convention. There will be approximately 24 camp stops along the way and we encourage entertainment and/or local information by wagon train participants.

We have permission to camp in Nampa on a vacant lot across from the Nampa Livestock Auction. This will be a short distance from the Civic center, but wagon rides can be arraigned with wagon owners.

This trip will take us through eight Idaho Counties; travel approximately 450 miles from the Southeast corner of the state to the Western side of the state and a third of the way North. There will be at least five wagons travel the whole route and perhaps as many as twenty at various other locations with an unknown number of out riders and passengers. Any one is welcome to come join us for an hour, a day, a week or the entire trip. Wagons do not need to be authentic to the old days; Horses, mules, oxen or even a donkey cart can join in, if they can manage to travel approximately 3 ½ miles per hour and average 18 miles per day. Or walk, just as most of those determined pioneers did.

Alfalfa hay cubes or pellets will be available to meet weed free regulations, at cost plus delivery. We will try to camp where water is available each night, but there may be a few places where we have to haul water for the animals. All fire regulations will be adhered to. There may be costs such as fuel for the water truck and support vehicles plus any permits and insurance.

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