Summary

During the years from 1840-1870, close to 250,000 emigrants traveled westward across the Great Plains in search of new opportunity. They left familiar places and faces, loaded wagons with everything they owned, and set out with high hopes on the Oregon Trail. With few accurate maps available in the early years to guide the wagon trains, many emigrants left their names and dates of passage on the soft rocks from Missouri to Oregon, to serve as guideposts for relatives and friends who were following. The Oregon-California Trail Emigrant Inscription project established the first comprehensive collection of clear photographs and data from the main route of the Overland Oregon Trail.
To view the Oregon Trail inscriptions click here.

The epic Oregon-California Trail migration occurred within the historical context of a severe drought back east, a wrenching recession and great influxes of European immigrants. Entire families sold everything to come west and start anew, amid glowing reports of new land and great opportunity.

 

Names Hill and Register Cliff were popular landmarks in what was to become the state of Wyoming. Early travelers carved thousands of inscriptions, which were frequently noted in emigrant journals. Many more were left at other locations now on private land. Over the course of time, the inscriptions faced destruction through natural weathering and modern development or vandalism.

 

In 2003, James Henderson of  White Salmon began a five-year

project to record these historic inscriptions before they were

lost forever. From 2003 through 2008, Henderson photographed

over 5000 names, initials, and dates left behind by the Overland

Oregon Trail pioneers as a record of their passage.

In August 2023, through James Henderson’s generous donation,

Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum became the

steward for his unique archive of Oregon Trail photographs and

data.

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About the donor

 

James Henderson documented over 5000 emigrant inscriptions along the Oregon Trail, produced in conjunction with a Challenge Grant from the Long Distance Trails Office of the National Park Service (2003-2008). His expressed intention is to use his database and photographs to assist people doing personal or educational research on emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail.

 

Henderson’s background included experience in technical medical photography and the development of techniques to photograph archaeological pigments that were invisible to the human eye. He utilized a technique of cross-polarized-light photography, which allowed him to capture faint, pigmented details left on the surface of rocks along the Oregon Trail, documenting names, initials and dates inscribed by Oregon Trail emigrants, with axle grease, tar, or by carving into rock.

 

He photographed over 5000 emigrant inscriptions in Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho
and Oregon. In addition to public access land and state parks, Henderson was also given
permission by several private land owners to photograph the inscriptions on their property.

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The importance of the project

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The landscape adjacent to the nineteenth century Overland Oregon Trail has undergone vast changes since the mid 1800s. The ravages of erosion and commercial development have obliterated most of the original trail ruts and rock surfaces where inscriptions were made. Many painted inscriptions comprised of various forms of axle grease or tar have deteriorated beyond visual recognition in the intervening 150 years. Although still present, their recognized presence has gradually faded into the past.

In 1981 the official Oregon Trail Register Sites list produced as part of the National Park Service’s Comprehensive Management and Use Plan for the Oregon National Historic Trail identified only nine inscription sites. Another seventy-six or so inscription sites have been identified largely through the efforts of private groups or individuals. James Henderson was granted permission by many of those private land owners to access the inscriptions on their property.

Although many archaeological surveys have been conducted over the years, more effort has been directed at trail identification than on the inscriptions associated with it. This apparent oversight is due mainly to the fact that inscriptions today are difficult to detect in ideal field conditions, much less authenticate.

Many of the original Overland Trail inscription sites are located beside present day public roads that have been used by contemporary travelers who also left their names. The presence of names has often been relegated to the category of graffiti as a consequence.

 

As more people use public lands for commercial and recreational use, many historic inscription sites will be damaged or destroyed. Public agencies are now undertaking concerted efforts to identify and authenticate emigrant inscription sites, to monitor their physical condition, and to protect them from damage. Many sites have deteriorated, however, because the inscriptions in them were very indistinct and difficult to see. They received little attention from researchers, site stewards, or interested groups. These "names on rocks", or "inscriptions" are a vital part of documentation of this
historic migration.

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The Importance of the Technique

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Many natural lighting conditions negatively affect the appearance of an object's colors. Bright sunlight or dark caves can prevent clear recording of details, especially when inscriptions are faint. Sunlight will fade even strong pigments over the years. Consequently, photographing weathered surfaces, such as emigrant inscriptions, and capturing their very faint colors has been historically difficult. 

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Continual degradation of porous surfaces from natural abrasion and weathering has made photographing historic artifacts urgent, while using natural lighting and traditional photographic techniques makes it difficult to capture details. Natural lighting also often produces harsh reflections on degraded surfaces and reduces the visibility of faint pigment colors. 

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Digital photography using cross-polarized lighting, along with subsequent digital enhancement, increases the brightness and saturation of colors in these artifacts. Portable strobes equipped with polarizing filters produce cross-polarized lighting that selectively eliminates surface reflections and backscattered reflections created by motes of dust. The entire procedure produces detailed color information not visible using other methods.

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This multiple-step photographic procedure can be used to make records of faded archaeological artifacts, such as pictographs (rock paintings), pottery, and rock inscriptions, like those left by emigrants along the Oregon Trail. 

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The advanced photographic technique of cross-polarized illumination followed by digital enhancement produces the highest level of legibility. If surface reflections have not been eliminated, subsequent attempts of digital or photographic enhancement will not eliminate visual noise that masks the colored pigments. This multi-step procedure is particularly effective in revealing pigments such as those found in severely weathered pictograph panels, faded pottery, and faint axle grease inscriptions. This would not be possible using conventional photographic techniques.

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Cross-polarization photography can be added to a growing list of valuable techniques to be used in archaeological photography, when the goal is to document endangered cultural resources before vandals and natural processes obliterate them forever from our cultural milieu. Until there is a more universal acceptance by the public of the preservation of our ancestors’ material culture, and reliable methods are developed to physically preserve the sites, indirect preservation by documentation and photography, for the present, seems to be the best solution.

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Copyright and Restrictions

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All photos and data © 2003 James Henderson and the Henderson Family Trust, Oregon-California Trails Emigrant Inscription Collection. 

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Photographs and data are provided as a public service for genealogical study, historic research, and scholarship within “fair use” as provided by the laws of the United States (Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976).

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As per federal copyright regulation (Section 107 of the Copyright Act) Jim Henderson retains the copyright credit on all photographs created by him, keeping in mind that the National Park Service will retain 50% rights on the data, but not the images copyright. In 2023 he granted and transferred to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center his full rights of ownership, accessioned as #2023.33.

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Release of archive elements for commercial use is prohibited without obtaining written permission from James Henderson, or the Henderson Family Trust.

Limited Restrictions: 

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LOCATION DATA - Due to agreements with private land owners, no locational data (GPS) will be released to the public. Public land locations are readily available on the internet.

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FREE USE - Use of the data and watermarked images is free of charge; download of full resolution non-watermarked image files will be subject to a processing fee.

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SOURCE CREDIT  – Use of all photographs or data downloaded should include the credit citation: Copyright © 2003 James Henderson, Oregon-California Trail Emigrant Inscription Collection, courtesy of Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum, #2023.33

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The Historic Photo Archives and Oregon Trail Emigrant Inscription photos and data can be viewed at Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum’s website, www.gorgediscovery.org.