Heading east on US 20 towards Idaho we passed through Vale, Oregon. On the outskirts on town are signs for the Oregon Trail Murals, so I watched for them as we were driving along the main street of town. You can see several murals but according to the Vale web site they have twenty-five of them, plus five more being painted in 2005 so you would need to drive around the side streets also to see them all.
Vale was the first stop in Oregon on what came to be known as the Oregon Trail. Pioneers leaving from Fort Boise, fifteen miles to the east, would stop here to use the local hot springs to wash their clothes in hot water and cook the salmon they caught in the Malheur River. The trail continues northwest from this point.
Having driven from Burns I have no idea what the land looks like along the Oregon Trail from Vale as it turns northwest from that point, but if the settlers had headed west along the route US 20 takes, I can't help but think they would have been sorely disappointed by what they would have found there. That area is part of the Great Basin desert and even today the ranches only grow alfalfa or hay as crops due to the harsh climate. We didn't see any food crops like corn or onions until we reached the area of Ontario, Oregon and the Snake River. We did notice fields of something with curly-topped leaves which might be sugar beets; I'll have to find out if that's what it was.
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